Is it bad to get a dog really excited when playing with toys?

I think a lot of dog trainers discourage playing with a dog when highly aroused b/c they just don’t understand what they’re doing wrong. I used to be one too. Most of the time when people get bitten playing with a dog in drive it’s their fault. The most common mistake is they don’t give the dog steady targets.  Excitement is what we want. Obviously there has to be rules before we can use it as a reward for obedience, but the dog should be obsessed with the game to make it effective as a reward.

For example, when playing tug, give good presentations, the toy moves away in a straight line. This way the dog trusts the target will be there. The most common problem for dog trainers is they start off moving the tug correctly but they ark it into their body right before the dog is about to get it. This causes the dog to start guesstimating where the toy will be. This is where people get bitten by a dog in drive. The dog starts to not follow the target but then cuts the angle and goes where he or she thinks the toy will be. The handler then gets bitten. This has happened to me LOL !
The common concept among clicker dog trainers and escape/avoidance dog trainers is to never get your dog too aroused when playing. I think they’re losing a valuable scenario. If you can get your dog highly aroused over food or a toy and then ask for obedience we will teach the dog impulse control. I actually have a client right now that is doing these exercises b/c her American Bulldog mix couldn’t contain herself. It’s been about two weeks now. When I first came she would get really excited, jumping up etc.. and couldn’t control her behavior. Yesterday, the same dog was listening to cues flawlessly when I entered.

Wanna learn how to play with your dog in a productive manner?

So I guess as a dog trainer I challenge the idea of always trying to keep dogs calm b/c it’s not realistic. Obviously, in the learning stage we’re training in a neutral/sterile environment but once our dogs know their jobs we must up the criteria. Playing with a dog when he or she is aroused and asking for obedience will teach the dog self-control. If I am hiking with my dogs and they see deer, they’re not calm! If we do training exercises with dogs in this state of mind we have a much higher success rate at controlling them in real life scenarios.