Training a poodle to Recycle

romipanchir · 07-23-2007, 12:46 PM

Hello all,

My family has a four month old poodle and we have already trained him to sit, stay, shake, and fetch. We want to teach him how to collect beer cans around the house and put them into a recycle bin, just like some dogs grab the paper. The dog likes beer and is already attracted to beer cans, so we think that this won't be too difficult. We have no idea how to train him to do this so far. We trained him to do most things with the treat reward so far...

Does anyone know if this is possible? And if so, how would one go about doing it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!

BoxMeIn21 · 07-23-2007, 12:48 PM

LMAO!!! Let me know how it goes, I'm still trying to get my dog to get me a beer out of the fridge.

CaseLogic · 07-23-2007, 02:58 PM

I think it's a pretty cool idea (and useful!) but be wary - if they dig their teeth into the can to "pick them up", they can cut up their gums.

Durbkat · 07-23-2007, 07:23 PM

boxmein, I saw a vid on myspace were a lab went and opened the fridge, got the guy a bottle of beer, gave it to him, then went back and closed the fridge. Here is a link to it,
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fusea...deoid=10146677

BoxMeIn21 · 07-24-2007, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Durbkat

boxmein, I saw a vid on myspace were a lab went and opened the fridge, got the guy a bottle of beer, gave it to him, then went back and closed the fridge. Here is a link to it,
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fusea...deoid=10146677

That's awesome! I could do without all the barking...

poodleholic · 07-26-2007, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by romipanchir

Hello all,

My family has a four month old poodle and we have already trained him to sit, stay, shake, and fetch. We want to teach him how to collect beer cans around the house and put them into a recycle bin, just like some dogs grab the paper. The dog likes beer and is already attracted to beer cans, so we think that this won't be too difficult. We have no idea how to train him to do this so far. We trained him to do most things with the treat reward so far...

Does anyone know if this is possible? And if so, how would one go about doing it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!

My Standards (Poodles) get drinks from the 'fridge, but don't like cans at all, prefer bottles. How about training the humans who leave their beer cans around the house to pick up after themselves instead! LOL

My Poodles. . .
bring in groceries from the car
help put them away
pick up their toys and place in their toybox
put junk mail in the trash
take the garbage down to the gate by the alley
bring me my slippers. . .
the phone
my keys
my purse
their leashes
whatever I ask for/point to
they. . .
open/hold open doors
turn on/off light switches
find/bring me the remote
play bridge and tell naughty stories

I trained them by teaching retrieve, and with target training.

Dogstar · 07-26-2007, 06:45 AM

I would teach this behavior by backchaining.

You say that he's already attracted to the cans. I'd use Shirley Chong's shaped retrieve to shape picking up the can (http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html
Instead of rewarding the dog for putting it in your hand (once you've gotten to those steps), I'd hold a trash bin and reward the dog for dropping it into the bin. Initially, I'd move the bin under his head so that if he just opened his mouth, the can would fall into the bin. then I would move to placing it on the ground under his head, then putting it just in front of him (so he had to move to put the can in). Then I'd begin working on distance- so he had to move further to put the can into the trash bin.

One thing about this is, you'll have to build the rate of reinforcement very slowly. This isn't a self-reinforcing behavior, and your dog isn't a robot who will do this just for the fun of it. It might be easier to teach him to 'trade' beer cans in for a treat- he could just bring them to you when asked to go find one and YOU could put them in the bin. You can do it without the treat by going to a variable reinforcement schedule (some retrieves get a treat, some get a pat, some get a verbal reinforcement) but I think you'll need to be involved with the behavior and continually reinforce it. This is from my experience with service dogs- even dogs who are trained really reliably to do a behavior like picking up clothes or making beds need fairly constant reinforcement to keep a behavior that complex sharp and the dog doing it happily.