Most dogs hate tug-of-war. Roo, for example, dislikes direct competition and prefers distance. Instead, try cooperative games like a flirt pole where you encourage from afar, matching the game to what your dog actually enjoys.
Chapters
Make sure that you're— when you're playing with your dog, don't try and pigeonhole your dog into a game that you think they should play. So like, people get super hung up on this idea that like play has to be tug on me, like you see in all the videos of all the dog trainers' dogs and they're playing tug and they're pushing the dog around, this and that. Like, especially for a dog like Roo, she doesn't like that conflict of being on me if the toy was like right up close to me. She doesn't want to risk annoying me in a game or risk our relationship if we fall out over this toy. So she would just spit it out and be like, nah, okay, fine, whatever, like I don't even care, you just have it, I'm not bothered. So focus on who your dog is and find the game that you enjoy together. She prefers to play less of a competitive game, more of a cooperative game where she's further away from me. So I'll use a flirt pole Or, um, one of those tug-a-nuffs that's got the fluff on the end of it. So she's got a nice bit of distance away from me and she's like chasing the toy and maybe we have a little tug with it, but she's far away from me and I'm egging her on to get it. And I'm like, go on, get it, kill it, Dad. Good girl. Nice. And it's more of a, like, a cooperative thing that we're doing together. Like, I'm egging her on to do the thing, to do the good job, and then she gets to chase it. Versus a competitive game where she has to be really close up to me and she's fighting me personally for the toy. That's not what she enjoys. So make sure that you're finding a game that you and your dog actually enjoy together. That is what your dog wants to do, not just what you think they should do.
