I keep my Mal “up” like that. Better safe than sorry. She’s fine with our cat, but I wouldn’t trust her with anything else. Definitely not allowed in the horse area except leashed excursions to the wash rack for bath time.
A friend of mine lives way, way out in the sticks and they have a literal pack of half feral pits terrorizing the neighborhood. Parents started taking turns packing heat and standing guard at the school bus stop! Scary stuff.
Like that dog that attacked that carriage horse in the park. Dog got struck multiple times, kicked a couple - kept coming again and again…
Exactly
Yes and for those of us who ride horses that are taught explicably to tolerate dogs (hounds) that might be loud or underfoot. Good luck riding a dog unfriendly horse in a foxhunting field. I actually ordered it after reading this thread. It’s small, light, and comes with a test cartridge that has no pepper spray so you can gauge the sound and firing action.
Yeah, where we live there’s a huge shorthair-of-some-stature (I don’t want to call it a pitbull without knowing. Looks more like a rotty-boxer cross anyway) who is walked 3X a week, but otherwise left home, with only a 4X8 patio(and patio railing) between him and freedom.
When I walk down the lane to get my mail, he goes nuts. If I walk my little schnauzer to get my mail, I fear he’ll get over that railing. Thus, the bear spray.
Well, popping back into add that I have a friend who swears by paintball guns!
How long does one cartridge last? Please report back!
I dont trail ride where dogs are an issue currently. I used to be foolishly confident that my horse would face and chase a dog, so we would be fine. Two problems: the horse was not afraid of nor aggressive towards dogs generally and we encountered a dog that we could not face and chase!
Fortunately, the dog we encountered was not a serious biter, but an idiotic adolescent Irish Setter (of all things!) Dog came running up, circling and barking while I was in an outdoor arena. My horse at the time was distracted but not really scared. I kept trying to chase him with my horse but he was too fast and kept circling behind us. My dressage whip was nowhere near long enough to be of use and using his name and scolding him did nothing. Eventually he grabbed my horses tail aand I was wishing my horse would kick just a little. I hopped down and used my whip to drive him a short distance away. Couldnt ride any more as he was just waiting to “play” again. Neighbors who owned him had done no training and had no control.
my neighbor of about 1.5 mi away’s dog came down to our farm. I caught him up by his collar and put him inside my horse trailer. Called them the next morning to come and get their dog. Never did tell them he was here all night. He did not return. They’ve moved, and i think now the only dogs w/i a 3mi radius are mine.
edit: oops…forgot the lab(ish) that lives a ways down the road. Inside a fence 24/7 poor thing
I was also going to suggest a hunt whip. They take some skill to use, but are quite effective and when cracked properly sound like a gunshot.
Maybe a trail dog that’s a bigger and badder dog? My English Mastiff scared the sh-t out of basically every other dog on the face of the earth with his mere presence. We lived in a gated community up until he was about a year old. The Doberman that the dumb drunk soccer mom used to let chase people down the golf course trail? Went running home tail tucked between it’s legs at the sight of my dog. The aggressive GSD that ran across the road after my smaller dog? It about had a stroke when it crested the hill and saw the mastiff strolling back onto the trail from the berm. Mastiff said “woof”. GSD peed itself and almost got hit by a car running back across the road. Police dogs melted down when they saw him.
The mastiff was about the politest, sweetest, most well-behaved dog you ever met. Got along great with horses, cats, chickens, humans, etc. Only barked for real once in his entire life, in response to a potential threat from a dangerous human. I wasn’t riding much during the time he was alive as the girls were little. If I had been, I would’ve taken him along in a heartbeat. He would’ve loved it and he was so horse safe.
whut
oh ok. What the situation is with this dog is he has a hut and a run. That’s it. He lives in this kennel situation. Does not go into the house. Does not get taken out for exercise, for training, for rides in their vehicles. His pathetic little life is 12 x 36 with a doghouse… Staring at cars driving down the gravel road and squirrels in the trees. Why have a dog if this is the life you provide???
ah ok. I mean, my dog goes with me almost everywhere, but if all she had was my .5 acre fenced back yard that’s a pretty sweet life. Kennel runs are different tho.
I feel your whole back yard with minimal human or canine interaction (presumably just when someone went out in the yard) would be pretty near as bad as just the run - dogs are not made for the solitary life
ETA: OK, I should have known this would be read wrong. I’m referring to a dog with the life eightpondfarm was talking about, “Does not go into the house. Does not get taken out for exercise, for training, for rides in their vehicles. His pathetic little life is 12 x 36 with a doghouse.” Having the same life but locked in 1/2 acre instead of 12x36 may be marginally more enriching, but still a miserable life for a sociable pack animal.
What a broad statement that has nothing to do with the discussion being had.
Even if the only outdoor area my dog sees is my backyard, we play several times a day, she hangs out with me while I garden, etc… Dog need other dogs like horses need other horses. Some thrive, some don’t care, some are a-holes. She would be 100% fine if she never got to see a blade of grass outside of that .5 acre.
Context, my friend. Nowhere in there did I say “an abandoned dog on .5 acres”.
My fear of dogs came from the neighbor’s 2 Goldens, who lived in a run in their side yard by our house. No one did anything with them, and the neighbors had hired help to clean the run. If they saw people they’d freak out barking and growling and lunging at the fence. They were miserable but they had food, water, and a dog shed, so not worth AC’s attention.
They got out somehow and came into our backyard and killed my guinea pig while I was letting him graze on the lawn. I was too afraid to try to defend him… It was smart on my part because I was 6 years old and weighed less than one of those dogs, let alone both.
Has anyone else been reading this thread and flashed back to the video of the carriage horse being attacked by the pitbull that went viral a few months back? That dog was getting pummeled by that draft horse and it hardly slowed it down.
I’m not sure there is any one fully-reliable method that will stop a dog that’s dead-set on chasing or attacking…short of, perhaps, a donkey or a mule. Even our 100lb GSD (who is sweet as pie but thinks everyone who runs wants to play with him) won’t mess with our mini donkeys: they would ABSOLUTELY f*** him up, or any other dog that dared to try and pull something.
I know there’s no full proof method, but I’m interested in anything that could possible help.
Airsoft guns (the ones with plastic pellets) are also quite effective at removing unwanted animals from your safety area. (And they’re not terribly noisy, either.)
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