What You Need to Know About: Aggressive Games

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up I was always told not to play tug-of-war with a dog. Why? Because it would make him aggressive. By playing with him, you are reinforcing aggressive behavior. If you would like to know more about playing “Aggressive” games with your dog, Keep Reading!

Let me start by saying this: You CAN play tug-of-war and wrestle with your dog, no matter his breed or size. These games are great to play when you have a small backyard, are unable to walk your dog for either physical reasons or weather reasons, or if you just like playing them! Giving your dog a way to “let loose” and show a more “aggressive” side of him will actually guarantee that he does not show aggression at any other time, because he has an emotional outlet and a proper time/place to do it. A perfect example of this would be trained police dogs and Schutzhund trial dogs (trained protection dogs). These dogs provoke such aggression when it’s called for but are the most emotionally sound and stable dogs outside of their “job” that anyone will ever see. When played the right way, these games are no more “aggressive” than playing fetch. Here are the most important things you need to remember:

1. You Are in Control You start the game, you finish the game, and the dog needs to know a solid “drop it” command (release the toy) and a solid “take it” command (grab the toy). Here is how a game of tug-of-war goes with Hank and I: I start the game; get him excited and he starts pulling; We play for a minute; I tell him to drop it; he drops it; I reward him; I tell him to “take it”; We start playing again. We also incorporate other basic commands into the game as well. I may ask him to “drop it”, “sit” and “stay”, and I walk away. I tell him to “come”, and then “take it”. I also practice his “leave it” command by asking him to leave the toy alone while I swing it around in his face, or on the ground, or shake it around. If your dog loves what he is playing with he will do anything to play with it with you!

2. Stop the Game at the Peak of Intensity This may be hard to do at first, but like many things in the dog training world, practice makes perfect. In order to make sure that your dog absolutely loves this tug-of-war toy and wants to play with it the next time he sees it, you want the last memory he has of the toy to be pure and utter joy and excitement! That way when he sees it again, he will immediately go into that hyper super focused mode that he needs to be in order to play! On the contrary, if you wait until he is tired and doesn’t want the toy any more, he wont be as excited when he sees it next time.

3. Choose the Right Toy

You want to make sure your tug-of-war toy is something that your dog loves. You can encourage him to play with a new toy by making it look exciting to you! If he sees you having fun with something, he should naturally want to check it out and that is when you start to engage with him with the toy. CRUCIAL: When you are done playing, put the toy away in a place that your dog wont be able to get it. This is a special toy. You want him to be excited when he sees this toy because he doesn’t get to see it that often.

4. Wrestling Wrestling with your dog on all fours on the floor helps him play with you on his level (this is super important if he is an only dog). Don’t worry, your dog doesn’t think you are a dog when you are wrestling with him, but he does find it exciting and fascinating that you know how to play like one! Like tug-of-war, you want to start and finish the game and control everything about it. Asking him to “stop” when you need to catch your breath or just to practice obedience is super important.

5. Have a Start Word and End Word “Wanna play tug?” or “Wanna wrestle?” could be used as starting words, and I like “Enough” or “No more” as ending words. You want to say these words every time you start and every time you want to finish a game. When you finish the game, say the end word and walk away. Do not pay any attention to your dog for at least a couple minutes. Let him know you are finished by giving him clear cut signals.

And that is it! I bet you didn’t know that playing these “Aggressive” games could involve so much patience, obedience, and FUN!

*Make sure your dog is solid in all basic commands before committing to aggressive game play*

As always if you have any dog related question, or a topic you’d like me to write about feel free to ask!

K9SavvyGirl

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