Teaching your dog new tricks and skills can be a fantastic exercise and not only to strengthen your bond, but also to stimulate your furry on a mental level, because this type of training, if done well, is capable of improving the dog's attention span, encouraging the use of its cognitive planning and decision-making functions and increasing its motivation. All this, of course, will only be possible if the training is carried out following an animal-friendly methodology, using positive reinforcement and completely avoiding intimidating or punishing the dog if it does not do what we ask or does not understand an exercise.
One of the keys to starting to teach your dog a new movement is to divide it into small steps in the form of "mini goals" and reinforce their achievement until the final result is obtained. In this article on our site we tell you point by point how to teach a dog to play dead, a fun skill for both.
Ask your dog to lie down
The goal we want to achieve is for our dog to lie down on its side and stay still, so We will start from a basic lying down position.
If your dog already knows this command, ask him to lie down maintaining a static sphinx position, that is, facing forward, with his thorax and abdomen flat on the ground and with one front and one hind leg on each side of your body. In the event that your furry friend does not know how to lie down on command, we recommend you read the article "How to teach my dog to lie down" and put these guidelines into practice before continuing with the training.
Once your dog lies down, praise him and reinforce that behavior by giving him a small piece of food or, if you use the clicker, doing 'click' as soon as the dog's belly makes contact with the ground, and then offering the reinforcer.
Start a guide with food
The easiest way to teach your dog to play dead is through a training methodology called " luring", which consists of guiding the dog's movement using food as a lure.
Once you get your dog to lie down, Put a piece of food near his mouth and, without letting go,move your hand in a straight line towards the right or left flank (according to your preference) of the animal, keeping in mind that this will be the side that will face up when the dog play deadWhen performing this movement with the hand, the dog will be forced to turn its neck laterally to follow the lure with its nose. When he does this gesture, activate the clicker or verbally praise him and release the food.
Repeat this step several times so that the dog gets used to performing this neck turn and does it faster and with greater autonomy.
Increase the range of movement
For the next step, you should widen the movement of your hand and gradually bring the lure closer to your dog's spine. By increasing the curve, your furry will have to turn his neck even more in order to reach the food and, as a consequence, will drop his weight on his other side By doing this, his hips will also rotate and his two hind legs will be together and facing the same way, as they do when resting. The moment this happens, give him the food you are carrying.
At this point, the dog is already halfway between the initial and final lying position, as we are guiding him with the aim of ending up completely lying on his side, with his head on the ground.
He directs his head towards the ground
If you continue to move the lure towards the animal's back, eventually it will end up dropping its body completely onto its flank except for the head, which will keep it upright trying to reach the food. Once you achieve this position, begin to move your hand until it is on the ground, keeping it in front of the dog's nose at all times and trying not to get up. The moment the dog puts its head down on the ground, even for just a second, 'click' the clicker or say "okay!" and deliver the food.
Practice this movement as many times as necessary until the dog understands it and begins to perform it more quickly and accurately. Some dogs tend to lift their paws slightly upwards when they are in this position, especially the rear ones (as if they were asking for belly rubs). You can build on and reinforce this behavior by capturing it with the clicker or verbally if you'd like to include it as part of the trick.
Increase time before boost
Now that we have the dog in the final position, we must increase the time that the animal is able to remain in it without moving and, to achieve this, it is necessary delay a little more each time the delivery of the reinforcer.
As we mentioned in the previous step, the moment you get your dog to lay his head on the ground while lying on his side, you should praise him enthusiastically and give him the reinforcer immediately, before he raises his head, so that the dog understands that this specific movement is the one that makes him get the prize. Repeat this as many times as necessary and, when you see that the dog begins to put his head down on his own, wait a couple of seconds before giving him the food. Practice with this time and then increase it to five, seven, 10 seconds, etc., until you achieve your goal. Once he is able to hold still long enough, randomly alternates the criteria (sometimes you give him the treat right away, sometimes after 10 seconds, other times after two seconds, etc.).
If you see that the dog is not able to hold the time you ask for it is because your criteria is too high, he goes back a step and asks for less time. If your dog knows the "stay" command, you can take advantage of it in this exercise. If not, don't miss this other article: "How to teach a dog to stay on command?"
Refine the visual signal
When your furry is already able to follow the movement of your hand and wait for a while in the final position, it's time to remove the aids, that is, stop leading the animal with food.
Practice a few more times to make sure the dog is clear about the movement, then lead him in the same way but without any food in hand. If the dog still does the exercise, activate the clicker or praise him and give him the reinforcer, which this time you should take out of a fanny pack or pocket. If the dog ignores you by not bringing food, simply try reducing the size of the treat in your hand more and more until finally you can eliminate it completely or change it to a food of lesser value.
Once you no longer need to carry food in your hand, guides you more and more subtly or less amplitude until it stays in a simple signal and start doing it moving away from the dog a little.
Remember to reward any small progress and go back if you get stuck at any point.
Add a verbal command
The last step of any exercise is to assign a verbal command to the movement, so during these sessions to teach your dog to play dead you will also need to choose a command. When your dog accurately responds to your hand signal, start saying your chosen command clearly and loudly while asking the dog to perform the trick Activates the clicker and reinforces the dog each time it performs the movement correctly. Choose a simple, clear command that is not confused with other commands or words in everyday use.
Over time, you will be able to dispense with the signal and just use the command, if you wish. However, in these cases dogs tend to respond more accurately to visual cues than to auditory commands, so don't be in a hurry to remove the signal and practice much this step before dispensing with it so as not to confuse your furry.
To observe the exposed steps in a more precise way, don't miss this video:
Possible problems when teaching your dog to play dead
As can be the case with any other skill you are trying to teach your dog, sometimes problems arise that make it difficult to continue with the training. In this particular case, you may encounter one of the following situations:
- Dog is easily distracted If your dog is unable to focus his attention during training, he may become bored or get frustrated and lose motivation. Reducing the duration of the sessions (dedicating 10 minutes a day is enough), holding them in places with few distractions and including game time to make them more dynamic are good options to avoid this problem. On the other hand, if your dog is still a puppy, he may not be able to understand the exercise well and may prefer other activities
- The dog complains during the exercise or finds it difficult to perform it Note that this exercise requires the dog to perform a body rotation which can be complicated in the case of very large breeds or animals of advanced age or with mobility problems. If you notice that it takes a lot of effort for your furry to do this, it is better that you choose to teach him other simpler tricks, there are many!
- The dog is not able to stay still in the final position If the problem is that your dog moves too much, you can put practice simple self-control exercises or try to teach him the command "stay" before starting the training of this trick. If your dog is very young or of a very active breed, you can also choose to teach him other more dynamic skills or start practicing a dog sport with him.
- The dog seems startled or stands up suddenly Side lying or face up is a vulnerable position for a dog, because when They are very exposed and it would be difficult for them to get up to run away or defend themselves in case of danger. This is why it is necessary that the dog is comfortable and calm when we practice this exercise and that he has enough confidence in you and in the environment to adopt this position. If your furry friend suffers from any problem related to fear, such as phobias or insecurities, you should work on this beforehand with the help of a professional if you consider it necessary.
