Yes and no- it depends entirely on your dog’s mindset. Dogs bred for bitesports are often bred to be possessive, this is why care must be taken to prevent dangerous resource guarding behaviors. It took a talk with another bitework dogblr to look deeper into the difference, but once you see it it’s pretty obvious.
Creed is possessive of “his” things, and yet he does not guard them from dogs or people. He would simply rather not have you take them. Even with his extremely high value things, he will go through every nonviolent, nonconfrontational behavior he can think of to prevent you from taking his things before he decides it’s not worth fighting over and lets you have it.
Knowing that’s his mindset, me not relinquishing the tug ever would lead to excess frustration and discourage him from wanting to engage in the game. Why would he, if he can never have the item he’s putting forth so much effort for? You previously made the analogy of tearing off pieces of prey and, while that’s true, that is another task that requires a good deal of effort that will discourage an animal from repeating it if they never get any pay off. A wolf that constantly grapples and rips at a deer but never gets a mouthful of their prize to eat is a wolf that starves to death. But wild canids still play tug with each other with the remains of their kills, eventually tugging each bit apart and then eating their “win”. So there is value in winning for animals who consider a tug a high value object.
Dogs like Creed also have a lot of fight drive- they enjoy engaging in a struggle and coming out the victor. That, again, is another thing some folks value in their bitework dogs. Creed does not see the decoy as a prey item or a toy, but as someone he can grapple with and perhaps win against in a trial by combat. He knows the game and he knows how it’s played, he knows if he does well enough he gets to walk away with the decoy’s “arm” or he can pin and “savage” a decoy that’s been knocked to the ground. Creed is a sport trained dog who will never experience a hidden sleeve or muzzling during his protection, so I don’t know how he’d do in a real world scenario- but he finds no greater joy than when he is engaged in a very high stakes, full contact “game of tug” with a human he knows he can probably overpower. The act of fighting with and winning against something that can match him for power is his highest value reward. This is one big difference between dogs intentionally bred for this type of thing, and dogs that are not. It’s also my theory that this is why you see a lot of dogs bred this way also have a lot of issues with dog/dog confrontation.
To Creed, playing tug with me is certainly a game. He does not see me as a decoy or adversary. He does, however, want the tug, and he’s willing to fight me for it. There are rules to this game for the safety of both of us, that we both must follow. He also will push his tug into me, or return with a won tug, but that’s because he wants to win again.
@crippledhockwalker recently decribed Rogue as having no chill when playing tug with someone who’s only ever experienced how non-bitework dogs play this game, and it’s a pretty accurate description. Why do you think so many sport trainers like Denise and Shade and Joanne teach toy skills and establish rules for how these dogs are allowed to interact with their rewards? It’s to keep everyone safe and nip unsafe behaviors in the bud before someone ends up hurt with a dog who values winning the game over the safety of their handler- a fairly accurate description of a dog I’ve owned on toy skills gone very, very wrong.
Tug is such an integral part of bitework that the way the dog interacts with a tug or sleeve or pillow or suit is examined and reexamined down to the last minute detail. Is the dog growling or snarling? Thrashing? Rebiting, chewing, readjusting? Does the dog disengage the tug and issue a rebite on the handler? Does the dog grab and grapple with front legs while biting the tug? Does the dog bite fully to the last molar? Is the dog calm, pushing, pulling, frantic? Is the dog capable of following commands, releasing the tug in a high emotional state, reengaging with the handler? Can the dog think with a decoy present? Is the dog screaming, barking, yipping, whining? Where is the dog looking? All of these things can tell you if your dog is experiencing undue stress and needs to be retaught skills and rules of how to interact with such high value objects and in such a high stakes game, or if your dog even has it wihin them to play this game safely and fairly.
