Game of Tug: Training Impulse Control in Dogs and Puppies Through Play!

Is your pup quick to lose focus and jump at anything that catches their eye? Are they easily distracted, or stop listening while you are trying to train them or just ask them to be calm and still? Are they tearing at your clothes during an over-stimulated episode of teething, and will just. not. stop?

Puppies, young dogs, and even untrained older dogs are often seized with the need to follow their natural instinct and chase, jump, or sniff their way into a dangerous situation. This is natural! However, you can work with them to develop control over their impulses, and make them think and listen before they act.

Young puppies and dogs do not come with built-in impulse control, or ability to stop themselves from reacting immediately to intriguing or frightening stimulus in their environment. The impulse to react is especially strong in younger puppies who are easily over-stimulated, since their brains are just developing and are quickly overloaded while experiencing all new things in the world. This can sometimes make training, walks, and social interactions difficult or frustrating.

Training impulse control is not like teaching a trick or command. It's a behavior that you have to practice with them until it becomes part of who they are. However, this practice goes hand in hand with teaching some commands like "drop it" and "leave it", which rely on the dog being able to choose to stop reacting to something it is really interested in, to respond to the command.

Tug is something that comes naturally to dogs, and especially when they are young, they will likely practice it with you whether you intend to or not. Might as well make it intentional and use it to your advantage, while also playing and bonding with your pup!

My teenage foster puppy took to playing tug with my boy immediately! It's a natural "game" that comes to them instinctively, so it's a good idea to lean into it and use it for training!

Game of Tug

To help build impulse control through play, all you need is a tug toy, like one of our favorites you can find here:

Large Blue Knots Rope Tug Toy

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The steps to the game are as follows:

1. Get a good, sturdy tug toy, and play vigorously with your pup, giving lots of upbeat encouragement and sounds of excitement. Make it obvious you are fully engaged and having fun too! The idea is to rile them up to just the point where they usually stop paying attention to commands in real life situations (while also staying safe, and out of crazy biting mode!)

   
   

2. Freeze completely and ask them once to "drop it". If they don't know the command or are just not that good at it yet, no worries! That's kind of the point of the game. If they don't drop it, you drop the toy and turn away and break eye contact, remaining frozen.

   
   

3. If they keep jumping on you after you froze, because they are excited and want to keep playing, say "leave it" once and stay frozen and looking up and away from them until they give up. At first this can take a while and be a bit hectic, but be patient! It's natural for this to take time and requires routine play so the pup learns the pattern.

   
   

4. Once they have calmed down and dropped the toy, you can unfreeze, and calmly pick up the toy, say "take it!" once, and start playing vigorously with them again!

   
   

5. Next, repeat, until the pup gets the pattern. Vigorous play, and then quickly freezing and letting go. The key is to keep going back to vigorous play, so they know that they will be rewarded with more fun if they endure a few moments of calmness and drop the toy like you ask! This is important, since they need to know you are not just ending the fun because you are the fun-police, but that taking a moment's break is part of the game.

   
   

6. Once the pattern is established, refine the process and add challenge! Work on cleaner "drop it!" habits as you freeze and let go of the toy, and most importantly, extend the time and challenge of "leave it!". Start saying "leave it" when you pick up the toy again after they have calmed down, and wait a while to say "take it" and starting vigorous play again. If the pup jumps anyway, just drop it again and freeze and wait some more.

   
   

7. When the pup starts understanding that they have to control themselves even once the toy is in your hand again, and wait for the command "take it!", they will do their best to control their impulses so they can get back to the fun tug game. You can then add a bit of extra wait, and even move the toy around a bit, or wave it in front of their face...but remember! The key is to set them up for success! Don't move faster and expect more than they can do at the time. Practice, and they will get better!

   
   

8. Play several times a day, upping the challenge as your pup improves! This is literally a game, so you can pick up a tug toy and play even just for a minute here and there, no need to make a big deal about it, just keep playing! Your pup will LOVE it.

Because I played this game with my boy a lot, he developed great impulse control, and now he will leave our chickens alone even if they run or fly off, or make sudden loud sounds! My puppy girl knows to leave the chickens alone, but is still working on impulse control, and so for now she has to stay on a leash, or she will jump on them when they make a sudden move.

My boy had the worst impulse control, he used to tear at my sleeves, my pants, run after birds and squirrels, and this game was a life-saver! It taught him not only the three commands "drop it", "leave it", and "take it", but also how to get his own behavior under control, defy his own impulses, and be patient. He can now play this game and sit patiently even if I wag the toy around his face, dance around him, and fake him out, but he will immediately start playing when I say "take it!". This translated to other great behaviors, and helped form him into a patient, calm adult dog.

I hope this works for you and your pup too, let me know in the comments!