How to Teach Your Dog to Play Dead and Roll Over

Besides the basic commands every dog, regardless of their characteristics, should handle, such as "come" or "stay", there are plenty of other instructions they can also learn.

How to teach a dog to play dead or roll over is very simple, and these are among the most popular tricks. It might seem silly, but the truth is obedience — learning these more "festive" commands — is a good way of keeping the dog balanced. We'll explain it step by step. Shall we get started?

A Well-Trained Dog

First of all, it's lovely to live with a well-trained dog. You'll surely agree if you've had the luck of coming across one. But dogs aren't born programmed to know how to sit or give their paw spontaneously.

You need to invest time in their training and do it properly, which is why it's always good to contact professionals and read scientific literature. In other words, forget about listening to just anyone with a dog, however good their intentions.

Why It's Important to Teach Your Dog Tricks

Besides making day-to-day life easier, training stimulates and supports the dog's balance. Dogs are creatures of routine. They like having a schedule and, above all, predictability. That is, having a certain amount of control over their surroundings. So, if they understand the word "come", they don't hesitate. They know exactly what we want, and what happens as soon as they listen, since they get our reaction.

In a human world where they don't understand all our gestures or the meaning of our whole vocabulary, however hard they try, recognising a word in a moment of uncertainty is genuinely comforting for them. What's more, it strengthens the human-dog bond.

Training sessions are time to switch off and just focus on being together. Remember that when a dog gets a reward, which doesn't always have to be food, for sitting, lying down or playing dead, they'll tend to take up those positions when they want attention. Far better than if they bark insistently or jump on us.

How to Teach a Dog to Play Dead

This command involves the dog, when told to, dropping to the ground on their side or belly-up and staying still in that position as if dead. It's not one of the basic obedience commands, but we've already explained its usefulness.

We can add it to the schedule of training sessions we've set up for our dog. Remember it's advisable to organise the learning from easiest to hardest. So, we could teach this command, in principle, once the dog already masters sitting or lying down.

Both are positions we could start from to get them to play dead. Even so, if our dog naturally tends to roll belly-up, we could teach them this command at any point.

Steps to Follow to Teach Them to Play Dead

A dog rolling belly-up in front of us is fairly common, and our response is usually to scratch their belly, which triggers an uncontrollable movement of one or both legs, as if scratching, which we probably find quite funny given how many times we repeat it.

If this is the case with our dog, we can take the chance to say the word we want to link with the dead position. For example, "dead" or "bang". Any word works, as long as it doesn't sound like another one. For example, if "platz" is used for lying down, "bang" for playing dead could sound similar to them.

With the dog paws up, say the word and reward them. This way they'll start linking the word with the position. Also find a gesture to do at the same time, such as pointing at them with your index finger. Gradually they'll understand what's being asked of them when they hear the word. Always reward right at the moment they obey. This way you reinforce the behaviour you want them to repeat.

Lying Down and Teaching Them to Play Dead

If your dog isn't one who habitually shows their belly, you can teach them to play dead starting from the lying-down position. Once they master this command, give it, and from that position, you'll just need to encourage them to roll onto their side. You can do this using a small piece of food, guiding their body until they lie back.

You may need to repeat it several times for them to understand. That's fine. Go back to lying down, reward the lying down, and try again. Once you get the right posture, say the command for playing dead and reward them. You need to keep them like this for a few minutes, since the point is to look dead. They can't change position until you tell them to.

To achieve this, you can use "stay", which they should already know too. You can leave them lying on their side, or try to get them belly-up by moving a piece of food until it brings them into position, or by stroking their belly, since they'll tend to lift the back leg that isn't resting on the ground. If the position isn't comfortable for the dog, don't force it.

How to Teach a Dog to Roll Over

The dead position can be used to continue the trick and teach them to roll over. This is because, if we get the dog belly-up, it's common for them to roll to one side or the other before getting up. That's a good moment to give the command if they do it, and reward them right at that moment.

This way, always following the sequence the same, they'll end up linking the word to the movement we're expecting. It could also be taught from lying down, moving food to make them turn. We can use our hands to help position them.

Bibliography Schlegl-Kofler, Katharina. Escuela de perros. Madrid. Tikal Ediciones.