Izzie wrote:Thanks
And Leih, I would love to know how to teach her to put them back, any tips and/or hints, suggestions would be more than welcomed!
OK then
It takes a little while to train, but works great.
It helps if you have an "out" cue (whatever word you use for your cue). If you don't have that, teach it separately.
The cue I use for this behavior, once you have the whole behavior, is "go to bin." Use any cue you want, of course.
You start by taking a low pan (like a cake pan), put a treat in the bottom, have the dog get the treat. WIth the low pan, this is easy (and so rewarding
), so once the dog is doing this easily, you graduate to a deeper pan (small sauce pan, for example). Again, once the dog gets the treat from whichever pan/container you are using, easily, you keep increasing the size/depth of the container. Move up to a sauce pot, then a stock pot (or bucket), etc.
At this point, you can add your cue, "go to bin" or whatever you're going to want to use (I use this for throwing trash out in out trash bin, etc, as well as depositing toys in a bin). So, "go to bin," the dog runs there and gets the treat. Start moving the bin around, sending the dog to the bin from different sides/positions/distances. You want the dog to rush to the bin to retrieve the treat.
So, once your dog is retrieving a treat out of a bucket (I love to use these for this training), and is comfortable with the container (will get the treat easily, no hesitation), you can now start to use your "out" cue.
Have the dog come to the bin/bucket/container, give it a toy or object over the continer, then give the "out" cue, and when the dog drops the object into the container, big party, rewards, etc. Be ready to prevent the dog from retrieving the toy from the bin once it's been dropped into it.
Repeat this a bunch. The dog gets used to dropping the object into the bin/bucket. Now, you can combine the cues..."go to bin," the dog takes the object to the bin, then "out" and dog drops the object into the bin. With enough repititions, you can drop the "out" cue, and "go to bin" will result in the dog going to the bin with the object, and outing it into the bin. (Make sure to have a big party the first couple of times the dog outs the object without that cue...)
At this point, it's a big game. Start with a bunch of the dog's toys, give the dog a toy, "go to bin," dog rushes to bin to deposit toy and then get the reward, repeat with another toy. Move the bin around the house, send from different distances, use all kinds of objects (wadded up paper, plastic bottles, etc.). The goal is to get the dog to deposit whatever you give to it in the indicated bin, period (no messing with the object, in other words).
And, start changing up the bin. Use different objects as bins...boxes, small waste cans, clothes baskets, pans, whatever. You want the dog to come to understand that whatever you indicate is a bin is where the object is deopsited.
Once you've got all this, it's a piece of cake to get the dog to collect its toys and deposit them in whatever you use for a toy basket. Make sure to use the dog's toy box as one of the bins when you're training. And, it's also fun to teach name discrimination, so you can tell your dog to "go find your ducky," then, "go to bin!"
It takes less time to train (with these smart dogs) than it does to write it all out. I had Geyser doing this by 4 months, and now, at 9 mos, she'll throw anything out in our trash bin, tho there are some things that remain a challenge (food wrappings and paper, mostly). Eventually, I"ll teach her how to open and close the trash bin door, but not until she'll leave the trash alone on her own
.
Eventually, I'll teach her to deposit several things in a bin (I use a milk crate for this kind of thing), then retrieve the correct item on cue. But, you don't want to have the dog retrieve something from a bin until the depositing behavior, and leaving it there, is
very solid.
happy training! report back!
She does have separation anxiety that I'm working on. When she first arrived she had to be kept in her crate whenever I left the house, she would almost do backflips in her cage when I would come back, poor girl. But I am happy to say she can be left to roam the house now, although she watches me drive off, the front door has a large frosted glass oval with a thin strip of clear glass at the edge that she peeks through.
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Judith Van Neerland Dutch Shepherds 