Gun Dog Forum

Reading through the archives I have seen quite a few of you hunt from horseback, being in the Northeast where horseback is not necessary to stay up with a dog I was wondering how you guys get your pups and horses to coincide? My pup saw his first horse yesterday and was barking and growling, I am sure he would have chased after them if I hadn't had a hold of his collar, I ask because if runs big enough I would like to maybe run a field trial down the road and there are always horses around so I would rather my dog not be the one that chases the horses away

They get used to them pretty quick. Best thing is just expose them. My pony is situated real close to my kennel so the dogs get to see him all day long. Dogs seem to really like the horse after they get a mouth full of turds :roll: :roll:

Take him to a couple of trials just to watch. Stake him out and let him stand around and watch all day. He will see so many horses he will get tired of em.

We have em around horses from the time they are young, so it is just not an issue.

I've had a couple of dogs come in from the outside that I've handled for horseback trials. These dogs may be 2 years old and never seen a horse.
If there was an issue, I'd put a couple of dogs on the stakeout chain, then staked out a friendly horse so their noses could just touch. I make sure they can't tangle. I'll leave them for the whole day, works every time.

My own dogs see the horses so much that I never have an issue, though they know when I'm saddling that somebody is going to have fun, and the barking starts.

Yes, it is about as bad as when you start to load the cased guns in the back of the truck with the dog(s) watching.

All these ideas sound great and I am sure they work but not on my pup. She is a year old GWP. One day she got out and chased my horses around a 30 acre pasture for about 10 minutes. I finally caught her and thankfully her and the horses were OK.
She can see the horses all the time yet she still goes into a frenzy when she see the horses running. We put the horses in the corral now when we run the dogs since they seem to hate each other. I was hoping to run her in a hunt test and/or a field trial this spring but I'm afraid of what she is going to do about the horses.
Do you think letting her get close to a horse (both under control of course) might help? Any other ideas?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Anita

Devils Creek wrote: If there was an issue, I'd put a couple of dogs on the stakeout chain, then staked out a friendly horse so their noses could just touch. I make sure they can't tangle. I'll leave them for the whole day, works every time.

Anita try doing this

I wish I could afford a whole horse.

Here's my derbies last spring, on the stakeout chain, with horses loose in the back yard.

Ya can't love your lawn too much!!!



I had a yard dog (Catahoula Leopard Dog) that liked to push the horses around a bunch. I had to use the collar on him. He got so collar wise that if he saw the transmitter in my hand he'd wince and brace himself. I got him so he could come riding with me without any trouble with the horse. It took a month or so of wearing the collar.

He sure worked good on the farm dogs that would come out after my horse. I actually got him so he would ignore farm dogs unless they came out on the road after him. Usually, if he just turned around and false charged them, they'd run home.

Once, he was attempting to ignore a shepherd that came out. He was attempting to be a good boy when the shepherd darted out and bit him on the back leg. I figgered this dog was going to get what he deserved, so I didn't shock him when the Catahoula chased the shepherd right into the yard, up on the back deck, and was still laying into him when the lady of the house opened the aluminum door the shepherd was doing his darndest to go through to safety.

Next time I rode by I noticed the shepherd was tied to the deck.

Anita wrote:All these ideas sound great and I am sure they work but not on my pup. She is a year old GWP. One day she got out and chased my horses around a 30 acre pasture for about 10 minutes. I finally caught her and thankfully her and the horses were OK.
She can see the horses all the time yet she still goes into a frenzy when she see the horses running. We put the horses in the corral now when we run the dogs since they seem to hate each other. I was hoping to run her in a hunt test and/or a field trial this spring but I'm afraid of what she is going to do about the horses.
Do you think letting her get close to a horse (both under control of course) might help? Any other ideas?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Anita

Do the stake out deal that has been talked about.

My GSP did the same thing when he was 3-4 months old. Now, when he sees a horse after a long time away, he rips, snorts, barks and his tail brushes up...because he's ready to run.

Cheers,

All of these things work really good, I have never had a dog that chased a horse. Mine all know from the beginning that the horse is part of the hunting deal and just love to go.

My very 1st trial dog would not get 50 feet from the horse as a puppy. Just did not like what we were doing. At 19 months old, won his 1st derby with 30 dogs in it and was great.

We just kep on doing it and the lights came on.

Pepper

My horses are around my dogs from the moment they are old enough. I spent a lot of time on horseback in the yard with my puppy teaching him that the horse and I are a team. The older dogs around during this desensitizing is important because they already know how to exist around the horses.

It works the other way too. The horse must be used to the dogs putting their paws up on the horses side to reach up to me.

Thank you all for the advise. We will work on it and see how it goes. I would like to be able to eventually road the dogs off horseback so.... I will keep you updated.

Anita wrote:Thank you all for the advise. We will work on it and see how it goes. I would like to be able to eventually road the dogs off horseback so.... I will keep you updated.

I found it took longer to teach the horse that the rope was OK then it took to teach the dog to stay in front.