I have a new puppy. Female hound terrier mix. I rescued her from a local shelter. I got her at 10 weeks and within a week she is house broken without the use of wee wee pads.

She has basic commands down pretty good. Sit, come, down, stay. I am working with her on giving me her paw and not biting the leash during walks. She seems to be very smart and eager to please.

She is confident and has no fear. I have a good understanding about pack structure, body language and the need for a dog to be allowed to be a dog. I think we got lucky and got a great dog.

She has lots of toys and they are kept in a little box in the living room. She goes to her box and takes the toys she wants to play with. I want to teach her to "clean-up" on command. That means to put her toys back in the box. Whats the best way?

Thanks!

 Quote: Al Garrison

I have a new puppy. Female hound terrier mix. I rescued her from a local shelter. I got her at 10 weeks and within a week she is house broken without the use of wee wee pads.

She has basic commands down pretty good. Sit, come, down, stay. I am working with her on giving me her paw and not biting the leash during walks. She seems to be very smart and eager to please.

She is confident and has no fear. I have a good understanding about pack structure, body language and the need for a dog to be allowed to be a dog. I think we got lucky and got a great dog.

She has lots of toys and they are kept in a little box in the living room. She goes to her box and takes the toys she wants to play with. I want to teach her to "clean-up" on command. That means to put her toys back in the box. Whats the best way?

Thanks!

Hi, Al Clarification question: Your hound x terrier pup is less than 3 MONTHS old right now?

She is at the 3 month mark now.

Shaping with a clicker is how I'd normally do this one but it might be too long of a behavior for a pups attention span to shape with. Backchaining might work better. If you get her a little excited over a toy will she pick it up easily or hold it for a second if you hand it to her? I'd do something like that directly over the toy basket and then tease her a bit with a treat or another toy to get her to drop it right in. Mark and then big praise with a very good treat. When you see her anticipating the teasing and starting to drop it on her on I'd fade the physical cues(bending over her, having something to trade, etc.).

Eventually back her up just the tiniest bit. Like 4-6 inches so that the toy still has a good chance of landing in the basket but might accidentally land outside of the basket. When it lands outside of the basket say "Nope" or some other no reward marker in a neutral tone of voice and then immediately help her to be successful getting the toy in the basket. Wash, rinse, repeat gradually moving further from the basket. You can start using the verbal cue around the time you start fading the physical ones. She should have enough of an understanding of the behavior by then.

If your pup won't take the toy easily to start everything out I'd pick something else and leave this for when she has more of an attention span.

Keep your sessions SUPER SHORT and SUPER FUN with this young of a pup. Like 3-5 reps and you're done.

 Quote: Al Garrison

She is at the 3 month mark now.

WOW, I think she's a GENIUS Luckily we have some Genius Trainers here, but unfortunately I'm not one of them, LOL -- However, I bet this behavior can be achieved through marker training with high-value treats as the motivating factor ... I'm interested to see what all our experts (like Cathy above) suggest as the steps-to-success !!!

Thanks so much. I cant wait to try this.

Definitely shaping and clicker training. Start with her toy and a box in front of you. When she picks up toy, click+feed. Do this repetitively and then ask for higher criteria like dropping on the box (start with a shoe box lid so the toy drops on the lid without having to go over a high side of a box; gradually move to the shoe box, then a bigger/taller box.) Eventually you can transfer the behavior to her toy box and add verbal cues. It takes patience but when they "learn it" themselves - the behavior is very strong.

No training advice from me....just a comment....

It's hard to beat a great mutt. Sounds like you have one!

 Quote: Al Garrison

I have a new puppy. Female hound terrier mix. I rescued her from a local shelter. I got her at 10 weeks and within a week she is house broken without the use of wee wee pads.

She has basic commands down pretty good. Sit, come, down, stay. I am working with her on giving me her paw and not biting the leash during walks. She seems to be very smart and eager to please.

She is confident and has no fear. I have a good understanding about pack structure, body language and the need for a dog to be allowed to be a dog. I think we got lucky and got a great dog.

She has lots of toys and they are kept in a little box in the living room. She goes to her box and takes the toys she wants to play with. I want to teach her to "clean-up" on command. That means to put her toys back in the box. Whats the best way?

Thanks!

REALLY?!! AHound x Terrier? WOW? That's really a conflict of personalities!

Ditto on all the above on marker training. You can easily work with a pup at this age because its reward based training and fun for both you and the dog.

Get you basic marker work started and then do what is called back training for the retrieve in order to get the dog to take and hold an object on command.

That's a foundation for what you want. Just hoping the dog will pick up a toy on the floor, on command is a crap shoot at best.

Getting the toys out of the box for you dog sounds like a natural thing. Taking them on command from the floor or your hand is a learned behavior for most dogs.

Putting them in a box is "really" a learned behavior.

LB has some GREAT marker training videos concerning how to and advanced videos on using markers for retrieving, heeling, jumping, basic OB and much more.

Michael Ellis videos are top of the mountain in my books but the LB video on marker training with food is right their with them. I have both!

Don't be shy about asking questions!

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