Description
Grabbits are soft and stretchy tug toys for you to play with your puppies and dogs.
Grabbits are hand-made from good quality fleece strips, 4-way braided to become a strong, soft tug toy. The braided length is approx. 70cm (28 in) and they come in various colours, but can be made to almost any length as a bespoke order.
Grabbits are ideal tug toys
- Most dogs enjoy tug games
- Grabbits are long enough so that your dog’s mouth and your hand can hold on at the same time without contacting one another
- Grabbits have the correct diameter to fit comfortably into a dog’s mouth
- Grabbits are made of a soft fleece material that won’t injure the dog’s mouth
Precautions
- Don’t play tug with dogs that try to control items by growling or snapping
- Tug games can be very exciting, so don’t let younger children play them.
Safe play
- You (your dog!) can only take it when I tell you
- You must give it to me when I ask
- You may not put your teeth or paws on me when playing
We don’t want to encourage dogs to grab anything from our hands and we need dogs to let go when we ask: sometimes they grab things that are valuable to us or dangerous to them.
Teaching tug
- Enforce the “no teeth, no paws” rule – if he bites you or bounces off you with his paws, the game ends. Drop the Grabbit and walk away.
- If he runs off with it, attach a line to the Grabbit and place your foot on the line so that he can’t take it away.
- If he hasn’t dropped it after a minute, exchange it for another toy or treat.
- Resume the game after a short period when he has calmed down.
If you are struggling with this please seek help from a suitably qualified professional in the field of behaviour or training.
We teach the “take” and “give” at the same time:
- Take the Grabbit and show it to your dog in an excited manner
- Don’t wave the Grabbit at your dog – move it away from him so that he is stimulated to chase it. When he shows an interest, offer it to him with the cue ‘Take it’.
- If he grabs at it, lift it out of reach until he is calmer and then present it with your ‘Take it’ cue
- Keep the games short
- Pull carefully and don’t pick your dog up by the Grabbit in his mouth.
- Be especially gently with puppies
- When he opens his mouth to release the Grabbit, say ‘Give’ and praise him.
- If he continues to tug the Grabbit, stop pulling and stand still. With your other hand offer him a treat, bringing it right to his mouth if necessary.
Pet-Positive will enclose a FREE tug toy game handout with every Grabbit order.
