montana wildhack,
I do not know how to solve your problem but I would suggest using one
word commands.
IMHO, instead of "put it away", how about just "away"?
Dogs only have so much room for a volcabulary. Of course they will
recognize phrases but using one word is much easier for the dog.
Remember, we are not training the dog, they are training us. We have
to figure out what they want us to say / tell them.
Just an opinion that I utilize with great success.
Good Luck,
Steve in Michigan

In article 2006021620121116807-montana@wildhackcominvalid,
montana wildhack wrote:
That one word command is a good suggestion.

Meh. Obviously you don't want to get into a situation where
you've got a "Hey, go get the woobie" command and a "Hey, go
get the chewie" command, but I haven't found multi-word
commands to generally be a problem (well-trained sleddog
teams know "come gee" and "come haw") and tricks for
entertainment value often depend on multi-word commands,
particularly when the joke is specifically about the words.
For example, one of the easiest things in the world to teach
is "What's on the wall?" and have the dog turns its head and
appears to be looking at the wall - I guarantee that "wall?"
would not be as entertaining and that the full question is
no more confusing than the one word.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community.

In article 2006021701283516807-montana@wildhackcominvalid,
montana wildhack wrote:
In your example, the dog knows that "wall" is the trigger word for a
behavior.

No, he doesn't. I've also tried "what's on the tree?" and
"what's on the nonsense word?" to see what's triggering
the behavior, and they both result in the same behavior as
"what's on the wall?" I believe that they could learn the
difference, but for now the rhythm and tone are the
trigger.

In "come gee" and "come haw" (which not all of them know)
you've got a more complex situation - "gee/haw" mean "turn
right/left," and "come gee/haw" mean "do a right/left 180,"
so clearly neither "come" nor "gee/haw" is the trigger word.
In fact, I don't think dogs hear words as individual
semantic units at all, at least they don't seem to me to
behave as if they parse.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community.

In article 2006021714223175249-montana@wildhackcominvalid,
montana wildhack wrote:
But they do parse: when I say "get the ball" or "get the toy" because
"get the" means one thing but the next part is different.

I guess I'm not convinced that they're not hearing
"getthetoy" and "gettheball."

At any rate, I can see some value in using one-word (or
probably more to the point, one-syllable) commands. Being
able to get something out quickly and concisely is a good
thing. However, that doesn't mean that dogs can't deal with
lexicographically longer stuff.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community.