VIDEO: Owner Teaches Dog to Recycle Human Trash

Animal lover puts Max, the Labrador, on mission to make Deerfield cleaner.

You’ve got your basic dog tricks: sit, stay, paw and roll over. But what if those got too easy? “I thought, ‘Gee maybe we could do something else?’ ” Keith Sanderson said after his Labrador, Max, got tired of the basic game of fetch. “He’s wired to be a retriever, so why not make him be a retriever,” the Deerfield resident said, noting that he had to take into account his suburban surroundings. “There’s no pheasants or ducks around, so we did bottles.” During training, Sanderson switched a normal ball with a bottle; it didn’t take long for Max to catch on to his owner's objective. Now, the duo sets off every morning searching for trash. “The old trite saying that every litter bit hurts is really true,” Sanderson said. “We have a 40-gallon …

•  9 Comments
• Photos (2)
• Videos (1)