The ‘release’ of a toy, or ‘out’, is one of the most important but challenging skills to teach any dog, but even more so with a high-drive dog!
Play can be a huge asset for so many dogs, especially in adolescents, however having a reliable release of the toy is equally important.
The difficulty is what to do when they won’t let go! And even if they do let go after some time, in order to practice the skill again, you have to give them the toy back again! So you could be reinforcing poor decisions.
It’s tough!!
Here are 5 simple ways to teach a release of the toy:
🐶 Use a higher value reinforcement to ‘swap’ or switch for. This is really effective and can work with many dogs, however if your dog LOVES tug, finding something higher in value may be difficult!
🐶 Use what I call the ‘out-cycle’. This is where you ask for a release of the toy, followed by a self-reinforcing behaviour, before they tug again. The most common version of this is asking your dog to bark after the release of the toy, however, you could ask for a motion behaviour like a wing wrap, or leg weave as an alternative, or throw the toy for the dog to retrieve. Repeat this cycle of behaviours to create
🐶 As soon as they release the toy, let them bite and tug again immediately. This can be very effective for dogs that love to play tug as they learn the quickest way to tug is to release.
🐶 Using classical conditioning. Teach the release cue before the tug learns to tug. Pair a word or phrase with a hand full of food scattered on the floor. Do this until you can see your dog start to predict this pattern. Then play with them and use this cue. They should have an association with food being scattered on the floor and drop the toy in anticipation.
🐶 Shape a contingency behaviour in order to get a bite. This could be a sit, down or backup. This becomes the criteria for being allowed to tug after the release. So the dog learns to offer this behaviour in order to get access to the toy again.
Have fun with it! Work on this core skill! Enjoy!!
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