What great advice everyone has given you already. I just wanted to add that once the "give" command starts meaning give it to me no matter what it is, your dog will give you things like sticks etc. My Golden puppy loves the ball and so she knows give well (it's the only way the game keeps going) she loves sticks, pine cones and picks them up all the time. When I say give she drops them. It took some training but she does it on command no matter what it is.