Unicorn Asked: How can I train my dog to hold something in her mouth that I give her?

I have a 2 year old Cocker Spaniel that I rescued around 6 months ago. I've trained her to sit, lay down, shake, beg and bark. I'm now trying to teach her how to take something that I give her and bring it to someone else. I'm trying to use the command "hold this" to take whatever I have into her mouth, "take it to (name)" in order to bring it to the person she's supposed to. She knows "drop it" just fine from when we play and I'm not expecting her to know everyone's name so they are most likely going to have to call her.

I just can't get her to understand "hold this". I've been trying to get her to understand with a toy, but she doesn't hold it in her mouth. She either nibbles it or drops it right away. I thought if I brought food out that she would focus better, but she just gets frustrated that a toy is in her face and she doesn't know what to do with it to get food. Any tips?

Unicorn Asked: My dog had diarrhea and now goes in the house?

Usually, she gets in trouble for going poop in the house, but because she was sick, we didn't yell at her. It's mostly passed now and she's having mostly normal poops again at mostly regular times, but she keeps going in the house. Just now she went while we were putting on her leash to go outside. We say, "Do you want to go potty?" and "Go potty" when we want to take them out and have them go, respectively. I think she went because she thinks she's allowed to go in the house since we weren't yelling at her. What would be the proper steps to take to have her going outside again now that she's not sick?