i think my dog is right handed, in a dog sense

[Owllady]

She really only wants to walk on your right though can walk left but is not as happy to.

But trick wise, she can only roll to the right, not the left. She tries to roll to the left but just cannot make her body do it

Same with twist/spin. She can only do it clockwise not anti clockwise. She tries to ho anti clockwise but just falls over!

Is this quite common?

We do agility and she is okay with change side in that.

I realise this is a first world problem :o

Many dogs are like this. Mine can only roll one way too and it took an age to teach him to spin both ways.

Ephedra, thanks for recommending that book. I am only part way through but it has really helped me understand her in a high arousal situation, so much so is kept below that level much more. I've noticed when we work the course she is no longer trying to get to other dogs but is just focussed on instruction. She even waits before she comes out of the tunnel and that was her point of no return before, she would scream through it and either go completely mad or pester other dogs

How funny they can only roll one way

I'm really pleased I was able to help Owllady, it's nice knowing I have made a difference!

Some dogs seem to be able to roll both ways but I have never managed to get my dog to. He can only play dead on one side and it's the opposite side that he rolls over from!

My BC x Belgian Terv girl could only roll to her right too. My Wheaten girl was a bendy lass though, she could roll and spin in either direction and switch quickly between the two sides as well but she was always a smarty pants.

There have been some studies done on 'pawedness' in dogs. There are tonnes of links if you Google, here are just two:

Does your dog favor her left or right paw?

Left pawed dogs found to be more aggressive.

Rather annoyingly I recently read a really interesting article which discussed which jobs/roles etc left vs right pawed dogs and vice versa might be better suited to. They did a small study and found for example the more search and rescue dogs were (can't remember but think it may have been right pawed) whereas other working dogs in different roles were left pawed. Wracking my brains to try and think where I read it now.

Interestingly my extremely fear aggressive big lad was definitely left pawed, which would correlate with the second article I linked to.