# How to switch "find it" from food to toys, and naming toys



## Arcticfox (Dec 12, 2011)

So I've been playing hide and seek with Tesla's dinner once in a while. SHe's pretty good at sniffing out piles of dog food stuffed under futons and behind cabinets, I'd like to eventually teach her to find a toy instead of her food. So how do I go about making the switch, and how do I let her know what toy she's looking for - is holding it and showing her before I hide it enough?

I'd also love to teach her the names of some toys, so I can ask her to bring me her ball, her rope, or cow, etc... How do I make the association between object and name?


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

I've done the first one with Tonka. First couple of times I rubbed one of his treats all over the toy. And got lots of scent on it. 

With a Poodle??? . . I'll bet he goes for the toy alone on the 3rd or 4th try.


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## oceanrose (Sep 10, 2011)

Pammipoodle has a good video of working with Lumi to find and get toys.

Ramses knows ball, rope ball, bear, elephant and a few others. I haven't been working on it like I planned, too many other things going on.

Start by playing with her with a specific toy, using the name a lot (oh is this your bear? Get your bear! Where's your bear! Here it is!) Then get out your treats and either using a clicker or a marking word reward her for touching or bringing you the bear. Over the next few training sessions, make a huge deal about touching the bear, with a big reward. Once she's touching it when you say bear, start to put it on the floor and have her go toward it. Again reward for her touching it just a little ways away. Work up to 'find your bear', farther and farther away, until finally she's finding it hidden under things. 

Once she has bear down, switch to another toy and repeat. After a few mix them up and see how she does. Most dogs generalize this pretty quickly, and for some reasons poodles really like names for objects compared to a lot of dog breeds.


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## Arborgale (Dec 11, 2011)

My last mini Ruby knew lots of commands and vocabulary. I am still amazed at how much poodles can know without you formally training them. I did not set out to teach her these things, but she picked them up by how I spoke to her. 

Tesla is still young. Just keep talking to her. This is what I do, and I know you will get so many other suggestions of ways to your goal. I am sure you already do this, but when playing ball (*or squeeky, or lammiedoodle...) , keep using the word ball (*or ...) with the commands she already knows. "Like get the ball. Good girl! Good get the ball!" If you want her to differentiate color then insert the color of the ball into you dialogue. "Get the red ball!" or "Fetch the blue ball" LOTS of praise with the word!! This takes many, many repititions. Poodles are smart and I know Tesla will pick up quick. The older she is the more vocabulary she has a chance to pick up. 

This is how I do it. Hope this helps a bit and can't wait to hear how others approach this.


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

Arcticfox said:


> So I've been playing hide and seek with Tesla's dinner once in a while. SHe's pretty good at sniffing out piles of dog food stuffed under futons and behind cabinets, I'd like to eventually teach her to find a toy instead of her food. So how do I go about making the switch, and how do I let her know what toy she's looking for - is holding it and showing her before I hide it enough?
> 
> I'd also love to teach her the names of some toys, so I can ask her to bring me her ball, her rope, or cow, etc... How do I make the association between object and name?


This is how scent detection trainers teach it. They teach the dog to find the toy by scent. Then they lace the toy with the scent. Then they take away the toy (in the hiding spot) and use it to reward. Dog learns scent = get toy.

You can do the same process (backwards). Use a toy stuffed with food. When she's "got it", then hide the toy unstuffed and reward with food. If she loves to play, finding the toy will become its own reward.

As far as naming objects, it is surprisingly easy. I start out with clicker training.

I put one toy (let's say "bone") on the floor. I clicker train retrieving the bone and then imprint the name "bone". After this I will never reward her picking up the bone unless I ask for it (this is really important!).

Then I grab another toy ("ball") and put it on the floor. Clicker train retrieving it and the imprint the name "ball".

Now I'm going to put both out together. As for one. If she goes for the wrong one give a no-reward marker. When she gets the right on, click and reward. Now switch to the other toy.

When she's clear on 2 toys, add a third. You can keep going almost infinitely. There is a toy poodle (maybe now deceased?) that knows over 2,000 commands/words. Holds/held a world record for it. I saw it years ago on TV and the trick they did was the dog retrieved A LOT of items from the owners purse all on the command of the object name. (lipstick, wallet, tissue, etc) It was fun to watch them! I have no idea what the dog or owner's names are - did anyone else see them?

Have fun training!


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

I disagree about using the toy's name repeatedly. The toy's name is a command or cue, not a name. So we don't want to poison the cue or make it meaningless by repeating it.

Train the behavior, then name it. After that it is no different than teaching your dog the defference between sit and down in early obedience. Except there's no need for using corrections - just make sure your dog can't steal the wrong to and self-reward with it!

I saw a trainer using a rig that was a piece of plywood that they could secure objects to and leave the named object free. Cool concept, I'm sure it worked, but too cumbersome for me to try. It would be a great solution for a dog that steals the wrong item and plays with it.


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## Arcticfox (Dec 12, 2011)

Thanks for the great tips everyone, we will start working on these two tricks in the next couple weeks, we'll see how it goes


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