I try to always be learning/teaching new stuff with Aevyn, I like the time we get together and its a lot of fun. However, all tricks and commands have not been as difficult as roll over for us, and I'm hoping maybe some of you guys have some tips on how to managed it.

We're definitely using lure training, however whenever Aevyn is laying down, if the treat goes around him (or anywhere thats not his nose. >_>) he just gets straight up and starts pawing at me. So roll over (or even the lesser play dead) is simply not happening, it turns into sessions of me just asking him to lay down because he keeps standing up.

Help?

Hope this helps...it takes time and Aevyn has to be relaxed because rolling over is a sign of submission.

With Anna she didn't understand the concept of rolling over either. Every time my boyfriend made the treat go around her she jumped up and pawed at me as well. So the way I taught her was rolling her over myself with one hand while keeping the treat next to her nose in the other. This is also how I taught her play dead. Made her lay on her back with her paws up and then gave her a treat. Play dead was still easier to train than roll over but this worked for us with every trick she knows and I hope this helps.

Also we tried not to introduce new tricks to fast all the while being very patient. In the beginning I taught them in a pattern sit, shake, high five, beg, lay down, roll over, play dead and of course she got a treat after each trick. So once she learned the pattern it was easier for her to do them in a different pattern. I will say that there were times when Anna was very stubborn and just like I would do with a child I walked away and waited until she was relaxed and focused enough to teach her something. No need to frustrate yourself because if Aevyn is anything like Anna he will listen even less.

Our boy was a challenge with roll over. What ended up working best with ours was just playing with him and whenever he happened to roll over on his own to mark the behavior immediately and praise and treat lavishly. None of the traditional training techniques really worked in his case. But catching and immediately marking and rewarding the behavior when he did it on his own was how I did it with mine. It took a few weeks before he had a solid roll over (mainly because he had to learn the verbal cue and hand signal I was trying to associate with the trick) but once I started marking and rewarding the behavior he picked up on it in a few days. It was the same way with teaching him to speak since he never made a sound. I couldn't coax him to make a sound so I ended up having to mark and reward whenever he made any noise. A clicker helps mark the new behavior so they learn faster when it's something they do out of the blue but it's certainly not necessary.

I'll try both ways, and see how it goes. As it is Aevyn already seems to think that I'm just going to sit on the floor and that means treats, we can't get much worse. lol

I have been working on just rewarding the heck out of him whenever he flops over, and calling that play dead, but things are going slow. He just wants the play, the poor dog.

What sort of hand signals do you guys use for both play dead and roll over? I'm worried that he might get the obvious ones mixed up with the signal we have for spin.

My sibe is way too crazy to get "play dead". But for roll over the signal I use is I point to the ground and spin my arm in a circle the way I want him to roll.

Maybe add some hand signals. My boys now have Sabaka playing dead when they use the imaginary gun motion with their hand. Of course all the boys' friends think it's great! I was using a "palm down changing to palm up" motion to mean play dead, but they insisted that the shooting motion and the command "die" is more apropos. Boys...

However, Sabaka cannot seem to understand roll over either.

LOL !
I have the same problem with Rylai
I am definitely having a hard time teaching her "roll over"