[Fluffyspoos]

I don't play this with Vegas, but he and my boxer mix, Precious, will play it. She'll just hold something in her mouth and let him grab it and tug away and go crazy, she doesn't really whip her head around, only taking the occasional side step or step backwards.

The game is always supervised but is it a game that they should play together?

 

[flyingduster]

IMO playing tug of war is great, even with people. BUT yes it must be initiated and ended on the persons terms, not the dogs; to prevent the dominance problems that are associated with tug games. Many many agility (and other competition) handlers use a game of tug as a reward, including me!

I let my girls play tug with each other too, it's all obviously play and IMO isn't any worse than the rough-housing they do with each other! If one is dominant or one doesn't like it, they won't do it!
The only thing to be careful of is puppy teeth being not as strong but he doesn't sound like they're being really vigorous about it!

 

[*tina*]

I let mine play tug of war up to a point. If the toy or whatever they are playing with starts ripping, I'll clap my hands and let them know enough. My older dog doesn't really tolerate the tug of war with her favorite toys, so she lets Captain know when enough is enough also.

 

[Birdie]

I let Desmond play tug of war with his ropes, but he destroys them and I haven't bought him a new one yet, lol. That's the only thing he can tug with though... he tries to tug with his Hollee Roller because he can get such a good grip with it, but I don't let him. That's a fetch toy, it's for fetching, not tugging (it was also $10 and I don't want him to break it lol). But then again, he also has a totally solid "drop it" so I may go out and get more tug toys for him. He lovvessss to tug.
I worry about him starting to tug with stuff other than tug toys, so I've completely discouraged that. If I initiate tug, it's good, but I get really paranoid about him having something in his mouth and not giving it to me/trying to rip it. His "drop it" is so good now that I can trust him to drop anything, even a stick of butter he snagged off the counter. I suppose I don't need to worry about it much anymore, but I'll still restrict tugging to only tug toys, he's smart enough to understand what toy does what.

 

[Flake]

Duncan and his most r egular play mate, Dad's boxer Case, play it alot together, and we tend to leave them to it.
Should we be taking their tug o war toy away and only giving it to them ourselves? They seem okay?
(sorry to threadjack!)

 

[ArreauStandardPoodle]

Just be careful too how rough the tugging gets for fear of what it could do to his teeth. My Mom inherited her best friends Wire Haired Terier and with Tish came a ton of toys, one of them being a double ended rubber toy meant for tug of wars. Well she would pull so hard you could literally lift her off the ground by the toy, and it wasn't long until her bite was all wonky and some of her teeth were loose. Needless to say, that toy disappeared in a hurry.

 

[Reesmom]

I play tug with my border and my mini. Both will spit it out like it's hot or something as soon as I say "That'll do" or "Leave it". They love it. That's their reward for agility.