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Old April 15th, 2006, 04:56 PM
TracyG TracyG is offline
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Teaching a dog to roll over

Hello all! I am trying to teach my puppy different tricks to keep us both entertained! She knows a few (crawl, bow, gimme 5, be a bear, wave, shake etc) but I would like to teach her some more. I started working on getting her to roll over. I was using a treat as a lure but she was just thinking I wanted her to lie down. I then used the treat as a lure while I helped her physically roll over and then praised her like crazy when she did it. Anyone else got any ideas?? I don't know if this is a good way to do it or not. Also, if anyone else has some good "trick" or other fun commands we could try (including how to do it!) I'd love to hear them!
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Old April 15th, 2006, 04:59 PM
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meb999 meb999 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TracyG
I then used the treat as a lure while I helped her physically roll over and then praised her like crazy when she did it.
That's how we did it with Buster. We got him down, then rolled him over physically (all the while reapeating 'roooollll oveeeerr' while doing the action) and then lotsa treats and praise. It took only a few times, and he got the hint.
Buster loves learning new tricks. He gets all excited when he shows them off to guests....

Good luck!
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Old April 15th, 2006, 06:41 PM
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jj1207 jj1207 is offline
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Hi tracyg,

My alex knows so many tricks- and it is so funny when I ask her to do tricks for guests she gets so excited that she will try to do all of them at once. I get roll over lay down give me five speak and sit all at once; however, teaching her to roll over was pretty easy and only took about five mins. Here is what you have to do:
First I would recommend that you purchase a clicker. These tools are small little devices that you hold in your hand and the moment your dog does what you want her to do you click it. So that the exact action that you want her to perform is associated with a sound. After you click the clicker you then give them a treat and praise her.

To get a dog to roll over you have to combine a few other skills that the dog should already know. First get the dog to sit, then lay down----- now comes the roll over bit. Dogs respond well to one word commands such as "over" you can add the roll later. Once your dog is laying down on his own push him on his shoulders until he rolls over all the time saying "Over". The moment you push him over click the clicker and give him a treat. After you have pushed him over a few times then he will start to do it on his own. Just remember to do the whole trick in a sequence: Sit Down Over. Trying it all at once is just too much for most dogs. It just takes some time and a little patients.

Let me know how you get on,

James
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Old April 15th, 2006, 07:25 PM
TracyG TracyG is offline
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Thanks Meb999 and James! I appreciate that! I will give your ideas a try and let you know! Indy absolutely LOVES giving a high 5! Mostly because she knows how much it pleases us!
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Old April 15th, 2006, 11:32 PM
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joanna joanna is offline
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Hi Tracy!!

I've tried to come up with several tricks I taught Royce.

(1) spin. I first did this with a leash on because he would NEVER spin on his own. so I draw a big circle over his head with a treat in my hand and kind of lead him to a spin with the leash. Once he got that, we added "Spin" each time and he now does it well.

(2) Play dead. If he can do a roll over, this will be easy. Slowly, get him on his side, hold his shoulder down a bit and let him stay in that position for 3, 4, seconds. Repeat until he can stay longer. Then add "PLAY DEAD" command.
The longest Royce played dead was for 3 minutes!!!

Some others that my friends like to do when they come over is placing the treat on the floor and saying "OFF" They are amazed at his patience and concentration on that one piece of treat. He dashes to get it with a "OK" command. Goto your bed/crate is another one...

We just accomplished "Find the ball" game. I keep in in a down stay, go hide the ball somewhere, and tell him "Ok, go Find it, Find the ball" He spends about a good 10 min. and somehow finds the ball by scent.
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Old April 16th, 2006, 12:15 AM
Prin Prin is offline
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To roll, what you can do is make the dog lie down, then pass the cookie from his nose slowly over his hip or rib cage. As his head follows the cookie, he rolls (unless he's stubborn and stands up to get it). The other way is to get them to lie on their side and pass the cookie slowly over the head toward their back, and the dog should follow it.


We taught Boo dead, roll and "show my your belly" (he stops the roll half way).
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Old April 16th, 2006, 12:46 AM
Soroush Soroush is offline
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Lucy learned the concept in half an hour, but it took her about 3-4 days to completely associate the word "ROLL" with rolling over. I used a mixture of what Prin suggested and also physically helping her roll. The first few days she'd only roll if she saw a treat in my hand, but right now she rolls over as soon as she hears the word "ROLL"! It's funny cuz she doesn't care about what she's doing at that moment. If anyone say's "Lucy Roll" she'll just lay down and roll! She even tries to roll in her crate(impossible!) and always spills her water all over then cries to get out!

Once I got her to roll 22 times nonstop! It was in the park on the grass and she was way too happy(for whatever reason!).
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Old April 16th, 2006, 04:29 PM
TracyG TracyG is offline
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Great ideas everyone! I'll give them a try and let you know how it goes! I also like the "find the ball" game. It will help me out too because I am forever losing track of it!
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Old April 16th, 2006, 07:09 PM
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tenderfoot tenderfoot is offline
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Prin, you do it the same way we do. Lay the dog down first, lure the head to the side (ribs) which gets the hips to set to the side and then lure over the back. The head follows the lure, the body follows the head and he's over. Be sure to give a hand signal and a voice command and reward with tons of praise.
Try not to physically do it for him - otherwise he doesn't really learn how to shift his own weight as quickly.
We do the 'play dead' thing and we used to call it 'bang' and pretend to shoot the dog as he fell dead to the ground. BUT here in Boulder that freaked a few people out, so we had to change it to 'sleep'. Its not as dramatic but the same trick.
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Old April 16th, 2006, 10:09 PM
Prin Prin is offline
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A friend of mine whose dog wouldn't be lured by treats, used a tennis ball... The dog held the ball firmly in her mouth while lying on her side and the owner grabbed the ball and slowly turned her head around... She wouldn't learn it any other way...
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Old April 21st, 2006, 12:50 PM
TracyG TracyG is offline
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Update!

Hey folks! I've been working with Indy and she's managed to roll over a few times! She'll do it and I'll praise her like crazy and so she seems to think "Let's do this again" so I'll get her to roll over 3 or 4 times...and then she seems to forget what we are doing! HOwever...at least I know it's possible! Thanks for the tips!
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Old April 23rd, 2006, 12:25 AM
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MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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Have you tried hiding the treat and repeating the command if she won't do it?
My puppy sometimes acted like she'd forgotten how to do stuff, but if I gently said "no" and then hid the treat and repeated the command she'd miraculously figure out how to do it again. Sometimes she'd even do the trick as soon as I hid the treat without even being asked again, lol
I know a lot of training books say not to let your dog get frustrated, and if it can't do it after a certain amount of times move onto a trick it already knows then try the new one again. Wellllll....this didn't work with my dog....she'd just figure out to give this dramatic whine and look confused and I'd move onto a trick she liked better and she'd still get a treat.
After awhile she realized I wouldn't do this anymore and she better do the trick or no treat.
I don't know what your dogs personality is but since you mentioned that she seems to forget what you're doing (like my dog did) she may just be doing that so you'll do a trick she likes better. May just be her short attention span also, but since you seemed to have taught her other tricks I thought I'd suggest this.
Dogs are a lot smarter than you think, and some are pretty manipulative. Dogs like this can be a pain but rewarding in the long run since if you stick with it (and don't let them get bored) they're usually real good learners
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