Julie W

Cher is getting pretty good with the aus (out) command. I train through rough, vigorous tug play. When I want her to aus I give her the command ONCE and make the toy "dead", holding it still and not re-engaging in the tugging game until she releases it. I don't care if I have to stand still with the "dead" toy for 2 hours, I wait until she releases it, and she gets a "eh-eh" if she tries to grab it again before I give her the release command. When she releases it I tell her "good girl" then "okay" and the game is on again. It didn't take her long to figure out the only way to continue the game is to aus when I tell her to. She also figured out that the faster she does it the faster the game resumes. It's just no fun playing with a dead toy and she's learned the rules to the game and how to make the tug active again.

Also, if she released the toy on her own without an "aus" from me then she would get a mild "eh-eh, you weren't paying attention" then frustrated with the tug, teasing with it and snatching out of reach at the moment she's ready to chomp on it. We work on calm holds also, where I cradle her chin in one hand and praise and stroke her head very slowly with the other while she holds on to the tug by herself.

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