By Suzanne Alicie
Dogs love their masters, they love to please them and be rewarded with praise and treats. Pet owners love to see their dogs perform tricks and enjoy the interaction of training and working with them to teach them the tricks. One of the oldest tricks to teach a dog is to roll over. Dog training in and of itself can be challenging unless you understand how to relate to your dog. Teaching a dog a trick is similar to starting a child in kindergarten – you have to start with the basics and work your way up.
Teaching your dog to roll over is fairly simple once your dog has the basic obedience commands down. If your dog knows sit, stay and lie down, it will be easy to build on these commands and teach rolling over and even other tricks.
In order to teach your dog to roll over, you will need to start with having him lie down. Once he is lying down you can begin to use the words “roll over” followed by a belly rub and praise to get him to roll onto his back. This may take several sessions. But before you know it you will be able to say “lie down” and “roll over” and before the words are out your dog will be on his back waiting for his belly rub.
One you teach your dog to roll onto his back, you can place a treat beside his head and say roll over at the same time to teach him that rolling all the way over will get him a treat and praise instead of just a belly rub. It may take a while to teach your dog to roll all the way over without stopping in the middle, but with time and patience your dog will become an excellent roller.
Patience is the key when teaching your dog any trick. Repetition of the key phrases, treats and praise make it easy for your dog to understand what you want from him. Once your dog learns about rolling over you can leave out the treats as long as you remember to praise your dog when he performs the trick for you. Since dogs are often ambitious when it comes to pleasing their owners, training and teaching tricks is a time consuming, but relatively easy task.
Dogs are very intelligent creatures, and you may see that after a while your dog will go through a series of tricks as soon as you hold up a treat. He may show off his whole repertoire without you saying a word. This is always a fun time for families, when the training and effort they have put into teaching the dog tricks is rewarded effortlessly and enthusiastically.
There are many tricks that dogs can learn, from dancing and rolling over to fetching the paper or even opening doors. Once your dog knows the basic commands, you can explore all the fun tricks and talents he will be able to perform.
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