Hi,
We are bringing our puppy home soon and I am concerned about how we will deal with the problem of a houseful of my 4 year old's toys and a new puppy who wants to eat them all.  I have already started 'training' my son by getting him to clear up a bit as we go along, but he has hundreds of trains and cars and games and puzzles etc etc.  We have put together a plastic box of goodies and toys ready for the puppy, is it possible to train the puppy to know which is his box and which toys are off limits?  I have totally puppy-proofed the rest of the house, but can't really stop my son making a mess completely.  Has anybody solved a problem similar to this? 

The puppy can't tell the difference, but the child can. :) The way my kids  quickly learnt to pick their toys up was when they realised that toys of theirs left around DO get chewed up. Other than keeping pup away from the room with the toys I can't see any other way.

I found the only way was to keep most of my son's toys upstairs where the dog wasn't allowed. If he was playing with something on the floor downstairs the puppy was in another room until the toys were put away.
:)

We moved all of the toys upstairs, it's worked out better than we thought really, it gives me a bit of peace when my son is upstairs playing, giving me time to spend with our pup, but it also means that playtime with our son isn't interupted with the telly/computer etc. The odd toy does some how 'magically' make it's own way downstairs every now and then, but my son knows that if he leaves it in pup's reach the he can assume it will be ruined! TBH though, apart from socks and pants, the pup isn't really interested in toys!

Yes, same as.

Children's toys can be very dangerous to a puppy, so it is very important that they aren't left lying around where the puppy may get them :)

Daisy

Thanks, at the moment my son has toys in his room and in the lounge, so over the next couple of weeks I'll try and move the majority of them upstairs.  We have a wooden toy box in the lounge, so will let Alex have that full of whatever he wants to keep down, it's puppy proof and that way we can still play downstairs when the puppy is asleep etc - upstairs will be a puppy free zone.

Sounds like you are getting very well organised helen, but would just say that while the contents of the wooden toy box may well be safe, you may find that the box itself is irresistably chewy! :D