YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - View Single Post - Is tug-o-war creating a monster?

AIM · 05-03-2005, 09:23 AM

The only game that Lucky enjoys playing with us is tug-o-war with her rope toys. We sometimes toss the rope and she will fetch it so that she can begin another tug-o-war game, but she seems pretty annoyed with the fetching idea. She has no interest in fetching a ball, but she never tires of tug-o-war. I have done some research and found that some trainers believe that tug-o-war basically fuels aggression and encourages the dog to challenge the owner. Lucky doesn't always listen to us and she bites a lot, although she doesn't bite hard. She even growled at me when I gently removed her paws from my chair during dinner. Are we encouraging this behavior by playing tug-o-war with her? The problem is that she isn't interested in any other games, so if we can't play tug, we don't know how to play with her.

05-03-2005, 09:23 AM	#1
AIM Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 95	Is tug-o-war creating a monster? The only game that Lucky enjoys playing with us is tug-o-war with her rope toys. We sometimes toss the rope and she will fetch it so that she can begin another tug-o-war game, but she seems pretty annoyed with the fetching idea. She has no interest in fetching a ball, but she never tires of tug-o-war. I have done some research and found that some trainers believe that tug-o-war basically fuels aggression and encourages the dog to challenge the owner. Lucky doesn't always listen to us and she bites a lot, although she doesn't bite hard. She even growled at me when I gently removed her paws from my chair during dinner. Are we encouraging this behavior by playing tug-o-war with her? The problem is that she isn't interested in any other games, so if we can't play tug, we don't know how to play with her.