Back It Up!

Teaching a dog to walk backwards is easy and fun!  It’s also useful for several things, like stepping away from a swinging doors, improving foot dexterity, and just flat-out cute!

I trained my dog to back up with his breakfast bowl.  I would hold the bowl and move it towards him, slowly, and he would back up to keep his eyes on it.  Eventually I could simply make the hand motion, without the bowl, and say back-back-back, and he’d shuffle along obligingly!

Now, however, I want to take this trick to the next level, and retrain it to him using shaping instead of luring, and maybe add some low-level cavalettis. I think it’ll help him improve his dexterity even more! Here’s a great video of shaping a dog to walk backwards.