I taught Riley a new trick!

Way to go Riley! Russell's version of "dead" is lying limp on his side, looking for his treat out of the corner of his eye. []
 
We taught Russell to "speak" in amongst doing other tricks... I'd just look at him expectly and say "speak! woof!" Searching for what I was asking he would at some point try vocalizing. At first he would get rewarded for any vocalization, then we'd whittle it to anything resembling a bark, then barks only. It's a lot easier if you have a dog prone to making noise anyway (as it's easier to teach a paw-oriented dog to shake). Another way to do it would be to just capture it when he barks on his own.
 
Sitting on up hind legs is one we have yet to accomplish, but I can tell you how my dog trick book recommends doing it. Have your dog sit and then hold the treat in front of his nose... bring it up just a little, not so high that he stands up and not away from him so that he jumps towards it. They recommend for those who find it difficult that you have the dog back against a wall or even a corner of the room, but I didn't have luck with that - Russell didn't like being cornered and will immediately walk away from that one.

Oh the memories. I had a small dog mix when I was in my 20's his name was Merlin and he was so smart, kinda on the ugly side but in such a cute way. He could play dead but would also keep his tail wagging, with some work we got him to stop wagging his tail. The catch phrase was "deader then that". Tail would stop in a sec[].

Good luck!
Dawn

How fun!  Now you should add a little yelp with that.  lol, I'm currently adding a yelp to my beagle's play dead.  She'll copy my voice, so it's pretty fun watching her try to get the right sound to come out.
 
With speak, I did the same as Jones, by saying speak, woof.  Both of my dogs caught on quickly.  And my beagle is great with copying my voice.  I've taught her how to bark, whisper (very soft bark), howl, and soon yelp.  The only problem is keeping my family happy by not letting her make much noise.  [8|]
 
I also trained the beagle to beg by putting a treat above her noise when she's in a sit and slowly bringing it above her head.  My pointer though, would copy me and I just put my hands on my chest and stood up, sort of like the trick.  She figured that out pretty quick as well.  But if you try the same thing with Carley, you get a blank stare.

I'll try everything!

Awesome!  I've got to teach Cody that...