I do think this little guy needs some confidence building and the tug o war seems to help. He never growls when I relax my grip and say 'out'; he just drops the rope then. I have actually encouraged himn to growl when he tugs by saying 'tug ... tug .. tug'. I definitely know that the growl he is giving at this time is a 'revved up, kill the rope, this is realy fun' growl. The growl he gives whe I put my hand over his mouth as we play is a little different like 'now I am really protecting my prize from you and you should get away'. It almost seems unfair then that I am putting him in this position, as he never, ever defends anything from me or anyone else and he is one of the sweetest rotties around.

From what I am hearing it seems as if I should either not put my hand over his mouth when we are playing, or if I do and he growls in a much more menacing way, I should correct him for it.