Rolling Over

[Anna and Achilles]

Has anyone out there been successful in teaching their doodle to roll over? Achilles can give me the paw, then switch to the other paw when asked to. He can high five, speak on command and show me down. I thought it would be fairly easy to go from the down position to the roll over. He just gets up very quickly and wants no part of it.  When Houdini was a puppy he caught on so quickly. Achilles is not buying into it. If anyone has any special trick to teaching it I would love to know. Thanks!

[Kelli, Fenway, & Dustin Pedroia]

Neither of my dogs want any part of rolling over either. Fenway especially hates it. Hopefully someone will know better than me :)

[Karen P]

Sorry, I am no help either but I am going to see what you can find out. Chewie hates it. He can do all of the tricks you have listed above too. But when I try to have him roll over he kind of freaks out. Which is wierd because he really is not afraid of anything ????

[Adina P]

It took Rosco a long time too. When I finally used the clicker to help in teaching we got it! Is Achilles at all clicker savvy?

[Sue & Willy Babe]

Wilson does not like rolling over either But at playtime he will roll on his back to get mauled by his buddies females of course, sometimes I think I have a Marmaduke on my hands with the ladies following him LOL LOL

[sandy b]

Max will roll over but doesn't like it however he loves "bang"/play dead and we love it!! He's so cute laying on his side and occassionally his tail will wag.

[Anna and Achilles]

Thanks everyone, I think I need to get a clicker and start with that and a great treat, maybe the every day ones are not as appealing. I love to hear the responses, then I know it's not just me.

[Jaime]

It's funny that everyone's dog hates to roll over. Penny does too. I used to think it would be better on carpet. One thing to make sure is that you start the roll over with your dogs hips rotated to the side. It's the first step to a roll over. Once they will do this, then you can lure with a treat low to the ground and they might roll over. Good luck and if you get it to work, let us know what you did. I'll check some of my books and see what they suggest.

[Anna and Achilles]

I have tried to help with the rotation of the hips, that is when he decides he has had enough and gives me a look like your kidding right? Such a funny doodle. Thanks I will keep working on it, and let you know.

[Ron Carnes]

It took quite some time to teach Zack. He also doesn't like it. In the standing position he will cock his head up and to the side, make almost a 360 turn and finally get down and roll over. It is like he tries before he hits the floor.

[Anna and Achilles]

That is too funny! maybe it's the floor! thanks for responding. Does Zack give you the look?

[Adina P]

Ok so I'll try to explain how I taught it. I used the clicker to mark the consecutive parts, but you could do it without the clicker and just say "good" or "yes" or whatever your dog knows. Rosco didn't even roll on his back for belly rubs as a pup...probably not until after the age of 2 did he even do that...so i gave up on it for a long time. It was over a year ago I taught it and a great deal of it was taught DURING his therapy visits so the kids could see him learn a trick over several visits.

Essentially I started with him in a down. Then brought the treat close to his nose and rewarded him for being willing to follow it a couple inches to his side. (hope I'm describing it correctly..I should film it!). I repeated that a few times and clicked/treated for good results.

My initial goal was to get him to turn his head into himself enough that he'd HAVE to roll to his side to follow the treat. And then again to turn his head toward his belly..inwardly rather up and over. An easy mistake to make is to try to get some dogs to follow it all the way around. Rosco would just bounce up onto his legs or sit up if I moved too fast or tried to work a whole roll over initially. He had to go through those steps one by one. When I saw him getting more consistent at following the treat I would make him follow it further and further (farther and farther?) until he'd be flipped over his new side and then he'd gladly get up .