[Regnierx12]

I have a nine year old Brittany whom we have taught many tricks too in the past year. One of them is the word "off" or "leave it." Its to the point where if I put food next to her, or in my hand, she will look away to resist the urge to eat it until I let her. This makes any type of lure impossible, because she does the opposite! It is not a big deal because it is just a cute trick, but is there any other ways to teach a dog to roll over without luring? If not, that's fine. I'm just trying new tricks to keep her stimulated. Thanks!

 

[Nev Allen]

Makes it harder without the lure but try getting her lying flat, grab the front leg thats on the ground and use this as a lever to flip her over. Slowly at first and getting quicker as she reduces the resistance to roll.

Big rewards as she flips over. This will also teach her the hand signal that you will be able to use when she knows the roll over properly. Big open loop with the hand.

Do not add a command until you can have her rolling over just on the hand signal.

 

[lil_fuzzy]

I wouldn't risk breaking that behaviour by using a lure, it's really great that she's showing good impulse control

You can shape the "roll over". It's what I did. It will be very tricky if your dog has never been shaped before though, so I probably wouldn't even bother if that's the case. But when I did it I first rewarded for lying down, then for turning his head to the site, then for really violent head turns, these eventually ended up being so strong that he rolled onto his side, keep rewarding for that for a while, and then eventually he accidentally rolled all the way just from the momentum of the head turn, jackpot. After 3-4 accidental roll overs he started offering it, so I then added the cue. He hates doing it though, so I never ask him for it.

 

[petpeeve]

I'd be a little concerned with "forcing" a nine year-old dog to rollover, either through physical manipulation or even by one's expectations. If she doesn't want to do it willingly, then perhaps teach her some other, more age-appropriate tricks. < That being said ...

Its to the point where if I put food next to her, or in my hand, she will look away to resist the urge to eat it until I let her.

I'm wondering what you mean by "until I let her". Are you referring to a verbal cue ? or body language ? or ?

If you've built a strong enough verbal release cue (such as "git it!"), use THAT in conjunction with the lure to help get the rollover started. If you haven't got a really solid release cue, then work on one, seperately and beforehand to bring things up to speed.

 

[troglodytezzz]

Why not teach her to nose target an object? Maybe a ping pong ball or something a similar size.

Click and treat for looking at the ball in your hand. Then for moving closer to it. Next, reward touching it with nose. After that reward for holding nose on ball for longer periods of time. When that is reliable, start moving the ball around and reward her for keeping her nose on it. At this point you have a reliable lure that isn't food. Now you can lure roll over.