Who's training who?

Hi everyone on the internet!

How are you?

I'm just super.

I finally taught my human the 'pull hard when asked' command. How did I do that, you ask?

Well, to get this right, you first need to teach them to hold on to, but not take away, whatever you're offering them. This is quite hard! For some reason, they feel the need to take so many things away, and then throw them once they have them. But don't despair! This is actually a great place to start - it's always easier when you can mold natural behaviour. Just keep bringing it back at first. Don't push your human too hard, they lose interest easily.

Once they're reliable in taking things from you, the really hard bit comes in. Your part in this is to hold on to it while they put their hand on it. If you start slowly, and hold on to it a little bit longer each time, soon your human will happily hold whatever you offer them. Remember to reward them appropriately. A lick to the nose, or if it suits you better, a good sit on their laps is a great way to tell them that they did well*.

The hard part done, the next bit is to teach them to pull back when you pull. If you're a big bang in a petite package, like me, or just need some handling finesse, those graspers of theirs can really help you get that niggling thing torn apart. If you've been keeping your human fit and mentally healthy (as you should, we are responsible dogs here!) you've been playing tug with them - this is excellent for this command. It means that when you pull back slightly, your human should recognise what's going on as a type of tug game, and pull back too.

Tugging with your human should look like this.
Don't mind the taking pictures, they can't help it.

If your human is not used to tug, you'll have to take a step back and teach them that first - it's not hard, honestly. The fastest way is to wait for them to be putting on socks. Grab one just before they can put it on, but be quite slow about it, so that they have time to grab it and try to get it back from you. Don't let go! As they pull, pull back. Give them brief pauses to rest, especially at first. Later, get a good rhythm going.

So, your human is happy to tug back at whatever you've offered to them - now we just need to put it on a cue. A vocal cue is not great here, since your mouth is full at point where you would like to cue. I use a quick nod. Nod, then jerk. Nod, then jerk. Even the slowest human catches on eventually, and will learn to not only expect pulling from you after a nod, but will hopefully pull back too!

This worked so well tonight! I finally got to tear off one whole ligament off my beef Achilles heel. All that remains is to settle down and chew to my heart's content.

Remember my friends, chew on their laps - that way they are rewarded without you having to do any extra effort. Great for paws with a busy schedule.

Yours furfully,

Talos

Adventure pug, Queen of all she surveys and Human tamer extraordinaire.

*I know how tempting it is to leave them a token of your appreciation on their favourite rug. I still cannot understand why this does not seem to please them. Perhaps my tokens are too small? An inconvenient limitation - let me know if you have a different experience. Regardless, I would not recommend this as a reward. ...deep sigh...