How To Train A Dog To Roll Over

Introduction

Once you have taught your dog the basic tricks of sit, lie down, stay, and shake, it is time for more advanced tricks. One of the first of the more advanced tricks is to teach a dog to roll over. In fact, the only reason that this is an advanced trick is because the dog must know how to lie down and to follow commands before you can teach it to roll over. Some dogs can be taught to roll over all at once. If this is going to happen, you can just roll the dog over with one hand while leading them with a treat with the other hand. Many dogs will need to learn the trick in stages. The following instructions are for breaking the trick into steps that your dog can learn one at a time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Medium easy

Steps

Step 1: The first thing you need to do is make sure your dog is ready to learn to roll over. It will be ready to learn to roll over when it has mastered the "sit" and the "lay down" commands. These are standard commands but they are the starting point for teaching your dog to roll over.

Step 2: Play dead. The next step is teaching your dog to play dead or roll over on its side. Once the dog is lying down, you can get it to lay on its side by pushing the dog at the shoulders while luring it with a treat. As soon as the dog is lying on its side, give the treat and plenty of positive reinforcement. Try this trick several times until the dog seems to get it. Use whatever command you like for this trick. I tell my dogs "bang bang" and they drop to their sides, which is very cute.

Step 3: On the back. Once your dog is rolling onto its side, it isn't a very hard task to teach it to lie on its back. Get the dog to lie on its side and then use the same combination of treat lure and physical turning to get it onto its back. Again, you should reinforce the dog with a treat as soon as it is on its back and continue to practice the trick. It won't take to long until the dog will lie on its back without you having to give the side command first. My dogs know "bang bang", which gets them onto their sides and then "your dead", which flips them onto their backs. However, if I just want the dogs to flip over on their backs, I say, "drop dead". This might sound mean but they don't seem to mind.

Step 4: Roll over. Finally, all of your hard work is going to pay off. Once your dog has mastered lying on its back, you are ready to complete the trick. Say, "roll over" while your dog is on its back and move a treat to the side that you would like it to roll to. This step should be easy to learn, and it happens naturally for some dogs. To start out, you will need to get the dog onto its back first and then have it roll over by repeating the steps in order a few times ("bang bang", "you're dead", "roll over"). Your goal should be to have the dog be able to roll over with just the "roll over" command from any position (that is, standing, sitting, or lying down"). Remember to practice this trick often when your dog first learns it, which is the way to make sure that the trick stays learned.

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