Dog Behavior Blog

In Defense Of Tug

Many people have worried that tug is not a game that we should play with our dogs, but that's a shame because so many dogs love it so much. It allows dogs to engage in behavior that is very natural to them and highly enjoyable as well.

Of course, for some dogs, tug may not be a good idea. For example, dogs who are prone to excessive arousal or aggression induced by high arousal are not good candidates for a game of tug. The same warning applies to dogs with poor bite inhibition and poor self-control as well as those who tend to creep up the toy with their mouths during a game of tug. Additionally, it may exacerbate object-guarding behavior in dogs who already have that particular issue. For most dogs, however, tug is a great activity.

There are so many benefits to playing this game. First of all, it is interactive and requires cooperation between humans and dogs to start and maintain the tugging. It can give dogs a lot of exercise, and even help them stretch their bodies prior to other activities such as running or agility. In terms of its benefits for agility dogs, tug can be a great way to rev a dog up prior to a competitive run for maximum success on the course.

Some really important benefits of tug that make most dogs more pleasant to be around are that it is a great way to teach them the commands "take it" and "drop it" and it teaches them better mouth control in general.

The popularity of allowing dogs to play tug has varied over time. For a long time, many people advised against playing tug out of concern that it creates or worsens aggressiveness in dogs. There were concerns about teaching dogs to use the full force of their mouths, teeth and jaws to try to pull something away from a person. Later, there was a move towards noticing the benefits of tug, but just making sure that the dog didn't "win" at tug. There was a time when tug was considered okay for most dogs as long as they were not allowed to keep the toy at the end. The concern was that the dog would feel that he had "won" and that this would have bad consequences for his view of his status relative to the human he had just triumphed over in the game. Otherwise, the cooperative aspects of tug were recognized as useful for the relationship between the dog and the human.

Recently, a research study by Rooney and Bradshaw has addressed this very issue and the researchers found that "winning" by keeping possession of a toy after a game of tug has no impact on the relative status of a human-dog pair. However, we should still be thoughtful about letting certain dogs keep the toy after tug. In the same study, these researchers found that the most playful dogs in the study exhibited significantly higher amounts of playful attention seeking behavior when they were allowed to win. So even though there is no problem from a status point of view in allowing a dog to "win" at games, it may be better not to allow it with those playful dogs who become relentlessly pushy about seeking more play time.

The general feeling in the field of dog training and behavior is that tug is a good game for dogs and people and that dogs can learn a lot from playing it. Now tug has become so popular that many trainers actually teach dogs how to play this game in puppy classes. The idea is that the earlier dogs can learn the beneficial lessons that tug has to offer such as impulse control, mouth control, and cooperation as well as "take it" and "drop it," the safer and more fun the game will be for all involved.

Consider a game of tug with your dog and have fun!

--Karen London

Dominance Rank Status And Learning

Recently, an interesting article was published by a Hungarian team of researchers about the relationship between dominance rank status and learning of dogs. In the article (Pongracz, P., V. Vida, P. Banhegyi, and A. Miklosi. 2008. How does dominance rank status affect individual and social learning performance in the dog (Canis familiaris)? Animal Cognition 11: 75-82), the researchers report on three experiments that they did with 91 dogs representing a variety of breeds.

For each experiment, the researchers set up a V-shaped barrier consisting of a frame and transparent wire mesh.  In the inside point of the V they placed some object that each dog liked to play with, and then observed how long it took the dog to go around the barrier and retrieve the object.  In their experiments, they used dogs that fell into three groups: dogs who were the solitary canine residents in a household; dogs who lived in multidog groups in a household and were rated as having dominant status by their owners and the experimenters; and dogs who lived in multidog groups and were rated as having subordinate status by their owners and the experimenters. No dog was tested in more than one experiment.  Each test dog performed the retrieval behavior three times within a single experiment.

In the first experiment, the researchers tested to see if there was any difference in the time that it took either the dominant status or subordinate status dogs to go around the barrier and retrieve their favorite object. They found that there was no difference – both dominant and subordinate dogs took about the same length of time to retrieve their object.

