The Dish by Darcie

Thank you for your tons of email and phone calls asking how to get dogs to put away their toys. First, a good retrieve. Instead of commands I like to use the word “requests” and after you teach your dog to do something, they’ll do it every time you make the request. Dancer didn’t like to pick up anything that didn’t feel good on her mouth. After clicked retrieving practice, she’ll pick up anything I ask her to: keys, metal spoons, cell phone, pen, ruler, paper cup, paper, even food and bring it to me. She’s the best. A visitor to the store was amazed when Dancer tried and tried to pick up my super thin credit card from the warehouse floor. She couldn’t get her teeth around it and she didn’t give up until I went to help her. That’s a dedicated dog. How did I teach her? It was fun. If you have a dog who doesn’t like to play with toys or doesn’t like to retrieve (like Dancer), use a clicker to train. Caution: do not click until you have thoroughly read a great book or watched a movie about how to use it. Understand how it works before you start. You can create bad behavior as quickly as very, very good behavior if you don’t know what you’re doing.

After you’ve “charged the clicker”, meaning you and your dog have learned the clicker game, set out one or two items you’d like your dog to bring to you. I like to use a rubber toy and a set of metal measuring spoons. Dog looks at one, click, treat. Dog looks again, click, treat.

You know the game, you read the book. Pretty quick dog picks up toy or metal spoons. Click treat. Your dog will probably drop the item as quickly as you click. That’s okay. You’re clicking for the behavior you want: picking up the item. Stay happy and calm. Pretty quick you’ll be clicking for the dog to bring the item to you and then the other item. After the dog starts to understand the game, you can ask for the item by name. Cool, huh? I think so, too. Then you’re ready to have the dog start to come to you, have a toy box ready. And click the dog for getting near the box with the toy in mouth. Keep the clicks and treats coming fast and soon you’ll have a dog who will put the toys away when you say so. Tilli loves to put her toys away, and take them out, and put them away and take them out. Dancer will do it if I ask her to. There’s the difference. Tilli loves toys. Dancer couldn’t care less about them. They both love us and because they understand what we want, they’ll do anything we ask.

Clicker training is a great way to open communication between you and your dog. Once that line of communication is open, the world is you and your dog’s oyster. You can do anything. It’s given us the bond of trust and friendship. I train without a clicker, too, but for the hard and fast behavior, I like clicker training. When I train with a clicker, my dogs won’t fail a request.