#backwards walking

[millenniallust4death]

Teaching Heel – Fanny Gott

When teaching the dog to heel with me, I start by walking backwards and have the dog follow me. Doing this has many benefits, like:

It’s easier for a puppy to follow me when I walk backwards and I can get more rewards to the dog.

It’s easier for me to see what the dog is doing without having to turn and bend towards the dog.

Since it’s not the final setting for the behavior, I’m not worried about shaping one aspect at a time. I would not like to reward the dog for good attention but bad position if I was walking forward. By walking backwards, I can shape a good behavior and be pretty sure that I will get good behavior to reward once I start walking the right way.

I use the walking backwards-heeling for teaching stand, sit and down from heel.

It’s very good to have when training in a distracting environment, as the young or inexperienced dog has better chances of success.

Walking backwards (not backwards heeling) to teach heeling is a concept that I don’t understand. In Fanny’s post and Shade’s lecture on the topic, there is always a moment in the video where the dog seamlessly transitions from walking backwards to perfect heeling. Bosco did not conceptualize backwards walking to heeling at all. It was a hard nope for him so clearly, Martin is missing a vital piece of information. A friend is taking a course with Fanny so hopefully, my friend will enlighten me in the future.

[millenniallust4death]

Last night’s hot Friday night date: Martin Taves explained the backwards walking videos from the first lecture in Shade's heeling class.

Us this morning after shaping the first step with Senta: OMG! This is so brilliant! If only we had learned about this step years ago. Teaching Senta to heel would have been so much easier!

[millenniallust4death]

Walking Backwards Note

Sticking Shade’s feedback to a student here so that Martin can find it later. Judging from the student videos, teaching backwards walking is challenging!

Perfect position in backwards walking is dog's left shoulder along your inseam of your pants and head looking forward or into armpit area. Mark right when she reaches that position, and then either toss the treat from the right hand up and to the left, so that she catches it (ideally) at around your left armpit area or feed up under your armpit like Jen with Pika [neat idea from the student!].

[ikebuya]

Uphill Sidewise Shuffle and Backward Walking with Weight Vest as Low Impact Hill Training When injury or access to mountain trails prevent you from doing hill training you can employ a treadmill, a weight vest and some creativity to garner an effective workout.

[julieschulerart]

Plennie L. Wingo attempted to walk backwards around the world in 1931. He started in Fort Worth, Texas on April 15. He wore periscopic eyeglasses to help him. He expected the trip to take four years. He averaged 20 miles a day and financed his trip with the sale of postcards. He had come 8000 miles by October 1932 when Istanbul authorities denied him a visa. He gave up and went home. His wife had divorced him in absentia.

[shazamxoom]

Is It Walking Backwards Day?

Every morning on my daily jog, I would always notice a lot of people, namely the older folks walking backwards . The first thing that went through my mind was that, maybe it was a way to age backwards or maybe they were practicing Moonwalking.

Then again, I see those old folks every morning and they are hardly getting any younger but healthier no doubt. So I did my research on why do people walk backwards and INDEED, it does have a lot of physical benefits. In hindsight, here are the benefits as quoted by a research conducted by Dr Junji Takano, a Japanese health researcher;

100 steps backward walking is equivalent to 1,000 steps conventional walking

Good for hips, legs, and trunk 

strengthens the heart, lungs, muscles and joints

Increase Balance

Better Hearing Power

Better Vision

Might extent your lifespan( with being healthy and all)

You can view Dr Junju Takano's report over here.

It does look like walking backwards does "turn back the clock" thus, making you younger. Of course, such workouts are rather time consuming so if your time is precious, just do the regular run and as stated in the article, if you want to try it out, use the tracks at the stadiums, unless you don't mind dropping into opened manholes or walk onto incoming traffic. 

I am sure nobody wants to end up like him!

☮ out!