allow to growl when playing tug of war?

this just occurred to me -

Will playing this game cause any problems in getting him to be a good therapy dog? Agin, we have absolutely no dominance problems with him and he is great with 'out', and obedience work, and I think he'll be well suited to therapy work.

[czechrott]

No, not at all. We're talking different setting, different drives. Just remember "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy "

[Katarina]

As Workingdogz said, it depends on the persons knowledge of how to handle the dog. One of my puppies went to a guy who would never let the dog win. Not only that the dog is constantly under tight control. This dog has insecurity issues and I've repeatedly told this person he should let the dog win at times, build his confidence up. When I watch the dog he shows more confidence because he is allowed to be "free" and win at times. I've never had any issues with any of my dogs when it came to "tug-o-war". There is always a parameter set and, it did depend on what plans I had for the dog. If I'm training for Sch or some other "active drive" sport, then they are allowed to win more often. If they are doing AKC obedience, not as often. Growling, I believe, can also be toned down by not shaking the item in the dogs mouth as much and only allowing the "win" when the dog is calm.

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

Someone once told me here, that its never one thing that we do that causes a dominance problem and more often than not its the little things we don't even realize that can send mix signals to the dog.