[babydolwv]

I am just curious as to how one would teach a dog to recognize different toys...for future refernce that is.. lol im soon going to be adding some new toys into the mix..she loves squeaky toys (hoping to use for distractions when determine to play with the cat) but i am planning on teaching her to go get a certain toy when it times to play... soo how would i go about doing that??

[Curbside Prophet]

I lucked into this one by using my bridge word "yes". I'd ask Elsa to look for her Gorilla, and she would go through all her toys and when she got close to or sniffed the gorilla, I'd say "yes", and she would grab it and bring it to me. With repetition, she eventually would pull it out on the name alone. That's how I did it, but there may be better ways.

[Keno's Mom]

Simply by naming the toy (keep your name consistant) every time you pick it up and throw it and use the "name" to bring back. Next have some treats and put one toy down - then name the toy, point to it and have her go get it; praise and give treats.

Do this a few times and then add a 2nd toy (she first has to know at least the names of 2 toys consistently). Put them far apart and play the game.

Keno knows the names of some of her toys. We are working on the various balls (soccor and tennis) and most times she does pick the right one. She will retrieve the rope toy or the ball (which are totally different) pretty consistant. If she brings back the wrong one, she is not given a treat and has to go get the right one.

It takes time, but fun in the end when they can pick out the right toy

[sydney-the-cattle-dog]

Have you tried clicker training? My dog is now a pro with the clicker and I can teach things like this in a few minutes. We taught Syd several games usinng the clicker.

Might have a look at Karen Pryer's site clickertraining.com

This method is fun and fast for dog and trainer.

[Chikadee]

My service dog is trained to pick up objects for me (kinda similar to toys) and I found the clicker method to be the easiest way to teach that. Its easiest to just start with one thing and then move on to another once they've learned the name of the first object/toy. After 2 years of training she knows the name of over 25 objects (keys, purse, leash, money, sun glasses, shirt, socks, etc) and right now she's learning to help bring in the groceries (light bags of course )

Good luck and have fun! That's the most important part. If you get frustrated then so does the dog and it makes it a lot harder on both of you.

[Alpha]

You don't need a clicker to do the clicker method, like Prophet said, using the word "YES!" is just as good.

As posted, using the same name for the toy and being consistent is the best way.

I also did the "line the toy up" method, and it works quite well. I would line two toys up. If she got the wrong toy, a soft, but firm "no" and I would re-direct her to the other toy and praise heavily. After she clearly figured out that the toy I pointed to was the one I wanted. I stopped pointing and just used names.

It's funny, because you can just see the wheels a turnin'!! Which one did she want?!?! She didn't point this time!! I think she said "rawf-oooope", which is that tug toy... Hmmm... " ROFL