For those that have dogs who play dead...

[Laurelin]

1. What does your dog think your 'play dead' command means?

Ex. Summer thinks it means to lay on her left side with her head down, but if you situate her where she can't get on her left side, she will just flatten herself up against whatever is in the way. So if you put her right next to a wall, she will just lean her head up against the wall. <--- laziest play dead ever.

2. Does your dog play dead both ways or do you need two different commands for each direction?

If you put Summer on her right side then give her the 'bang bang' command to play dead she will flip to lying down on her left side.

Purely curious about whether or not my dog is a weirdo.

 

[GoingNowhere]

Well you have to "shoot" Boo at least three times before she'll think about dying and even then it's only if she's already lying down so all she has to do is slowly flop over onto her side. :rofl1:

 

[Paige]

Bandit does a really convincing play dead because when he lays still he looks dead. Haha. My command is so not cool like BANG BANG. I taught him to expose his tummy for belly rubs by saying BELLY RUBS but instead he looks like a corpse.

 

[Lyzelle]

I tell Zander to play dead and he just lays there. I think he's just playing lazy, not really dead.

Indy learned how to play dead....randomly. I just pointed my finger at her one day, said, "BANG", and she fell over dead. Sometimes it takes a couple shots, but she would just go limp and fall over. It was hilarious, more so because she wasn't taught it!

 

[Shai]

None of my dogs do since I've never trained it but the family dog I "trained" when I was a kid thought that pointing your "gun" hand at him and yelling BANG meant to flop onto his back with all for paws in in the air and freeze there.

'Course he kept wagging his big fluffy retriever tail so it wasn't very convincing at all lol

 

[Laurelin]

Summer is very convincing.

DSC_0203 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

lol She tries.

 

[sassafras]

Well ours is actually "are you tired?" instead of play dead, but...

1. To Squash it apparently means fling yourself as dramatically as possibly onto your left side.

2. I've never really tried to get him to do it to his right side, or really asked him to do it from anything but standing, so I don't know.

 

[Shai]

Summer is very convincing.

DSC_0203 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

lol She tries.

Cutest dead dog I've ever seen lol

 

[Toller_08]

To Dance it means roll over onto your back and lay still.

Old pic, but here is Dance's version:

I started off with just the side, but I like this better. Not that she looks dead, but she sure is cute.

 

[JacksonsMom]

^ Jackson does like Dance does lol.

I tell him "bang bang" and he does that, except maybe more on his side, and if I either say "more dead" or "bang bang" a second time with the gun motion then he REALLY goes all out, legs up in the air and all.

 

[PlottMom]

Liz knows, "would you rather be a dead dog, or a lab?!?"

((no offense lab people! Everyone mistakes her for one so we learned it for our obedience "graduation"...))

To her, it means lying down first, and then falling onto one side (I think she'll do either...) with her neck cranked back, waiting for a treat. Sometimes she will flail a leg.

She only REALLY looks dead while she's in the yard sunbathing.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

Nia always plays dead on the right side, and rolls towards the right side too.

this is what happens when I say all the way dead.

 

[Fleera]

Jester does this when we say, "Bang," with our finger 'gun' pointed at him. He seems to do it in either direction as long as it doesn't have an obstacle. The longer you point, the longer he'll stay in position.

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[vandog]

1. What does your dog think your 'play dead' command means?

Her "default" play dead is to lay down on her left side completely flat. It is by either a verbal or hand signal.

2. Does your dog play dead both ways or do you need two different commands for each direction?

For on set work we teach them to work on different sides, so she will lay or the left by default but if I say "on your side" she knows to go for the right. Usually I pair these with commands for pawing with the front legs and a head down command, otherwise she cranes her neck.

 

[Taqroy]

1. What does your dog think your 'play dead' command means?

Our cue is BANG BANG and for Mu it means to fling yourself down on your right side and hold very still. Then if I say BANG again (sometimes I use "MOAR DEDZ") she rolls over on her back with her paws up. She's at the point where I can poke her in the belly, nudge her with my feet, play with her paws, stick my fingers in her ears, and she won't move. It's really funny.

2. Does your dog play dead both ways or do you need two different commands for each direction?

One way only. She's a lot like Zoolander.

 

[ACooper]

Orson either lays completely on one side like Summer, or he twists a bit with his front paws up like Dance. I don't get to pick..........he does LOL Never could get him to close his eyes either.

Also, I wish I'd make a cute command for it, but no, the command here is just a plain "be dead" then he eyeballs me until the reward is given.

 

[*blackrose]

Chloe knows it as "settle". She'll flop over onto one of her sides and lay her head flush with the floor while not moving. She typically won't even wag her tail or look at me, but that all depends on how excited she is feeling at the moment. Typically when I'm showing off the trick to someone she's HAPPY about it, so the tail never stops moving while she's waiting for me to release her...and last I checked, dead dogs don't wag their tail. LOL

ETA: I suppose her default side to lay on is her right side, but she'll use which ever side is available.

 

[Panzerotti]

This is my old man Solo. My husband made this gif of him a few years ago and Solo became a D-list interwebz celeb.

http://www.profilebrand.com/funny-pictures/category/dogs/326_bang-play-dead.gif

He pretty much does it the same way every time, but will put his head down and stop moving if you shoot him a second time. If he's all amped up outside, he'll actually throw himself into the air first which is quite hilarious.

 

[Jules]

T-Bone will flop on one side (after a Bang Bang), usually her right one. She stays still, but her tail. Apparently that will always wag. Sigh.

 

[Dizzy]

Bodhi lays on her side, but kind of sticks her legs up lol.

We shoot and bang!