Clean Up Your Toys

Clean Up Your Toys is a practical trick that builds on retrieve skills and turns them into a clear job: pick up a toy and place it into a container. While it looks straightforward, this behaviour asks your dog to coordinate several skills in sequence — which is why it’s taught using shaping and typically comes together over multiple short sessions.

This is a great example of a trick that rewards patience. The learning happens in layers, and progress often looks messy before it looks polished.

Training Methods Used

• Shaping

What You’ll Need

• Small treats your dog loves

• Enough open space for your dog to move comfortably

• Your clicker or “yes!” marker

  You’ll also need:

• A few objects your dog is happy to pick up (nothing too valuable)

• A toy box without a lid

The box should be about chest height — high enough to keep toys in, but low enough that your dog doesn’t have to lift their head excessively to drop the toy in.

Before You Start

To get the most out of this trick, your dog should already be able to pick up and drop objects on cue.

Dogs who can retrieve and deliver to hand often find this easier at first. That said, because this trick is taught using shaping, you can still work through it if your dog only knows how to bring the toy near you rather than directly to hand.

How to Teach It

• Warm up with a few rounds of retrieve to hand, without the box.

• Place the box in front of you and keep everything else the same.

• Use your usual retrieve cue or hand signal, then cue the drop as your dog approaches or moves over the box.

• Because this is shaping, early misses still count — reinforce attempts that hit the edge or bounce out.

• Once you get several clean reps, raise criteria and stop reinforcing misses.

• Begin fading your hand out of the picture so the box replaces your hand as the drop location.

Troubleshooting

• Start with just one or two toys.

• If toys are dropped early, move the box or toys closer.

• If your dog gets stuck at the box, reward away from it and closer to the toys.

• Keep sessions short — toys can quickly shift this into play.

Level Up

Once your dog understands the trick and can reliably place a toy into the box, you can gradually make it more challenging.

• Add a cue; say it as your dog commits to bringing the toy, then gradually say it earlier and earlier.

• Increase the distance between the toys and the box.

• Move the box farther away from you and move it to your left or right to help generalize the behaviour.

• Change only one thing at a time so learning stays clear.