Finding Toys

When your dog has the free run of your house, you will probably find that he leaves his toys in different rooms. I constantly find our dog’s favorite ball upstairs, but he can never seem to find it when we tell him to get his ball. To help him find his ball, we trained him to look around the house for his ball.

To train your dog to look for his toys, you first need to train him what “Find your toy” means. Start by hiding his toy in plain site and tell him to “Find your toy” and praise him when he finds it. Little by little, hide the toy in hard to find places and praise him each time he finds it.

You also need to train “Upstairs” through association. Every time you go upstairs with your dog, say “Upstairs.” Your dog will start to associate saying “Upstairs” with going upstairs. Continue this until your dog starts heading towards the stairs by himself when you say “Upstairs.”

Then you are ready for the next step. Put they toy at the top of the stairs and tell him “Upstairs, find your toy.” Your dog will now start looking for upstairs for his toy. Soon, your dog will start looking for his toys upstairs for himself without you having to retrieve the toy for him.