YNP #101: Can I Play Tug of War With My Dog?
Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog
Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist
4.8 • 917 Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tug of war is a game that dogs LOVE to play. Yet I always get asked the question “Can I play tug of war with my dog?”
The short answer is YES! Tug of war is great game for you and your pup. It’s easy to play, they love it, it burns lots of energy and tires out those heavy chewing jaws and nipping puppy teeth.
So why is this a question? Well, there’s some misconceptions about tug of war that have been going around for a while.
In this episode, I debunk the common myths about tug of war, like the idea that it’s a dominance game or that you can’t let your dog win.
The vast majority of dogs can play tug of war with no problem. There are some pups that need some rules to reduce any over stimulation or excitement (because tug of war is just so fun!).
No worries, I walk you through what to watch for—like vocal escalation or raised hackles.
Plus, I’ve got a special video for you that shows how to use tug of war to teach your dog important skills like drop it and impulse control.
So, grab your dog’s favorite toy and tune in to find out how you can safely enjoy this fun game with your pup!
How to Use Tug of War toTeach Impulse Control
Tug of war is not only a fun game that your dog loves but you can use it to teach your dog to control their excitement (also known as impulse control). As a bonus, I also talk a little bit about “drop it”
It’s a two-minute video that will give you and your pup hours of fun!
In this episode I talk about:
- Can you play tug of war with your dog?
- Why this is even a question.
- Signs to look for if you need to put rules in place.
- How tug of war can benefit your dog.
- Free resource on how to teach your dog impulse control with a game of tug of war.
Enjoying this podcast? Please rate and review it wherever you listen. This helps other puppy parents find it.
Other resources mentioned and related to this episode:
YNP #087: Is Your Dog Trying to Dominate You?
YOUR New Puppy: My signature new puppy course that has helped hundreds of new puppy parents raise their puppies into well-mannered, happy dogs.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You are listening to your new puppies podcast, starting you and your dog off on the right paw. |
| 0:16.3 | Here's your host, Debbie Salento. |
| 0:33.6 | Hello and welcome to episode 101 of Your New Puppies Podcast. |
| 0:40.7 | I'm Debbie, and today I'm going to answer the question, can I play tug of war with my dog? |
| 0:48.2 | And in short, the answer is yes. And the reason why I wanted to do an episode about this is one, |
| 0:55.8 | I'm asked it a lot. Or my clients will very sheepishly be like, but we play tug of war with them thinking it's not okay. |
| 0:57.9 | And it totally is. |
| 1:03.5 | And the reason for this is because there's a lot of myths and misconceptions behind it. |
| 1:09.7 | And because everything isn't clear cut because not every single dog has the same exact needs, |
| 1:13.8 | there may be some instances where we don't play tug-of-war with our dog. So that is what I'm going to talk about today. So tug-of-war, |
| 1:20.0 | it's a great bonding exercise. It's great physical exercise. It can help satisfy those heavy chewers and those nipping puppies because |
| 1:32.0 | they're using their mouth, they're using their teeth, they're using their jaw and it can help |
| 1:36.4 | tire them out, both the puppy and their jaws. Now why is this even a question? Well, because somewhere |
| 1:43.8 | along the line, somebody decided that |
| 1:46.1 | Tagavore is a dominance game and it causes aggression and you can't let your dog win. And that just |
| 1:52.4 | simply isn't true. I have an entire episode. If you're interested or if you haven't listened to it |
| 1:57.7 | yet, highly recommend. It's episode 87 and I talk about how your dog is not trying to dominate you and other |
| 2:05.5 | myths that go along with that. |
| 2:07.4 | Now, this probably came from the fact that tug of war can cause over arousal, which just sends |
| 2:17.1 | our dogs into that place where they just get a little |
| 2:21.2 | wonky, especially our puppies who don't really have that emotional control. So if they |
| 2:27.2 | start getting more and more into it, sometimes we can't back them down and they start getting even more mouthy and more nippy. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.