Shaping a dog’s behavior to go to the mailbox come with clean intact mail, and drop it at your feet. Fetch is a trick dogs accomplish first, before learning greater task. Dogs are taught to fetch and bring back toys and drop them. Shaping the behavior for mail such start with a simple fetch motion. A string is tied to the mailbox, and once the dog become familiar with the string in the mailbox add another element.
Next, the dog is learning to open the mailbox with the string. The dog should be rewarded with his