Teach Your Puppy to Ignore Your Items and Bring You Their Toys

I have been playing some version of the "find your toy game" with dogs for as long as I can remember. With my childhood dog, "Riley," this game became a regular around the house, but it was not until much later when I realized the training potential of such afternoon treasure quests. While my spaniel wagged his way through the searches, he was using all of his senses and his problem-solving abilities.

Hiding toys for hundreds of dogs later, I am still discovering new ways to make the game more engaging for the dogs. From the most toy-motivated dogs to the dogs who the owners thought would never learn to retrieve, I have seen them all conquer the challenge of finding toys and bringing them to their owners. Riley would always parade back with enthusiasm when he found hidden toys at my request, allowing me to build even more toy motivation into his training and play.

I have adapted this simple game to be helpful to puppy owners, as a common problem with puppies is that they don't know how to choose their own toys. Puppies want to hold and chew everything! Wouldn't it be nice if you could use clear instructions with your pup, and your puppy knew exactly what you meant? When I was raising poodle puppies, I used this game a lot to build the pup's interest in their own toys versus other items, in order to help prepare them for their families. Using the game for training is equally as entertaining as it is playing just for fun.

As you might have discovered yourself, puppies seem to find joy in the forbidden items. They love finding that pair of slippers you put just out of sight and parading around as you chase after them. If you take away their prize and hand over a dog toy, your puppy almost always prefers the item you took away.

Your puppy has dozens of toys all over your home, yet it's the things you don't want him to have in which he keeps devouring. Although this might be frustrating, there is a reasonable explanation. Your puppy is not doing this to frustrate you, and as much as you might believe it, he does not know better. As puppies learn about the world around them, they use their mouth. This is normal behavior. When the pup begins to grab items that he should not have, everyone seems to turn in his direction.

This attention, even though it is not meant to be positive, is often reinforcing for the young pup. The pup quickly learns how to start a game of chase and get everyone moving by grabbing the same items over again, such as the remote! The clever humans then begin to hide the off-limit items. Dogs naturally love to sniff and search, so the puppy takes on the challenge.

At this point, owners will often claim that they have puppy toys everywhere! Why would the puppy ignore all of those expensive toys? The puppy does not see the difference between your items and his. He only knows what your response is. If the puppy toys are sitting in a basket and you do little to make the toys come alive, they are not nearly as interesting as the other items your puppy keeps finding.

You can begin to train your puppy exactly which toys are his through history and scent. Interact with your puppy and toys often so that the toys have the puppy's scent as well as yours. This also creates a history of playing with the toys so that your pup begins to get the idea. If your puppy grabs at your hand or clothes instead of the toy, you may need to work on toy engagement and exercises such as Play without Toys from our MJ's Canine Bonding Games collection of exercises.

You can then teach your puppy how to choose his toys on his own, how to choose his toys over your items, and even how to bring his toys to you.

To put the training to work, you will want to set aside a few minutes each day to teach your puppy the concept. This should be fun training time. Short sessions are best for this game. If at any time during the training, your pup begins to lose interest in the game, you might either need to shorten the sessions or add new challenges to make the game more interesting. If your pup does not want to play at all, chances are there are other needs to be met at the time you are attempting to play, so take a break and try again at a different time.

It goes without saying that you want to make sure any toys you offer to your pup are safe. Toys should be appropriately sized for your puppy. If you have concerns about your puppy trying to swallow toys, you will want to address those concerns with a professional before all else, as this is a safety concern that needs to be addressed right away.

I have found that starting with a food-stuffed retrieving bag is helpful in the beginning, but this is not a requirement. If you do use a toy that holds food, you can put your pup's regular kibble inside of it. To begin, show your puppy the toy. Make the toy interesting! Move it and drag it on the ground. When your pup is curious about the toy, place it a few feet away, holding your puppy back gently.

Say "find it" and release your pup. When your pup arrives at the toy, praise and play. You can encourage your puppy to trot to you holding the toy and take a kibble from it to feed your pup if using the retrieving bag.

You can then begin to hide the toy slightly. Put it where it is still slightly visible in the beginning. Don't skip this step. You want your puppy to feel like he is winning every time in the beginning.

When your puppy is ready for a challenge, you can go ahead and begin hiding it in more difficult locations. Start to play the game with different types of toys so that your puppy can find other toys in addition to the one you started with.

When you ask your pup to find a toy and he happily does, you can start to test his knowledge. Place a few items that your puppy should not pick up along the way. The items should range from not interesting at all to mildly interesting. Will your pup ignore the items to find his own toy? This is the step which brings the game together and makes it unique compared to a regular game of hiding toys. When your puppy can search for his toys and ignore all else, you are set up for success. Now you can ask your puppy to find his toys when he is looking for mischief and you are busy. He can go find and bring an appropriate toy. Be careful to participate with your pup the majority of the time though. If you only use this game when you are too busy for your pup, he will soon learn that it is not fun at all and go right back to stealing your items instead.

This game can easily be adapted for the class environment for professional dog trainers as well. In the group class, food-stuffed toys tend to work best, unless the dogs have a foundation of toy engagement exercises. You can bring various items to hide the toys near and send home a handout explaining the purpose.