Leading from the front - why we all address each other from the front

Front guidance is used on larger animals (cows, horses, elephants, zebras) and upright animals (humans) to "steer" them. For example, we take people by the hand (since these are not their front legs), speak to them from the front and communicate through eye contact. If we speak to people from behind, they turn around. Dogs do it that way too.

Perceiving the world FORWARD and FROM THE FRONT has something to do with the fact that our field of vision is in the front and we naturally move FORWARD. Actually, dogs, like humans, do not (originally) communicate with each other completely frontally. This means they are not face to face 1 on 1 in a straight line.

We see this in Western films where men duel. The posture is therefore always slightly offset in situations where cooperation is involved. That's why your dog will listen to you better if you stand in front of him (slightly to the side) and speak to him than if you approach him head-on. However, it always remains this way: communication takes place via the front areas of living beings with one another and results in the fewest misunderstandings.

• Communication always takes place via the area that can be seen with the eyes - the front of the body/head.
• In all animals, "slowing down" someone is done via the shoulder area (e.g. if the person next to you almost steps in a pile of excrement: you grab your shoulder to slow him down).
• Things are reacted to from the FRONT. When something is perceived from behind, you turn around (and don't walk backwards).
• It is unpleasant to be touched (shocked) in invisible areas of the body without prior notice.
• When we orient ourselves towards something, we “run after” it (like the donkey chasing the carrot).
• All animals understand instructions through interaction. Physical interaction in the form of spatial arrangement in relation to each other (turning around instead of walking backwards) is the easiest to understand.
• Walking forward is always preferred over walking backwards, as no animal has eyes at the back.
• Pain does not lead to learning according to natural logic. A dog first learns about pain as a threat (like us humans); it does not understand that pain is an instruction, as in nature it only knows this in fights and not in cooperative moments in a pack.
• Pain triggers anger and frustration, which may show up in behavioral or physical symptoms in the long term.