Building Confidence

[Erny]

When I release her she will move her weight forward, look back at me, I say it again (I know Im not supposed to) she will inch towards the food, sometimes I have to tell her about 4 times before she will go for it...should I just leave her to it once Ive said it the first time?

Yes - try this. Tell her the release word and leave her to it. Sounds to me as though she's learnt that you need to keep saying it for every hesitant approach she makes and you're reinforcing that belief by continuing to iterate the release.

Ive been teaching her 'give' as a release from tug, but we dont have any words for the action of tugging as yet, she doesnt seem to catch on when I say "tug tug tug" when we are actually tugging lol

Although you can use any word you want (eg. banana; letterbox; etc) generally speaking "give" is the word you use to get her to relinquish the item to you, not a "release" word and in this I think you might be confused. When we talk about "release words" or "release commands" that would be the equivalent to your word "break". So, use "break" as the word that will come to mean "you can go for the tug now". Use the word "finish" when you want to finish up the game. Make the tug game short and finish whilst she still wants more.

[GoldenGirl85]

Although you can use any word you want (eg. banana; letterbox; etc) generally speaking "give" is the word you use to get her to relinquish the item to you, not a "release" word and in this I think you might be confused. When we talk about "release words" or "release commands" that would be the equivalent to your word "break". So, use "break" as the word that will come to mean "you can go for the tug now". Use the word "finish" when you want to finish up the game. Make the tug game short and finish whilst she still wants more.

I misread you lol, so you mean to put the tug down, and send her to it right?

We had a bit more success tonight, I started TOT, tied her up and brought the food out, teased her a little and walked out infront and put it down, now she was totally focused on me the whole time I was walking back and when I stood next to her, after a couple of seconds she did glance back at the food but only for a brief second, then her focus was back on me, so I marked it and then let her off with a release command (Ive decided to use 'go get it' for anything food related) and she went straight for it

[Erny]

I misread you lol, so you mean to put the tug down, and send her to it right?

No. You hold the tug and make it 'alive' once you've said her release word "break", then enter the game of tug.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Hi GG85

What Erny said - I agree.

Playing tug.

You have something she likes to play tug with - I have loads of different things but they're only out for training. Frosty's current fave is a bungee tug with a fake fur pocket that I've stuffed with a cheap squeaky toy. A skinnee racoon was popular but it's completely shredded now. Rope toys are good too - just beware of the dental floss teeth gum shredding is under control.

So I use "geddit" for she can grab the tug and "give" for let go of it. I also use "Thank you" for things I want her to drop or trade like other dog's toys at the park. So if your play tug command is "break", then you'd wave the tug around saying "break" (this is when I do repeat the command, but you don't have to), and when she grabs hold, (I used to use "get hold" for grab the tug too), then you play tug. And you say "give" when you want the toy back but I usually do that every few seconds or so, and most times I let her have it straight back with a "geddit" (break) and when she's excited - no repetition is necessary and she's got an excellent understanding of what it means. SG uses both "geddit" and "break" but in slightly different circumstances. "break" she most often uses for "play with me - lets do agility (games)". Ie on that command - the dog will take off at full speed and jump all the agility obstacles SG indicates by hand and body placement. The reward during training - is a tug toy.

The balance break - is almost always a combo of "out" for "give" and "geddit" for "get hold" of the tug. They're not going anywhere at full speed.

A game I like to play and I'm guilty of using "go" (my break word) and "geddit" is "wait" then run flat out for the toy... ie

I put her in a nice stay position, tell her to "wait" (SG says command is optional depending how you've trained). I walk away, and then I get set and hold one hand up and when I'm ready I say "geddit" or "go" and sometimes I run straight away and sometimes just after she starts and sometimes I just stand there. And as she gets to me - I swap the tug into the hand I waved so she comes on that side (which is other point of the exercise after the stay until released). That's an SG or Greg Derrett game. My dog loves it. It's to the point now where I try to fake her out by bouncing or pretending I've forgotten (ie standing up and relaxing) and if she moves - we set up again with no tug game...

I usually let go of the tug when she gets to me because she is going so fast I don't want to risk pulling her teeth and my shoulder out by hanging on. The next trick is getting her to bring the toy back - but she's getting better.

Another game that helps my dog understand the release word is to play SG's "its yer choice" with food treats (or dinner kibble). You hold a piece of food in your hand and close your hand over it and hold it in front of your dog. When your dog backs her nose off your hand - you can open your hand. If dog closes back in - close hand... when dog manages to hold position while you have hand open and pick treat up with other hand and give it to her (put it back if she moves forward again) etc... this progresses to chucking treats all around the dog while she holds position and then you can say "geddit" or "break" and the dog can go get all the treats.

But I suspect in this situation if you're repeating the command the dog will think it's not doing the right thing the first time and start trying to figure out what you do want now that you didn't mean before...

Each game involves raising the standard that the dog must achieve to get the treat - so you might want to look at ways you can reward speed more and slowness less. For me - a slow fetch - gets not much tug before we set up again, but a fast fetch gets a better game of tug... (another SG idea).

Hope that helps. You might not be planning to do agility but most of the top competitors are top trainers first so there's plenty of useful info they have to share.