How to train your puppy or dog to play dead on command.  Its a great dog training trick and you can have lots of fun doing it!

As with all trick training, please make sure you are familiar with good means good training before attempting to teach any tricks or behaviours to your puppy. Also vital for this is your dog has learnt the down command.

• Get down onto your dogs level, sit on the floor.
• As your dog to lie down
• Hold a treat between your fingers and very slowly (allowing your puppy to lick at the treat) guide your pup’s nose round to their shoulder.
• Use ‘good’ and reward.
• Repeat this a few times, only rewarding when your dog has its nose on the treat, almost looking behind him/her.
• Now continue to move the treat across, encouraging your dog to reach for the treat.
• This will cause your dog to lay on their side.
• ‘Good’ and reward.
• Then take the treat back to a frontal position so your dogs head is also touching the ground.
• Now they should be lay completely flat on their side, as shown in this picture. Reward with a treat and ‘good’.
• Repeat this for about five minutes a few times a day, without adding a command.
• After your pup is happily lying in the play dead position when lured with a treat you can add the ‘dead’ command.
• The sequence is ‘dead’, ‘good’, reward.
• This will need to be repeated every day, a few times for about a week until your dog is ready to lose the lure.
• Now ask your dog to ‘down’.
• Hold the treat to one side of their paws and wait.
• Here patience is a virtue, your pup will need time to think and if they don’t work it out after about ten seconds you need to go back to the earlier steps as your puppy has not grasped the concept yet.
• When your pup does begin to move into the ‘play dead’ position use ‘good’ as a reinforcer, until they make it all the way over onto their side.
• Use the ‘dead’ ‘good’ reward sequence once again.
• Repetition of this command will allow you to eventually point to the ground, firstly at a crouching position, slowly moving up into a standing.
• Just remember to take things slowly, this won’t come overnight.

To sustain the ‘play dead’.

When your puppy is in the ‘dead’ position and is reacting to the command 90% of the time you can pause before rewarding.  Extend this over a period suitable for your dog to lengthen the behaviour.

Training your dog or puppy to complete other commands is hugely beneficial to your dog and to you see these dog training articles to help you out.