Flying Poodles

A lesson on tugging…

It seems “everyone” believes that a good tugging session is a great way to reward your dog… Elly’s never been much interested (“where’s my treat? and it better be good!” seems to be her motto), but Dancer had a great tug… up until I had my knee surgery (when she was about a year old–almost three years ago now) and I didn’t keep it up, because I couldn’t. Anyway, now I’m trying to get it back, because I’d like to be able to revvvv her up during training.

So I’ve been trying various things, like just a little tug and let her win, that kind of thing… I bought a nice soft fleece tug, that helped. But Monday, I put Elly in the car and then came back in and thought “oh, right, let’s try a little tugging with Dancer.” She was a dog on fire, tugging like a maniac. I was even sensible and quit while she was still having a good time (I let her win, too). So today I tried that again: I put Elly in the car and came back in and got the tug out. She was a maniac again.

And the coolest thing? When I let her win, she ran away with the tug, right over the a-frame, and down into a lovely two-on-two-off, where she let me play tug with her for a moment!