It’s canine trick training time! I’ll cover how to instruct a canine to play dead.

“Knall!” or play dead is my canine Wally West’s second official trick, to be exact.

So far, we’ve dealt with basic obedience commands like “sit,” “down,” and “stay,” and he’s learned the “shake” trick. I’ve written about it here on ThatMutt before, so feel totally free to check it out if you missed it:

How to instruct your canine to shake

How to instruct a canine to play dead

The “bang!” or play dead trick essentially teaches your canine to fall onto his side and stay in that position, ideally in a somewhat dramatic way!

It’s a cute party trick, and because Wally didn’t know it yet, I gladly accepted the challenge of tackling it when Lindsay suggested I write about it.

It’s also a terrific way of keeping him engaged and entertained inside, especially now that the canine days of summer are upon us here in North Carolina.

Keeping training sessions short and fun!

I never spent much more than 5-10 minutes at a time on the “bang!” trick when teaching it, but had several training sessions throughout the day instead.

That way, Wally worked his brain muscles just enough to burn some mental energy and not get bored by too much repetition. I made sure to always end a training session on a positive note, even if it only implied to reward a “sit” or a “down.”

How to instruct a canine “Bang!”

Option 1: Train your canine to play dead through “shaping.” This implies breaking the trick down into five different steps and teaching the steps one by one, then creating a flowing movement carried out on command.

Option 2: Train your canine bang through “capturing.” This simply implies naming a behavior your canine already does. 

More on both of these training concepts below. 

How to instruct your canine “bang!” using “shaping”

Like I discussed above, I broke the “bang!/play dead” trick down into 5 individual steps:

sitzen

Nieder

moving his head to the side

lying on his side

adding the gun hand signal & voice command combination

Knowing the “down” and “roll over” commands is valuable and will make teaching the trick easier, but it’s not a prerequisite. Wally already knew the “sit” and the “down” command, so that was a good start in the best direction for us.

If your canine needs a refresher on any of these, check out these training posts:

Teach your canine to sit until you say ok

Training a solid down-stay

How I taught my canine the rollover trick

So I started by asking Wally to “sit,” then I told him “down” from there. He then learned to relocation his head to his side, followed by lying down on his side. After each step, I rewarded him with a training treat.

Once he was on his side, I used a clicker (from the app below) and rewarded him with a treat.

I also added the voice command “bang!” along with the gun hand signal, i.e. my thumb held up and my index finger pointed at Wally.

Here is Wally doing the bang trick on Instagram:

Wally is very food motivated, so training treats were a valuable tool in teaching the “bang!” Trick. I like to use tiny treats because Wally can very rapidly eat them without the training flow being interrupted.

Training treats I really like are the Grizzly Wild Salmon treats. I discovered them at one of my favorite local pet food retailers, but I can also find them on Amazon.

*If your canine isn’t food motivated, you could try luring him into the different positions with a favorite toy.

How to train your canine to play dead using “capturing”

Capturing a behavior in canine training implies just that – when your canine performs a certain behavior on his own, you reward him for doing it and give it a name.

Your canine will eventually start to make the connection between the name and the reward, and will carry out it on command. This is by far the easiest way of teaching any commands or tricks!

In Wally’s case, catching him lying down on his side wasn’t too hard because he loves lounging on his side, both outside in the sun as well as inside, typically after our walks.

I used this in my favor by adding the gun hand signal and saying “bang!” at the same time, along with gratifying him with a (training) treat.

Teaching your canine to play dead using a clicker

Besides using high value training treats for gratifying my pup Wally, I also used a new tool when teaching him to play dead. It’s a virtual clicker that’s integrated into the cAnine Training App Pupper. Ich muss sagen, dass ich den Effekt mochte, den der Klicker-Sound auf unseren Trainingssitzungen so sehr hatte, dass ich endlich einen Clicker selbst bekommen werde! Sie können einen echten Clicker aus diesem Mutt-Partner-Mighty-Pfoten kaufen, wenn Sie möchten.

Ich freue mich auch über die virtuelle Schulungserfahrung über die Pupper-App, weil sie anpassbar ist, dass sie in der Lage ist, den Namen meines Hundes in der Lage zu sein.

Es hat eine lustige Möglichkeit, Ihren Trainingsfortschritt mit verschiedenen Abzeichen verfolgen zu können, die Sie erhalten, wenn eine Kategorie von Tricks gemeistert wurde.

Die verschiedenen Kategorien sind Grundlagen, dumm, dumm 2.0. Charmant, Zirkus, Zirkus 2.0, Performer, Nützlich und Beweglichkeit. Einige sind völlig kostenlos, während der Zugang zu anderen bezahlt werden muss.

Die Vorteile, Ihre Hunde-Tricks zu unterrichten – Hunde-Trick-Training

Der Trick “Bang!” Oder tot spielen ist sicherlich ein Spaß, den Menschen und Kinder dazu neigen, einen Kick auszuräumen, wann immer sie einen Hunde sehen, der es ausführt. Aber das Trick-Training im Allgemeinen ist so viel mehr als nur ein Publikum. Es hilft Ihnen beim Folgen:

Bindung mit Ihrem Hund

Halten Sie Ihren Hunde geistig engagiert

Verhinderung von langweiligen Problemverhaltensweisen

Andere Tricks, um einen Hund anzuweisen

Wie man Ihren Hunde anweist, um zu singen

Lehre deinen Hunde, sich zu drehen oder zu fördern

Wie man den Hund anweist, um einen Bogen zu nehmen

Kennt Ihr Hund den “Knall!” Befehl oder wie man “tot abspielen”?

Teilen Sie uns in den Kommentaren mit!

Barbara-Flüsse schreibt häufig für diesen Mutt. Sie ist Blogger, Roher Feeder und Canine Walker und pflegt den Blog K9s über Kaffee.