The Put Your Toys Away challenge

July 1, 2012 at 9:49 pm 5 comments

I saw this video recently – looks so simple and impressive!

Today I decided to try this method with Boogie. First of all I removed everything from his toy basket except one toy – one that he rarely plays with, if you could even call it a toy. It’s the severed paw of a rubber monkey. Boogie looked at the monkey paw. Click and treat. He put his nose in the basket almost touching the monkey paw – click and treat. This happened about 3 times, then he stopped looking at it and just sat there looking at me. I waited.

OK… so I took out the monkey paw and put it on the floor next to the basket.

Boogie stood up, stepped into the basket and sat down inside the basket. This is a pretty small basket, mind you. He looked so cute I had to give him a treat.

Oh well.

How do you teach your dog to differentiate between games that are done using the same props (eg., box or container) so that he doesn’t repeat the behaviors that he did before?

Entry filed under: Training.

A very simple and awesome explanation of Clicker Training A gift from Pawalla; Boogie art!

5 Comments Add your own

1. thegraceofdog | July 2, 2012 at 6:19 pm

I had to laugh–I’ve tried teaching our German Shepherd the same thing, and she has never excelled at it (to put it generously). I think I’d take Boogie’s cute, spontaneously-offered behavior of sitting in the basket over putting the toys away, anyway (so predictable! so mundane! so…. pedestrian!).
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- 2. lili | July 2, 2012 at 8:49 pm
  
  I am glad that I am not alone. I laughed when Boogie sat in the basket 🙂
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3. Doggy's Style | July 2, 2012 at 9:35 pm

Well, I don’t there to try it with Doggy, first I would have to get a basket for his toys, a huge basket, he seems to like big things to carry around and throw agains the wall or TV. I would have laughed at Boogie doing that, they are too cute when they do silly thing in the middle of a serious (at least for us) training session.
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4. Pamela Webster (@S_Wagging) | July 3, 2012 at 1:51 pm

I’ve never known how this was taught so thank you for showing the video.

And I agree, Boogie’s trick of hopping in the basket is far superior.
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- 5. lili | July 9, 2012 at 7:22 pm
  
  I have been looking for “teach your dog to put toys away” videos and this one is the best one I’ve found. Well, best in terms of how easy it looks. In reality, though – not as easy as it looks 🙂
  Reply