Bored with Sit, Down, Stay. I wanna kill her.

[StunnedMonkey]

OK, I don't want to kill my pup, but I'd like to teach her to play dead. Basically, I want to point at her and say "Bang" and have her roll onto her back with her legs in the air and remain motionless. I suppose rolling her eyes into her sockets would be too much to ask.

Any tips on how to approach this? I'm pretty sure I can get her to roll onto her back, but how do I go about getting her to stop squirming around and panting? I want dead, not mildly wounded.

Certainly someone has taught this basic skill. Any tips on how to break this down?

 

[Spiritus]

I don't know if I would ask her to lay with her legs in the air. It's one thing for a dog to get to this position when sleeping - their bodies are relaxed and they are just stretched out comfortably. If you can modify your expectations to be her laying flat on her side perfectly still, then that can be broken down to a "down", "over" to flop on side, and "bang" meaning head down too. Work on this until you can get her on her side and bang - head goes down. The work on phasing out the other commands.

 

[MamabearX3]

HA HA HA HA HA! I'm sorry! I really can't help you! But if you haven't noticed from my more recent post. Chance is really becoming a deviant! OH puppy love ain't it grand! Good Luck! Once you figure it out let me know!

 

[Herschel]

Ken, I agree with Spiritus. Go for laying on the side. Disclaimer: Play dead is a very submissive pose for dogs and making a puppy perform the trick (or learn it too quickly) may or may not affect her temperament. Herschel went through a fear phase right around the time that I taught him and he performed the trick on cue but he was really uncomfortable with it for a while. It took him a while to be able to tell the difference between being submissive and rolling on his back and "playing dead."

If you're using a clicker these steps will be slightly different. I'm going to assume that you aren't:

1) Have your dog lay down. Treat/Praise.
2) Take a treat and very slowly move it past your dogs nose to the side of her head. Make sure she looks at it and follows it with her nose.
3) Once her nose is following the treat, keep moving it backwards towards her body. (Keep it close to her mouth!)
4) She will most likely start to roll a little bit while trying to get the treat. Once she rolls onto her side, give her the treat and praise.

Repeat 6x.

5) After you can reliably cue her onto her side with a treat, then start adding in your command of choice. We're boring so we use "Play Dead".
6) While she is in a down, say "Bang!"
7) Follow through with the above steps to lure her on her side. Treat/Praise every time.

Repeat 6x.

8) Once she can reliably turn onto her side, see if she can associate "Bang!" with rolling onto her side without the lure. If she performs the behavior jackpot her and give her a ton of treats and praise. If not, then keep teaching her the association.
9) Start working on speed and distance. If she is reliable through step 9, then take a step back and try saying "Bang!". Treat and praise like crazy for any success. She will probably perform this slowly at first, so if she starts getting faster at all reward the behavior.
10) Enjoy killing your dog! Make sure you keep things short and fun. Use an energetic, excited voice (not yelling) to keep your dog motivated. This is often tough for men when training puppies because our voices can be overwhelming. Good luck!

By the way, I think Roll Over is way more fun than Play Dead. Once you get Play Dead down then start another thread or PM me for instructions on Roll Over. It is very similar.

 

[squirtsmom]

I have no idea, but let me know when it works how you did it.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Thanks for the advice. After I posted the question it occurred to me to go to YouTube, and there are lots of videos of folks getting their dogs to play dead (with varying degrees of success) but also a few actually demonstrating their training technique. I'll not post any links because I don't really know if the techniques demonstrated are particularly good ones, but mostly because I'm far too lazy to go back and find them again. But there are some out there if anyone chooses to take a look.

Good points Spiritus and Herschel, and I hadn't considered this. Darby does tend to be on the submissive side already. I may abandon the idea for now, or at least take it very slowly and be prepared to give it up if she seems to be uncomfortable with it. It's supposed to be fun for her too after all.

 

[Herschel]

Have you taught her high five or "paw, other paw"? It took me forever to get Herschel to offer his paw, but once he did, it clicked right away. Now he gives a high five right after he runs agility courses, fetches a ball, and all sorts of things.

With a Wheaten Terrier you should have absolutely no problem getting her to offer her paw!

 

[StunnedMonkey]

With a Wheaten Terrier you should have absolutely no problem getting her to offer her paw!

Uh, she pretty much offers everyone all four paws at the same time. This is known as the Wheaten Greetin'.

Actually, what I'd really like is to get a picture of her pooping in front of a "No Dumping" sign. The problem is that while she'll pee pretty much anywhere, she's reluctant to poop away from home. (Oddly, I'm the same way.)

Sometimes I wonder if I got a dog for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Herschel]

Uh, she pretty much offers everyone all four paws at the same time. This is known as the Wheaten Greetin'.

Exactly. There is getting around it so make use of it!

By the way, does she spin in circles when you come to let her out of her crate? That's another thing that I've only ever seen Wheatens do...

 

[Roxy's CD]

Roxy's bang:

http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/roxy_hades/?action=view&current=HPIM1476.flv

I can't remember if that's a good vid of it or not and I can't watch it because I have dial up, but I assume it's alright if I uploaded it! LOL

First off, "prerequisites" LOL:

-a solid "sphinx" down, with hand signal, no verbal
-roll over, also hand signal
Optional: speak command

Broken down quickly:

1. Changing the hand signal for down, into a pointed gun along with "BANG"

2. Seeing as the signal for roll over with my guys is a pointed finger going in a circular motion, it made it pretty easy to use my pointed gun finger to make her roll, and I simply slowed down the roll over and rewarded her half way.

3. Optional: Speaking, as in "Ouef! I'm hit!", asking her to speak right after she downs

And sorry, but I have no idea how I got her to stay and play dead, I assume it's because with our other work I always use a release command and she just waits until she hears that.

It is an awfully fancy trick and all of our guests love it!

 

[kidsanddogs]

I had a collie that was uncomfortable with rollover and play dead until he was about three years old. Then he was fine. Some just need more time to trust someone else with dominance. To get his head to lay still, I just hold a treat right near the nose and use "wait". Start with a very short amount of time, and build up. You can reward him after the trick is over. By the way I call it 'take a nap', but it's the same trick.

Here's my video with Bailey:
http://www.loveyourdog.com/takeanapmovie.html