Anyone have any suggestions for a golden (1yr old) who won't stop retrieving
my son's toys, especially stuffed animals. He's got plenty of his own toys
and they get rotated for him to prevent boredom. He's getting exercise and
love and attention. Our dining room is my son's toy room and he has 6 large
toy bins full of toys. Max (the golden) goes in there all day and brings
out toys. If I don't catch him right away he'll play with them. I've tried
telling him no then giving him one of his toys but it's not sinking in.
None of Max's toys are anything like my son's with the exception of balls.
Max thinks all balls belong to him, which I can understand. I just want him
to stop fetching toys all day long.

Sarah

"Sarah" wrote in message
...
Anyone have any suggestions for a golden (1yr old) who won't stop
retrieving
my son's toys, especially stuffed animals. He's got plenty of his own
toys
and they get rotated for him to prevent boredom. He's getting exercise
and
love and attention. Our dining room is my son's toy room and he has 6
large
toy bins full of toys. Max (the golden) goes in there all day and brings
out toys. If I don't catch him right away he'll play with them. I've
tried
telling him no then giving him one of his toys but it's not sinking in.
None of Max's toys are anything like my son's with the exception of balls.
Max thinks all balls belong to him, which I can understand. I just want
him
to stop fetching toys all day long.

You mentioned he gets exercise, love and attention. How much exercise each
day? What about training? This sounds like a puppy who is bored and wants to
have a job, but is just not getting the mental workout he needs. Plus, he's
probably not getting enough physical exercise - at one year, he is probably
overflowing with energy. I would suggest at least one long walk per day plus
fetch games in the yard and several short training sessions - get him active
and moving for an hour or so per day. Use that love of toys to your benefit
by including them in training sessions.
I'd also suggest restricting his access to those toys which aren't his,
because frankly, a toy motivated dog will find anything resembling a toy to
be his toy, and the temptation to play with things can be too great for a
puppy to overcome. Even if the puppy is 3 - my youngest dog recently found a
bag full of beanie babies I had set aside for donation, and proceeded to
tear the bag open, take out the toys and neatly remove all the little ear
tags that collectors worship - fortunately they are still fine for kids as
he didnt leave a drop of slobber on even one! It has been rainy and he was
BORED!! So - can you close off the dining room, or move the toys to a spare
bedroom or den? That, plus sufficient physical and mental exercise, should
make for a happy home with happy pup + child.

Christy

stop rotating: dog thinks it's getting new toys all the time... new toy is
for dog... all toys are for dog..



"Sarah" wrote in message
...
He's got plenty of his own toys
and they get rotated for him to prevent boredom.

I second the scenting solution. A dog can't be expected to always know
which are his/her toys and which aren't. I use a drop of hazlenut extract
(the kind used for flavouring icing etc.) My dog (Lab X) is really good at
telling his stuff from ours. He has never chewed anything of ours after the
first week we had him home, although he's gone through plenty of his own
toys. Sometimes he even puts his toys away in his basket, if they are
laying about. (His basket was also scented to make an association for him.)
Once in a while I'll find a dirty dishrag in there, which he finds
irresistable. Of course the fact that it is hidden under the rest of the
stuff leads me to suppose he probably knew what he was doing. ;-)

I might not use vanilla extract. Vanilla is a very common scent and is used
in candles, hand lotion, crayons, and other products. It may be a bit
confusing for your dog to use a popular scent. I would also avoid using
citrus scents as they are used a lot in cleaning products.

"Melanie L Chang" wrote:
Try scenting the dog's toys with something safe (like vanilla extract)
and only rewarding him for bringing those, ignoring him for bringing any
others. You could even train this as a more formal scent discrimination
game. That way he'll be far more motivated to bring only his toys. My
guess is that even though the difference between the dog's toys and the
son's toys is obvious to you, it isn't to the dog, so it'd be a good idea
to give the dog a little more help.

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:39:32 -0400, JoKing wrote:

I second the scenting solution. A dog can't be expected to always know
which are his/her toys and which aren't. I use a drop of hazlenut extract
(the kind used for flavouring icing etc.) My dog (Lab X) is really good
at
telling his stuff from ours. He has never chewed anything of ours after
the
first week we had him home, although he's gone through plenty of his own
toys. Sometimes he even puts his toys away in his basket, if they are
laying about. (His basket was also scented to make an association for
him.)

/snip/

I might not use vanilla extract. Vanilla is a very common scent and is
used
in candles, hand lotion, crayons, and other products. It may be a bit
confusing for your dog to use a popular scent. I would also avoid using
citrus scents as they are used a lot in cleaning products.


I wouldn't use any strong, chemical sort of scent, even if humans like them.
What about a less sweet, more doggy sort of scent? Something natural, from
food maybe. Yeast?

The OP might also consider storing the child's toys in a net/hammock sort of
thing that could be hoisted up out of the dog's reach when the child wasn't
there.


Margaret
---------------

"Sarah" wrote:
I just want him
to stop fetching toys all day long.

I'd start with management. Put a top on the toy bins, close the door, use baby
gates, whatever. Not that you shouldn't train him, but the first step has to
be prevention. He already has a habit, it's self-reinforcing, and he does it
when you're not there to address it. Not a simple training issue, and you'll
backslide every time he gets a chance to do it again.

As for training, you have some choices. Do you want to train him not to go in
that room? Not to touch the toy bins? Or to distinguish between his toys and
your son's toys?

If you simply want to keep him out of the toy bins, there's a possibly easy
solution. Take him into PetsMart or PetCo, and go to the aisle with Bitter
Apple and other similar sprays. Put a little on your finger, and let him sniff
or lick. If he goes, YUCK!!!, buy it. :}

Spray the toy bins with it. For a few days, I'd spray them daily, maybe a
couple of times a day. He'll probably go check them out several times over a
period of time before he accepts that they are now stinky and untouchable for
keeps. Then he will give up, and you won't have to keep spraying them.

Though the behavior may resurface occasionally, so keep the Bitter Apple
around. :}


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