Roll Help
 

I want to teach my York how to roll. He sits, and lays down well. He rolls sometimes, anyone have a tutorial? Sorry i'm a beginner at training dogs =D

I'm still teaching Thor to roll. It's taking forever. Dogs can feel vulnerable when they are rolling on their back, and if they are hopeless neurotics like Thor, it can be pretty difficult.

Assuming your dog is an "easy roller", you are supposed to:

- Put your dog in a Down.
- Lure his nose over his shoulder with a treat. He *should* roll on his side. Praise and reward.
- Once he's going on his side, lure his nose further back with a treat until he is rolls on his back (he should naturally complete the roll).


Now, here is what I did.
- Tried the above method 1,000,000 times.
- Praised and treated him when he rolled over on his own while he was playing. He would roll on his back, and I would push on his front leg a bit to complete his roll. Pretty soon he started doing it on his own. Unfortunately, this did not lead to him doing it on command.
- I rolled him on his back for about ten minutes at a time, praising and treating him constantly. He did not like this, but I would reward him for relaxing. I would also roll him from side to side and treat him on each side.

- This I think was the most effective. I broke the trick up into three parts: Down, then rolling on his side, and then rolling over. Classic training says to teach a trick sequence backwards so it gets easier for the dog as he progresses through the steps.

I would pick him up and put him on his side. Then I would give the command and gently roll him over. Pretty soon he would roll over on his own if I gave his shoulder a gentle push. He finally FINALLY rolled over on command all on his own last night. I'm thrilled!!!! He still doesn't have it down reliably, but the fact he's done it even a few times on command is heee-youge.

Anyway, I hope it's easier for you two than it has been for us. :)

YEEEE-HA! Thor is rolling over on his own! I still have to put him in a Down first, but he definitely gets it, and rolls all the way over without me touching him at all.

I don't mean to hijack your thread, I'm just so pumped! It was really neat to watch it click for Thor after weeks of not getting it.

congrats, my pups been a bad boy lol, jk. I'll try to train him tmr. He chews on soft stuff. How old is your york btw!

To learn to roll ....
you first have to teach them Down

Once they are very good at that you can try to lure them on their side by holding the treat in you hand and move it slowly behind them
This wont work if they arent good at the down part and will stay in that position until you say its ok

Thor is 2 1/2 years old. I just got him a few months ago. His former owner didn't do any obedience training with him at all, not even Sit, so I think Thor's a little slower on the uptake than most. I've posted before that I'm pretty sure he doesn't understand different verbal commands, though he does recognize hand signals. Though now that I think about it, he recognizes his name... which is a great sign! So maybe he'll eventually get the verbal commands. I THINK he knows the word "Sit".

Nice, my pup is about 10weeks old.

Question
 

Okay, Thor will now roll over on his own reliably. I need some help on how to clarify the command, though.

To get Thor to Roll Over, I show him some treats, then I do a play bow in front of him. If that doesn't work, I say "Roll", which he seems to think means "Down". Once he's down, he'll usually roll over unprompted after a few seconds. He definitely knows it's the roll that gets him the treat.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get this trick going smoother? Obviously I'd like to be able to command him to roll when I myself am not crawling on the rug alongside him. Also, he won't go from a standing position to a roll. He seems to think it's two parts, Down, then maybe Roll.

hey i need the same exact help, my pup rolls now, hes soo good at it!, We made him roll across the room the other day. =D

I had a similar problem when teaching Teddi the "play dead" trick (partial "roll over")-- I was teaching him to lay down first, treat, then roll over by nudging him on his side and treat again. Eventually Teddi would only lay down and not roll over until a few minutes later of us staring at each other. :rolleyes:

So I had to re-teach the trick. This time I used the treat to lure him to "down" position (no treat yet!) then lured him to roll over on his back (with a circular motion of my hand towards his belly). When he was on the correct position, I'd say "Bang!" (my "play dead" command) and treat. Did that 1000x and now he can play dead!

Roll over is similar-- use the treat to lure him to roll over (on his own, without touching him) and once he completes the roll, say "Roll over" and treat. Repeat 1000x!