Play Dead

[Nisha]

After hearing loads of the tricks lots of the doggies in here know i thought id try to teach them both it one cool trick at a time......the one i wanted to start first off with was "play dead"...............HOW in the world did you guys teach your cavvys to play dead?? i cant imagine saying "play dead" or "bang your dead"or whatever to my two and they just flopping to the ground!!! could anyone give me advice as to how to teach them play dead.?!?!

[arasara]

LOL OK this is how I taught Kosmo!!

First you make them lay down. Then you take a treat for them to follow and make them follow it so they end up looking at their rear and then you can lift the treat in the air so that they end up falling on their side *hard to write without an actual pictorial*, or for me, gently push them on their side. When they are in the "dead" position you say DEAD! Good Dead! Good Boy! absolutely immediately and treat as SOON as they are dead and eventually they will catch on.

For me Kos didn't have an easy time playing dead from laying down because he's usually in the frog leg position when he's laying down and he can't roll over to his side so I had to teach him dead from a sitting position. I still made him follow the treat to look back and then pushed him over to his side, LOL. A clicker works great for this treat.

I hope I explained this well enough to understand. Kos hated it at first but once he put falling over and cookies together there was no stopping him. Now I can put him "dead" and I say "stay dead!" and I can leave the room for a few minutes, come back, and he's still dead, LOL Good Luck!

[Nisha]

Thanks heaps Sara for that! ill have to try it. hopefully itll work well..

Now I can put him "dead" and I say "stay dead!" and I can leave the room for a few minutes, come back, and he's still dead, LOL

LOL LOL that is sooooo cute!!!! i can just imagine it with Kosmo! but i cannot see my 2 doing that..but hey u never know!

[molly]

Sara gave you a pretty good description on this one. We also this one in a few stages. First, they need a good down/stay. Then we lured with a treat to get them over on their side. Lots of belly rubs and a treat. Then a stay in this position until they get an "OK" release signal. We train the play dead or "side" with a hand signal (finger pointing out/then point finger up like after shooting a gun). Because it is on a hand signal, we can say anything silly and they will play dead. Hope that helps.

[Nisha]

yeah thanks for that...i tried it with my two yesterday , and they have there down stay really well normally..like i can leave the room for minutes and when i come back they are still in a down stay position...but yesterday when i tried to move the treat so they fall back they just kept coming up into sit?! i tried lots of times but boht of them would not "fall over"..well ill try it again 2day anyway

[arasara]

Nisha,

Kos did that as well. It might sound funny but when he did it I would push him over and as soon as he hit the position, I'de say "DEAD!" and give him a treat!

[molly]

It took a couple of sessions over 2 weeks or so to train the various pieces of this one for mine. Hang in there; they'll get it.

[Nisha]

thanks hopefully...
yea il try the pushing over thing 2nite

[jill]

ha... actually max learned it by accident. i was trying to teach him to sit up and beg. so i kept saying "max, beg"... "max, beg"... "max, beg". he was so confused and frustrated and sick of hearing me say "max, beg" that he just flopped down on his side, let out a big sigh, and covered his face with his paw... so i went with it and yelled out "good boy, play dead!"... and that was that. (we still havent learned "max, beg")

[Nisha]

hahaha thats funny jill!! i can so just see him annoyed with you and lying with his paw on his face !!!!

oh well maybe beg will come by accident 2! u never know