Dog collects sticks

Question
I have a year old lab who collects sticks out of our woods nearby and drags them to our front door.  I was just curious about why she does this behavior.  I know we won't be able to break her, but I thought understanding it may help us tolerate it better.

Answer
She's just trying to do her "job" as a retriever.  Labs are hard-wired to want to retrieve, and if there are no dead ducks to bring back to the hunter, they often grab other things, like sticks, rocks, their own leashes, etc. to satisfy the urge to retrieve.  You can try to channel that energy to more appropriate objects by training her to retrieve the items that you consider ok, like toys or even the TV remote!  You may want to try to clicker train her - Labs are very food motivated, and toy motivated, so this method often works well for them.  Peggy Tillman's book "Clicking With Your Dog" can get you started.  This method can have your dog retrieving in no time: http://www.dogscouts1.com/Dog_Activ-_Retrieve.html
You might want to check out "The Clicked Retriever", too, just to see how people are training Labs that do their real job.
The books are probably all available at dogwise.com.