Instructions
Find a soft surface, such as grass or soft carpet. Softer surfaces will make it easier for your puppy to roll over. Keep in mind that a puppy is still growing, and may be more prone to injuries than an adult dog. Using a soft surface will ensure that injuries and stress will be kept to a minimum and also ensure that your puppy will better enjoy rolling over and playing dead.
Tell your puppy to lie down on its side. This may be a difficult task in itself depending on the dog's temperament, but border collies are relatively easy to train. Learning to lie down should be the first thing a puppy learns, and even if you weren't training a puppy to do tricks you will most likely teach it to lie down on command. If the puppy knows how, tell it to roll over onto its back. However, most of the time it's a good idea to stick to just lying down on the side.
Kneel beside your border collie puppy and place one hand in its lower front leg and the other on its lower hind leg. Roll the puppy from its side onto its back if it didn't roll onto its back already. Try to encourage the puppy to roll over under its own power as much as it can; the idea is to teach the puppy to do the trick by itself without much assistance from you. Reward the dog with a treat once it successfully rolls over.
Place the puppy in the "dead dog" position. To get the puppy to roll over on its own hold a treat above its nose and make a sweeping motion to command it to roll over. As always, reward the dog with the treat and praise it when it rolls over without your help. Repeat these steps until the dog can roll over on its own on command, and don't forget to reward it with a treat.
How to Train Your Border Collie Puppy to Play Dead
The border collie is the most widespread of the collie breeds, and its status as a herding animal means that it requires an environment and activities that engage the higher brain functions. That being said, border collies make great pets and they are very easy to train provided you use the right techniques. A border collie puppy can learn a number of tricks, and one of the simpler ones to teach is playing dead.