Putting Toys Away

I have never personally tried this. Maybe you could put them in her mouth and tell her to "drop" in her basket. make sure to have plenty of treats handy and give lots of praising!

I've never tried this myself, but I think you'd have to do some chaining. Train separately to pick up or take an object, train them to target, and train to drop... eventually linking them together and then transferring to one cue.

I taught my dog this in three parts. The first was "go get your bone (or toy or whatever...she has a giant toy chest that holds bones, balls, toys, etc.). Then I would say "bring it"" (which basically means carry it) and would walk with her to the toy chest. Then I would say "drop it in the box" when she was standing over the box (you can change the words, these are just the ones Jess uses). Then I'd praise like crazy.

Each time she would drop one in the box, we'd have a big praise fest, so she got the idea that putting toys in the box was a good thing. Eventually, I would say "go get your bone and drop it in the box," leaving out the bring command, since she had started to get the idea where I wanted them to go.

Because it's a multi-part trick, it takes a little longer, but it's worth it to have a dog that cleans up after herself!

Of course you have to be careful if your dog likes it TOO much. Jess likes to pick up things for me anyway, and once Jess got the whole idea that treats and praise and attention came from putting things in her box, she started to get a bit carried away. Like, last month I found my electric bill in her toybox.

Too bad I'M not a little smarter, or I could teach her to pay it... : )

Jan

Jan's method works just fine, but you can also clicker train this as a "behavior chain".  None of my dogs really care much for toys, but Sequoyah does, and so I taught her to put her frisbee away.  She's funny, though - she always has to look up that one extra time to be sure we're "done".  Then, you can almost hear the sigh as she drops it in the wicker toy basket.  Poor little stockdog. [:-]

I've never tried it, but I remember someone on the forum doing it quite awhile back.  I'd just be happy if I could get the 2-legged family members to pick up their clothes and put them away.[]

Joyce

my abby started getting toys out of the toy box then when she got tired of playing with them she would put it away and get another one on her own no training necessary. i thought that was cool.

Thank you for the replies and advice! I'm definately going to try and do this because my boyfriend is convinced that he is going to "die" on a dog toy. [] Peyton is a tennis ball/frisbee girl and I'd love it if she was also a clean-it-up girl!!

I started working on it, but it was really hard!  We got to the point where he will take the toy and drop it in his toy box, but only if he is within 5 feet or so of the box when I give him the toy.  Any farther, and he just lies down and chews on the toy instead of putting it away. 
 
Since I didn't manage to train the whole behavior, I'm not sure my training methods are worth emulating!  But I'll tell you anyway . . . We did it with clicker training and I started giving him the toy when he was standing right over the box, so he had a really good chance of dropping it in there.  I'd click/treat whenever he dropped the toy in the box, gradually moving a little farther away.  It seemed to work well but, like I said, only up to a certain distance. 
 

Peyton is a tennis ball/frisbee girl and I'd love it if she was also a clean-it-up girl!!

Just be sure to treat it like a fun game. That means lot of squealing and praise when the dog does well, but no frustration or annoyance when the dog doesn't get it. Dogs love games, but if you make it work for them, they'll be less inclined to join in. So keep it light and fun, keep the energy level high, and make like putting away toys is the most fun thing ever!

Jan