The tugging method is mainly used for snakes that were on live once upon a time. My pastel was raised on live. When he strikes f/t, I give it a couple of little tugs to mimic live. I also do this for my red tail boa but, he has been on f/t his entire life. I still tug it (habit from my ball python). He doesn't freak out. But, I care for my brothers ball pythons (11 of em) all the time and some of them (5 of them, to be exact) get freaked out by the tug. It just depends on the snake.