Training not to leave toys/bones outdoors

My dog Max now has a habbit of taking his toys and bones out into the garden with him and leaving them out. I'd go out myself and get them but we have no lights out there and it's really hard to find in the dark. Sometimes we never ever find the bones as the foxes probably take them and sometimes they toys are ruined by the rain/mud etc.

He nows how to retrieve his toys but when I tell him to get his toys from outdoors he goes out, stays a while (doing what, I don't know) then comes back in with nothing. Any suggestions on a recall like this where he also probably has to remember where he left whatever it is he takes outside? He has slight visibility problems in one eye but he a dog so shouldn't he be able to use his nose?

Do you play find it games with him? This will help with associating that he has to go looking for a specific thing and bring it back to you.

Once he understands that game, you will have to teach him the name of his different toys so that when you send him out to get something, he knows what it is he is supposed to be bringing back.

I agree with Hali, time consumming getting them used to what they are supposed to fetch I know, but it works.

Although, Bruce will fetch the occasional plant pot too.

I think I'll need to figure out how to get him to understand find it. Right now when I say find it he runs about the house looking for hidden treats as this is what we used to do with him as a puppy. He never actually learned to use his nose, he just kinda runs about hoping to find the hidden treats.

Well, what I did to start was to show them the toy (and get them excited in it - a few games of catch or something) shut them out the room, put the toy in the middle of the floor, go back out to the dog, open the door and say 'find it'. As soon as they pick the toy up, lots of praise, encourage them to bring it back to you and then more praise and either a game with the toy, or if they are not that bothered about playing with you/it, a treat.

Each time put the toy slightly further away/more difficult to see, but don't make it so difficult that the dog gives up - and keep encouraging them. Also, keep sessions short, probably only two or three goes at 'find it' in one session to start with).

Most dogs come to really love the game and as they get more confident, you can hide it in more and more difficult places (but never somewhere you don't want the dog to go and be sensible - for example, don't hide it under a cushion on the settee if you know your dog is likely to rip the cushion rather than work out how to get it gently!). To start with, use close supervision so that you can give them a bit of help with the most tricky ones that they can't see. In the end, you should be able to hide the toy somewhere in the house, get on with whatever you want to do and the dog will bring the toy back to you when they've found it

With one of mine, I have taught her the difference between 'find it' and 'show me' - 'find it' means, find and bring it back to me, 'show me' means find it but don't touch it - i.e. just show me where it is.