My dog loves playing with her soft squeaky hammer.  She will come up to me indicating that she wants me to play with her, but when I go try and take it off her or give it a playful tug she growls.  She's my first dog and she is 18 months old, although we only got her 6 months ago.  So I can't make out if she is saying i want you to tug it or try and get it from me or if she is growling to say keep off it's mine.  I'm only asking because she goes to my 9 year old in the same way and even though she is such a friendly dog I don't want him to get a warning bite because we are misreading her signals.  Help would be appreciated!

Dogs often make fearsome growls when they're playing tuggy - it's invariably part of the fun. What's the rest of her body language saying?

My Anton grumbles away at me when we are playing tug or whatever. It sounds terrible but he would never dream of biting me!

I agree with Jeangenie, our GR does this when playing tug the growls can sound quite agressive. The tail wagging and the fact that she will try and get you to tug it again if you drop your end is a bit of a give away that she is playing.

My three BC's sound like they are trying to kill each other when they play & if we play tuggy they are just the same, however their lips are not raised & it is a different growl the the warning one

Same in my house - the boxer sounds HORRENDOUS

My boy will act up when playing tug, making all sorts of fierce growl noises LOL, but he does give the toy up if i asked him to, it's all good fun :)

Mine growl too when they play tuggy..and pull all kinds of wonderful faces so  I growl back and pull them some faces too. It must be fun to be a dog. :)

You want to hear my 3 rotties playing, I just pray noone calls the RSPCA to report them as dangerous dogs! And why is it with tug games they always want to hold the same bit as you?? Funny though the eldest was a really quiet dog until we got the 2nd - we'd only heard her bark twice and one of those was at the OH after he had trouble using the front door key after being out with some friends! He told me the batteries had stopped working in the key - men!

i've heard that playing tuggy often encourages aggression and excitment and should only be played when:-

   1)The owner always wins as to not let the dog dominate

   2) The dog will "GIVE" when asked so when ready to end the game the owner can do this safely

any thoughts on this - i have taught this way to my 2 yr border collie - perhaps i needed to -as he, like some others? (BC's) is a excited nipper!!!

A bit of excitement every day is what makes life worth living. Otherwise it'd be very dull if you always had to be calm.

If the owner always wins the dog will eventually stop wanting to play - it's no fun if you always lose.

However as long as the dog will stop when the owner wants it to - even if it's allowed to win quite a lot - then there's no problem.

> Same in my house - the boxer sounds HORRENDOUS

yeah, our bullies are sooooo noisy and rough sounding during play. interestingly out of the rare dog fights i have witnessed they are surprisingly quiet. i think the excess noise shows their more relaxed and less focused

I have never played tug with my pup as I read something on here somewhere-cant recall now :-( basically advising not to, at least I thin it was n here but I dont play it as I have read something, somewhere which has stuck in my head

Its funny you mentioning tug of war games because when I got my bull terrier in all the manuals on them it told us never to play tug of war with them as it makes them aggressive . I can play it with mine but I never win ! He has never growled at me when playing but when he plays with my other dog Tinkerbell or his buddy boxer Rodney the noise it sounds like murder is taking place !!

I always let my girls win - making a big song and dance, saying ,oh, look you won again, and one does a little show off dance and then comes back for more :-D I taught them a strong leave from a very early age so have no problems with her giving me the tuggy item when game is over.

I think it's a great bonding game for owners to play with their dogs but I do think as with any game there needs to be rules.  If a dog I'm playing with misses the toy and touches my skin then the game is over and the dog needs to learn to leave the toy when asked. I use a quick game of tuggy as a reward in training.

I try to play tug with my pup, but he doesn't seem to want to pull :( He'll happily play tug with our other dog, but he never wins bless him, despite being the bigger of the 2.

I really don't see the harm in tug games, as long as the dog knows the rules and will stop when told.

As for noise-making - my 2 make such a racket growling at one another that I've had a neighbour nock on my door to tell me that my pup keeps starting fights with my dog when they're in the garden!!!!

I think it dpends on how you play it and how they win. If they run off into the sunset with a trophey then it is noit good. The reward for them should be to return to you for more play. Tugy is good because you enjoy it and they enjoy it so it increases thebond between you. It is a good way to inprove working drive and motivaton in dogs, and because it is a good reward it is a tool that can be used as a reward to discourage unwanted behaviour...

....and if it is misused with the intent of developing aggression or in a way that encourages this then it would have that result too.

our family pet, Benji, a CKCS, used to growl a lot when playing tug

our hounds never growl,and don't really play tug...my youngest girl likes to take her lead off you in the garden and run round with it, head held high, but never fights for it, IYKWIM

the pups used to do it a bit, little puppy growls are soooooo cute :)

My OH taught Misty to grrr grrr grrr when she plays tug but she doesn't do it when playing tug with Foxy, only with me and him.  No aggression whatsoever I might add.  :)