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Back up or Walking backwards

So 1stworlddog learnt to walk backwards sometime back, and we thought we’ll try to learn that too. It was kind of hard trying to lure Donna to take a step back with food. Mel from 1stworlddog suggested that we line up against the wall so that Donna learns to back up along it. That sounded like a great idea since when Donna does back up on occasion, she doesn’t back up in a straight line but curves around instead like in the picture below.

But for a while there, it was a little bit of a struggle to get Donna lined up against the wall to practice walking backwards.

Luckily, we found the positive training blog hop and one of the topics covered was hand targeting or Touching Nose to Hand and that was a handy trick to get Donna to line up against the wall for this exercise.

The next challenge I had was Donna’s habit of just sitting for treats whenever she struggled to figure out what she is supposed to do.


Tilting her head back as if to ask, what are you waiting for human? Treat.

And then she hears Mr P coming home and she rushes off to welcome him home instead.

Obviously not too impressed with learning the new trick huh? :P *rueful*

There must be something I am doing wrong because she is always either stopping and sitting or craning her backwards on one side trying to reach the treat. Having a visual reference and having a good feel of the end goal is always helpful for me, so here are two videos that gave me a better idea of what exactly I should be trying to achieve with Donna when it comes to the Backward Heel.

Two videos for teaching the dog to walk backwards
– http://youtu.be/k4LoPU1g310
– http://youtu.be/XKmy0Q1Otqc

And since 1stWorldDog also been going on about rear-end awareness, this is the next trick we are going to learn – http://youtu.be/xEqQDw8Jo9M

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25 Comments

  1. Pawesome Cats

    That looks tricky.

  2. As always I totally enjoy seeing Donna and everything the two of you keep yourselves busy with Mrs. P. She sure is training you very well. hahahahah. Great shots and the last one is hilarious. LOL!
    ♥ Big Hugs ♥ to you and Donna. xxx

  3. Bailie’s obedience class touched on training this but we haven’t really worked on it. We are more in her boat and do what we feel like.

    • It’s something which we work on on and off, which is why it’s taking quite some time. That said, the human is starting to feel we are taking overly long so she has started to focus on it more ;)

  4. savedbydogs

    Donna sure is having a hard time training you to give treats when she sits! Poor Donna. We can’t all get easily trained humans ;-))))

  5. What’s the purpose of walking backwards when I can just make a U-turn.

  6. We have to attempt it today with no wall in our rally o trial…. I think mum figures we have a starting score of 90 rather than 100 as I just can’t seem to get this backwards walk right out on course.
    If you are sitting Donna than ask Mrs P to bend her knees so her hand is down lower than your head…head down and bum up.

    • I did that after I saw the video!! Going better, although Donna exhibits the tendency of leaning low as she walks backwards now, haha!!

      • As long as she goes backwards. So excited when the judge didn’t put the 3 steps back in the course yesterday!

        • Yah but i walk into her butt if she keeps stepping backwards curving in towards my side! At least Bodhi doesn’t need a wall now! :P

  7. Haha!! Tricky tricky!!
    Good luck!
    Love your photos!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

  8. That is a difficult skill, but I think you’ll get it! : )

  9. Haha – I would take the welcome home greeting over anything else. At least you guys know Donna’s happy when one of you come home and prefers to see either/both of you over getting a treat. :)

  10. HAHAH I sit you treat. Love the talk backs!

    Hope you had a good Sepia Saturday! Looks like the training sessions are a big hit on this hop.

  11. I have taught backup up against a wall with dog on lead. They will tend to try to sit at first so you want to praise and reward step by step. Every step back is praised and rewarded.

    Awe it was nice to see the video with Honey again. How I miss that big dog.

    • It’s going better now but still slow… it’s sad that Great Danes have only so many years. But it’s nice you enjoyed seeing her on video again ;)

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