The power of doggie-wins tug-of-war...

[donnieo]

I've may have mentioned this in previous postings, but my partner's dog (9-10 years old) has a history of biting intact male dogs, young dogs that are overly rambunctious around him or when a dog gets too close to one of his toys. For a variety of reasons, my partner won't let me do any pushing with him. However, I have been playing lots and lots of tug-of-war/push-of-war with him when we're out and if another dog comes around, praise him wildly and put in a good game of tug afterwards. Sometimes if he gets too anxious in the house I'll either get him to speak or tell him to grab a toy and play a low-level game of tug with him, which calms him a fair bit. Well, today all of this uninhibited play showed it's benefits.

We were in the big park by my house playing tug and these two rambuncious Rotties came came down the trail with their handler. They immediately came rushing up two us, and Yoshi dropped his toy and went to sniff them while I praised him the whole time. He ran around with the dogs for a bit and eventually I called him and they went on their way. We continued our tug game and later this fluffy little brown puppy came running up to him, jumping on him and trying to chase him, which normally would have sent him into a frenzy. He did his best to avoid the pup, I could see that he was tense but I kept praising him and helped the other dogs handler collect her pup. We kept playing, and then these two shepherds came running into the park. Yoshi took off after them so I followed him over to where the dogs were with their handlers. The two shepherds, the two rotties and Yoshi were all mingling, even though one of the shepherds was really in his face, licking his chin, jumping on him and doing all of the things that I've seen him bite other dogs square on the muzzle for. Finally, he had enough and left the group so we went on our way.

Six months ago, each of those three situations could have ended badly. Now that he has an outlet for his anxiety, he's able to deal with those moments instead of just reacting. Also, I feel that the shift in my attitude - trusting his good nature, setting aside my fears and judgements - helps him feel safe and secure. It was really something to see.

[BrownieNJoyce]

An amazing "testimonial"! I'm so happy for you and it's great to hear the impact of this approach. I'll soon be posting some of my awarenesses and changes I've seen in my dog. My dog still won't tug so unfortunately I don't have that tool at my disposal yet. We'll get there. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Adriane]

What a success!! I am glad you took the time to share this as I find it really encouraging to read how other people are having success with using NDT. I think this story is a great example of why NDT works so well. The dog was able to handle the situation because you have shown him what to do with his energy!

A

[neilsattin]

A perfect example of how you don't have to do *everything* in order to make progress.

Were you playing tug with Yoshi between each of those encounters?

[donnieo]

Originally Posted by neilsattin

Were you playing tug with Yoshi between each of those encounters?

Yes, we were in the middle of a tug game when the first couple of dogs ran up to us. I kept it going after each encounter so that he could shake off any stress that he'd built up. I'd never seen him deal with such rambunctious dogs so well!

[neilsattin]

This is an excellent example of exactly how to offload stress "in the moment". Or just after the moment.