Agility toy must haves?

romeosangiovese said:
Oh what I would give for Romeo to be toy motivated!! I'm trying very slowly starting from home tho, using this from Cleanrun - http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=1669&ParentCat=132
I stuff it with sausages and other smelly mushy things. Took it to jumpers class once (zero effect on Romeo btw), and one of them said her dog doesn't tug. Next thing I knew I had her sheltie attached to the tug toy and she wouldn't let go! :lol:

Juliet likes toys and will tug (tho' not much outdoors - what is with my dogs!!) but prefers the food stuffed one from Cleanrun coz she's a greedy girl - that one she'll try to tug but she's got a soft-ish mouth and will just let go!
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Ok I don't know why I didn't see this before . That looks like just the thing to try with Ember. The holes would let her see and taste the food better. She is super food motivated. It is just hard to throw treats in the grass.:lol: May if she sees it as a hunk of food she won't care if I throw it.

Justice is like Juliet. He'll start tugging and then too much pressure he'll let go. I really don't know how to build good toy drive myself only one of my dogs is a good tugger and she did that on her own.
 
One of my friends, who is a vegitarian to boot, uses a sock with a raw chicken neck in it to motivate her young sheltie to tug! And boy oh boy does that sheltie tug on that sock! :biggrin2:
 
Justicemom said:
Justice is like Juliet. He'll start tugging and then too much pressure he'll let go. I really don't know how to build good toy drive myself only one of my dogs is a good tugger and she did that on her own.
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Mine are like this too. Deska doesnt tug at all and Tully will grab with her mouth but let go if I try to pull - its all that bite inhabition and manners I've taught them. I tried all the instructions on teaching tug drive and it hasnt worked.

For Tully I have an Air Kong Donut as her motivational toy. At Sat's trial I found out the top dog in our state (a kelpie cross) also has donuts as her motivational toy! I dont need a motivator for Deska - its enough for him to see me run to get him revved up!
 
Justicemom said:
Ok I don't know why I didn't see this before . That looks like just the thing to try with Ember. The holes would let her see and taste the food better. She is super food motivated. It is just hard to throw treats in the grass.:lol: May if she sees it as a hunk of food she won't care if I throw it.
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That is exactly one of the reasons why I bought the bait pouch/tug ... this way I can train the 2x2 weaves in the grass without loosing the high reward treat in the grass.. and in class and other places, hot dog or ham pieces roll too far away to be effective, as placement of reward is super important for that handling method..
It seriously builds drive, when Toffee is revved up, he barrels down, to get a tug on the other side. I continued to tug and 'growl' play with him and the main thing was for me not to wave it in his face or anything.. but quick movements away from him, a lot of tossing and sliding it across the place and making him chase it...
I never had to teach him bite inhibition, Caro... so you're right that probably was detrimental to them tugging :(

Too bad, i LOVE when Toffee hangs on to dear life, even lift him off the ground if he is in good tugging mood! :)
 
Sigh. I do believe it IS all that bite inhibition training coz the sheltie at training class that just wouldn't let go also takes treats quite painfully. Bah. Maybe I'll just throw the darn thing and motivate them to chase after it instead! :rolleyes2:
 
romeosangiovese said:
Sigh. I do believe it IS all that bite inhibition training coz the sheltie at training class that just wouldn't let go also takes treats quite painfully. Bah. Maybe I'll just throw the darn thing and motivate them to chase after it instead! :rolleyes2:
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Toffee takes treats gently?
and YEAH.. make them chase the tug.. wrestle it back and forth and keep throwing it :)
 
Bailey takes treats gently from my hand. She also didnt have a mouthing problem as puppy. She only nipped at me once. I screamed ow and she never tried again. Yet she loves to tug.
 
Shucks. So there is no good reason why my dogs don't tug! :lol: I've just taken to throwing the toy instead. Make them BOTH run for it. Romeo almost always loses but I think it is helping him realise he needs to run abit faster to beat Juliet to it!
 
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