Teach Your Doodle Advanced Tricks: Roll Over, High Five and More

Doodles are among the fastest trick learners of any breed — thanks to Poodle intelligence combined with a Retriever’s eagerness to engage. This guide walks through the prerequisites, the best tricks to target, how shaping works, and why indoor trick training is especially valuable during India’s brutal summer months.

This guide was written by Sankalp Brahma and Tanya Goyal, founders of PoodleDoodle Puppies, India’s first fully transparent Doodle breeding programme built on OFA-certified health testing.

Why Do Doodles Learn Tricks Faster Than Most Breeds?

The Poodle ranks second in Stanley Coren’s intelligence rankings — behind only the Border Collie. That raw cognitive power carries through to all Doodle crosses. A Goldendoodle or Labradoodle doesn’t just follow a lure mechanically; it actively reasons about what behaviour earned the reward and then tests variations. This is why shaping (rewarding approximations toward a target behaviour) works so well with Doodles — they notice, they experiment, and they generalise quickly.

The retriever side of the equation adds motivation. Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers were selectively bred to work in close cooperation with humans, reading human intent and responding to it. Your Doodle genuinely wants to engage with you, which makes trick training feel less like obedience work and more like a game you are both playing.

What Prerequisites Should Your Doodle Have Before Advanced Tricks?

Attempting advanced tricks before foundational commands are reliable leads to frustration on both sides. Before you start any of the tricks below, your dog should have a solid, consistent:

• Sit — from a standing position, on a single verbal cue, without repeated asking
• Down — fully flat on the floor, not a partial drop
• Stay — holding position for at least 10 seconds with mild distractions
• Eye contact on cue — your dog can hold your gaze for 3–5 seconds

If any of these feel shaky, spend two weeks sharpening them before moving to advanced tricks. A wobbly foundation makes every trick built on top of it fragile. See our guide to teaching basic commands for the complete method.

Why Is Trick Training Especially Valuable in India’s Climate?

A 10-minute trick training session produces the same mental fatigue in a Doodle as a 30-minute physical walk. This is not an exaggeration — problem-solving, inhibiting wrong responses, and holding focus genuinely exhaust a dog’s brain. In Indian cities between April and June, when the temperature on pavements can damage paw pads by 9 AM, and when your Doodle’s outdoor exercise must be compressed into short early-morning and late-evening windows, indoor trick training fills the enrichment gap. A Doodle that has had a 15-minute trick session in the afternoon will be calmer and less likely to engage in destructive behaviour by evening.

This is also why positive reinforcement training is the right method — it keeps the dog thinking and engaged, rather than simply suppressing behaviour.

How Does the Shaping Method Work?

Shaping means marking and rewarding steps that lead toward the final behaviour, rather than waiting for the complete behaviour to appear spontaneously. For a new trick:

1. Break the final behaviour into 4–6 steps from simplest to complete.
2. Reward the first step until it is offered reliably (5–8 times in a row).
3. Raise the criteria — now only reward step 2 or better.
4. Continue until the complete trick is offered consistently.
5. Add the verbal cue only once the behaviour is fully formed.

Do not add the cue word early. If you say “Roll Over” while the dog is still only rolling onto their side, you are naming an incomplete behaviour — and the dog learns that “Roll Over” means “lie on your side,” not a full roll.

Tricks to Teach: Step-by-Step Instructions

High Five

From Sit: hold a treat in your closed fist at the dog’s nose height. When the dog paws at your fist (instinctive), open your hand and reward. Repeat 10 times. Then switch to an open palm — when the dog raises a paw to touch it, mark and treat. Gradually raise your hand higher, requiring a more deliberate raised paw. Add the cue “High Five” once the raised paw is consistent. Typical time: 1–3 sessions.

Roll Over

From Down: hold a treat at the dog’s nose and slowly arc it over their shoulder toward their spine, following the natural direction of a roll. Most dogs follow the lure onto their side. Reward this first. Over subsequent sessions, continue the arc to encourage a full roll. The moment they complete the full roll, say “Roll Over” and reward generously. This requires more patience than simpler behaviours — 3–10 sessions is normal. Never push the dog physically; luring only.

Spin and Twist

Hold a treat at the dog’s nose and lure in a slow circle (Spin = clockwise; Twist = anti-clockwise). As the dog completes the circle, mark and reward. Over sessions, shrink the lure motion until a small circular finger gesture cues the behaviour without a treat in hand. These are crowd-pleasers that most Doodles learn in 2–4 sessions.

Play Dead

From Down: lure the dog onto their side (same initial arc as Roll Over, but stop when they are fully on their side). Once they hold the side position, add the cue — “Bang” with a finger-gun gesture is the classic choice. The challenge here is duration: teach the dog to hold the position until released with “OK” or “Up.” Build duration in 2-second increments.

Fetch and Object Names

Doodles with retriever heritage often fetch naturally. To formalise it: reward any interest in an object (sniffing, mouthing), then reward picking it up, then reward bringing it to you. Once fetch is reliable with one object, introduce a second. Say each object’s name clearly as you throw it — over many repetitions, dogs begin to associate the spoken word with the specific object. Some dogs learn to identify 20–30 named objects.

Tricks Difficulty Guide

How Do You Get the Whole Family Using the Same Cues?

Inconsistent cues are the single biggest obstacle to trick reliability in multi-person households. If one family member says “Roll” and another says “Roll Over” and a third uses a hand signal only, the dog learns that this behaviour is optional — it works sometimes with some people and not others.

Write down every trick your dog knows, the exact verbal cue, and the exact hand signal, and put it on the fridge or in a family group chat. Have each family member practise the trick individually with the dog three times so the dog generalises the cue across different people and voices. Children particularly benefit from this exercise — it builds confidence in both the child and the dog.

Good socialisation during the puppy stage makes multi-person trick training much smoother. See our socialisation guide for Indian Doodle puppies for the full framework.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: At what age can I start trick training my Doodle?
A: From 8 weeks. Keep sessions very short — 2–3 minutes maximum at that age. Simple tricks like Shake, High Five, and Spin are excellent for puppies. Tricks with more physical complexity, such as Roll Over and Play Dead, are better introduced at 4–6 months when body coordination is more developed.

Q: My Doodle is 7 years old — is it too late to teach new tricks?
A: No. Senior dogs benefit greatly from continued trick training for cognitive health and emotional engagement. Avoid physically demanding tricks if joint health is a concern, but stationary and low-impact tricks remain excellent enrichment throughout a dog’s life.

Q: How long should each trick training session be?
A: 5–10 minutes per session, twice daily, is far more effective than a single 30-minute session. Short sessions keep motivation high, end on a success, and prevent the dog from going into “shut down” mode when overwhelmed. Always end each session with a trick the dog knows well so the session ends on a win.

Q: My Doodle seems to get bored once a trick is mastered. What do I do?
A: Chain tricks into sequences (Sit → High Five → Spin → Down → Roll Over — one treat at the very end). Introduce shaping games where the dog has to figure out what you want. Teach object names. The goal is to keep the dog in an active problem-solving state, not just performing a memorised behaviour.

Q: Is trick training useful for a rescue or adopted Doodle?
A: Particularly useful. Trick training builds confidence, establishes positive communication patterns, and creates a shared language between the dog and new owner remarkably quickly. Many adopted dogs that appear shut down or anxious open up substantially during positive trick training sessions.