Playing dead is a relatively easy trick to teach your dog. In fact, dogs of all ages and sizes can learn this trick. To “play dead”, a dog will learn to go into a down position, then collapse on its side with its head lowered to the ground after receiving a signal. This gives the illusion that she has collapsed. Follow these steps to teach your dog to play dead on cue:
Equipment needed to teach your dog to play dead:
- Quiet place to train
- Small pieces of great value treats
- Clicker if you practice clicker
How to teach your dog to play dead:
Step 1: Invite your dog to lie down or use a treat to lure your dog into a lying position.
2nd step: Attract your dog’s attention with a treat and place it right in front of your dog’s face so you can use it as a decoy. Slowly use the treat to pull your dog’s head over his shoulder. As your dog follows the treat, he will naturally begin to rock on his hip and rotate his body.
Step 3: Your dog will follow the treat to the side, at which point you’ll want to stop spinning your hand (to keep your dog from rolling over). Then use the treat to lure your dog’s head down.
Step 4: When your dog’s head follows the treat to the ground, click, praise and treat your dog. Treat your dog while his head is on the ground as this is the final position for this trick.
Step 5: Repeat the pull of your dog from the low, sideways, head down position several times. When your dog consistently follows the decoy into position, you can begin to introduce a verbal cue of your choice such as “dead”, “splat”, “bang bang” or “zombie”. Start by using the verbal cue while you are luring and just before your dog’s head hits the ground. Then click, praise and treat.
Step 6: Eventually, begin to fade the physical lure. To do this, lure the empty hand into position, then treat your dog. After that you can slowly make the physical lure smaller and smaller as your dog improves, and give your dog the click/praise/treat at the end of the behavior with your dog lying on the side with the head on the floor. With practice, you will be able to use your verbal cue to tell your dog to play dead while lying down, and eventually while standing up.
Step 7: The final step to honing the dead set trick is to build a span with your dog lying motionless with his head down. To do this, very slowly add time – a few seconds at a time – before releasing your dog to click/praise/treat.
Once your dog is confidently playing at the right time in your home, you can start practicing this trick in more distracting environments. Slowly increase the distraction level for your dog to succeed and be sure to treat your dog every time he walks around. With a little practice, your dog will soon be ready to play dead anywhere and anytime!