Objective To review the animal species, modelling methods and evaluation indexes of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) animal models at home and abroad, to provide suggestions for improving the success rate of modelling and establishing DCM animal models with Chinese medicine characteristics in the future, and to provide reference for the establishment of future DCM animal models. Methods The literature on animal models of dilated cardiomyopathy in the past 10 years was searched, and relevant reports were collected and summarized. Relevant parameters of experimental animals (species, sex, body weight, etc.), modelling methods, modelling cycles, positive control drug species and cycles, and model evaluation indexes were summarized and analysed. Results A total of 128 papers were included. Animal models of dilated cardiomyopathy were mostly prepared in SD rats and Wistar rats using the anthracycline adriamycin, with a cycle of 30 d