In the second experiment, they used an unfamiliar demonstration dog, who went around the barrier and retrieved the object while the test dog was watching.  After the demonstration dog retrieved the object, the test dog was allowed the retrieve the toy, which had been replaced in the inside of the V.  The researchers found that the solitary dogs took a little while to retrieve the object the first time, but then quickly retrieved the object the next two times. Also, the subordinate dogs quickly retrieved the object all three times. However, the dominant dogs took a long time all three times to retrieve the object.  The solitary dogs either learned on the second and third attempts from watching the demonstration dog, or figured out on their own how to solve the problem.

Apparently, the subordinate dogs learned how to retrieve the object by watching the demonstration dog, while the dominant dogs did not learn anything from watching the demonstration dog.

In the third experiment, an unfamiliar human walked along the barrier and retrieved the object, while each dog was watching. Here, the initial test with all three categories of dogs showed that the dogs took a considerable amount of time to retrieve the object. However, with successive demonstrations by the unfamiliar human, all three categories shortened the retrieval time.

The authors of the article suggest that these experiments show that dogs with subordinate status learn by watching the behavior of more dominant dogs. On the other hand, dogs with dominant status can get access to the resources that they need whenever they want to, so there is no necessity for observing the behavior of other dogs. The authors further suggest that humans are treated as having dominant status by all dogs, and for this reason even the dogs with dominant status improved their retrieval time when watching a human.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Digging

Just about every dog owner has had to deal with a digging dog. The problem is so common that just about everyone has some experience with it. If you have not yet suffered from this problem, then you probably have a dog in your future who will be a digger. I had a dog who liked to dig so much that if he was indoors with a special treasure such as a bone that he wanted to bury, he would go through all the motions of digging, even though he was working with the floor or carpet, and no dirt at all. He would do a mime version of digging with his paws, put his bone down on the spot, and then go through the motions of covering it with his nose pushing imaginary dirt over the bone. Twice, I didn't catch him doing this in time and therefore did not stop him, with the result that the poor dear had rubbed his nose raw on my carpet.

The tricky thing about digging is that it is such a natural behavior for dogs. Their motivation to dig is very strong, which makes it a difficult behavior to halt entirely. Because of this, the best way to handle digging is to provide a dog a place where digging is allowed. For most people, the reason digging is troublesome is that dogs tend to pick places where digging causes damage to something important such as the flower garden, the vegetable garden, or a place you want to walk without getting muddy. If a dog can be provided with a spot to dig that is even more attractive to her than the garden or path, it makes it easier to stop her from digging where she will cause damage. Most people don't inherently mind digging; they just mind seeing their gardens in ruins and knowing that fresh vegetables and flowers will need to be purchased this season instead of just picked from the yard.

It is not difficult to create a digging spot for your dog. Choose a place where the dog will be allowed to dig and loosen the soil to make it easy for her to dig there. Put some wonderful "treasures" such as Kongs, ropes, squeakie toys, or chew bones half-buried in the new digging area and lead your dog to it. She will immediately find this an attractive spot since it has such wonderful items in it. Over the next couple of weeks, bury things in the digging spot every day, making them harder to find over the course of this time. Eventually, they should be buried quite deep so that the dog really has to work to find them. Even when the dog is in the habit of digging in this area, continue to place items in it periodically so that the dog is always willing to look there rather than dig elsewhere. The garden or the places you walk always have interesting things in it or at least great smells, so the new digging spot must always be able to compete with that allure.

While the dog is learning to dig in her special spot, it is essential to prevent her from digging in any other areas. The spot she initially chose for herself will remain attractive to her for some time, so she cannot be allowed to continue to enjoy herself by digging there. Preventing her from digging in the original trouble areas takes some effort. It can be accomplished by blocking access to these other areas with a fence or other temporary barrier. It can also be done by never leaving her alone with access to them. If she is outside, a person must be with her so that if she starts to head to the garden or other off-limits spot, the person can redirect her to the special digging spot. It is as important that she give up her old digging habits as it is that she develops her new habit of digging in her special spot. Only when she independently chooses the new spot over the original areas can she be trusted to leave the trouble spots alone even if she is by herself in the yard and the barriers have been removed.

--Karen London