Trick and Treat Tuesday: the silly sausage roll

This week is another bit of fun in the same line as last week's dramatic Western shoot-out Hollywood style! It is the silly sausage roll. The "silly sausage" being Mawson...

Oy! I've read that!! How rude, those minions have got no manners...

You can start teaching the roll in the same way as for the "dead dog" trick. The main thing is to continue getting the pup to roll the entire way round instead of stopping at the moment when he rolls on his shoulder. This trick is a bit easier for small dogs or more flexible larger dogs such as border collies. But any dog can do it with more or less ease and/or grace...

Oy! Again... I'm very graceful, like a beautiful butterfly, or a graceful dolphin but out of the water...

One (or several!) words of caution though, when teaching this trick, make sure you go slowly and do a bit of a warm up first. Also, do not repeat it over and over. The roll can put quite a bit of strain on the pup's back and requires a good set of "core" muscle strength, so you do not want to risk any injuries mostly on the "less flexible" dogs.

So, all this considered, as previously with the shoot-out start in the down position with a lure in your hand, roll pup on his shoulder by performing a circular movement down and slowly back round the original place of his shoulder. Then continue to lure to get pup to roll on his back and just a bit longer to get him on the other side. If the pup doesn't follow the lure all the way, just take it slowly and only just do as far as he goes. The next time try a bit further and so on until you complete the roll. Remember, patience and use as many treats/rewards as possible.
And tadaaa, that's the start of the roll. Mawson demonstrate the lured roll in this video.

Very nice demonstration if I may say so, and the treat wasn't that good either. I really work for not much, poor little me...

Then when the monster reliably rolls nicely while following the lure, start phasing out the treats and putting distance between your hand and the pup's nose. Make sure you advance with small steps, if pup gets a bit lost along the way, take a few steps back. It is a bit of a half lure stage.

Then it is more or less straight ahead to getting a rolling pup. Continue phasing the treats out and adding cue signals. And when the movement is getting smooth start adding your cue word.

That was a nice roll hey! I did it all alone :)

Now keep on rollin' :)

Bet he would do a good roll! (from the t'internet!)