Clicker training to put toys away

[belindarose]

I need to train dog to put his own bones away as we're constantly tripping over them (and I'm too lazy to bend down to pick them up).

I watched a few YouTube training videos and thought I'd initially click and treat for touching a bone, then for picking it up, then movement towards box etc (obviously taking time over it). So we scattered his bones and he noticed the clicker. He immediately lay down and would not move. Didn't do his usual repertoire run through that he does when he doesn't know what I'm asking for.

He knows the phrase 'find a bone'. So after about 10 minutes of nothing, I said this and he touched one (click and treat). But I shouldn't be introducing a command until he's showing the behaviour consistently.

So how should I go about teaching this oh so important skill? Thanks.

[ragged]

does it work on children?

[belindarose]

Yes really!

No, chocolate buttons work on children, of course.

[teanosugar]

My GSD used to bring her toys in from the garden.
One of us would go outside to toys, point to each one in turn and say 'take it in', the other person would be in the kitchen and say ' bring it to me' then make a fuss of her when she got it right and gave her a treat.
Within a few days you could go to the back door, point to the garden and say 'bring your toys in' and she would bring them in one by one and put them on her blanket.
She would also bring packets and boxes from the shopping in the car and put them on the kitchen floor.
Now, no matter how hard we try, we cant get our boxers to do either of these things.

[belindarose]

Don't know, tough! I have a skinny genius spaniel. However, I'm always 'helped' while training by a toddler so the poor dog doesn't know who to listen to!

teanosugar, sounds like a great dog!

[RedwingWinter]

We taught Dog2 the name of his toys, so that if we say the name he will go to it and pick it up. For example, if he had the bone in his mouth I'd say 'Bone! Good boy!'. Then we added a 'tidy' command and showed him (with a bit of pointing and herding) where we wanted him to put it. He got the hang of it quite quickly, except that sometimes when we name a toy he will run to his favourite toy instead of the one that we named. So I usually ask him to tidy that one first, to make it easier for him.

We did it without the clicker and just for praise. (I don't object to the clicker, it's just that I'm not co-ordinated enough and don't have enough hands so usually make a pigs ear of it).

What if initially you offer the bone to the dog and it gets a click and treat for having it in its mouth? That might help give the idea that he is supposed to pick the bone off the floor.