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How do you handle loose dogs around your horse?

Off Course
#41

I have yet to see two rambunctious cats playing with the water in the washrack in such a way as to upset the horse who is the only animal restrained in said rack, or tumbling into my horse’s legs while wrestling. Maybe it’s because they don’t much like water, and are quite easy to punt as needed.

I’M KIDDING PUT YOUR TYPERS AWAY.

Again- I love dogs, but I don’t want doggo lungeing after a ball to go running under my step stool while I’m clipping a bridle path, or diving behind me while I drag the hose into place and i end up tripping over them.

Barn dogs that stay out of the way and observe the goings on like a union guy are quiet andlovely. The others are not. It’s a pretty clear line between the two.

10 Likes
#42

Hmmmm, I haven’t seen any dog haters. I do see people who board their horses and don’t wish to put up with sloppy lazy dog owners and their ill-behaved mutts. Kind’ve like well behaved children at the barn vs. feral monkeys on crack with no manners and parents who just expect everyone else to watch their brats while they’re off riding.

I don’t like my tack peed on, or my horse’s hay peed on. I don’t want to deal with dog scat…heaven help the dog that ever growled at me or my horses…SSS applies. I especially like the legendary dog who, “Is parked at the side of ring, not bothering anyone while it reads the newspaper”…yeah, right. Sorry, dogs belong in dog parks, your yard or on a leash…the barn is not a dog friendly place, it’s a horse friendly place. We don’t find your dog cute, adorable, a little fur person or necessary to your enjoyment of the world as your “service dog”. jeez, can’t swing a cat without a service dog (squirrel, cat, peacock, pig, etc. etc. etc.) showing up.

Had a mare who hated corgies…she killed 2 of them at horseshows (the stupid owners didn’t listen and were pissed when I yelled at them to keep their idiot dogs away from my horse who was tied to the trailer…dogs lost and I painted two corgi silhouettes on the trailer door. Yep, very cold.

We’re not dog haters…we hate idiot owners who are not responsible, respectful or capable/willing to consider how their mutts effect and impact everyone around them…those, we hate.

12 Likes
#43

A boarding barn is for horses, not for boarders to bring their dogs for play dates. I too am a dog lover and have loved all the barn dogs throughout the years. The barn dogs I’ve known have pretty much known where they can and cannot do. That said, having a jumping lesson was always fun when the big yellow lab would decide to become a ground line - right at the time you’re going down that line. What irritates me no end is when fellow boarders bring their dogs and pay zero attention to them. I don’t bring my dog to the barn 1) I don’t want her eating horse poo, 2) I don’t want her rolling in horse poo 3) I don’t want to risk her running off to hinterland. I had a fellow boarder who brought her pack of dogs to the barn whenever she wanted as she believed her horse board apparently covered any animals she owned. That changed one day when her own dog was chasing after every horse in the ring as we were riding. She fell off because her dog kept at the horse’s hind legs. Dog never reappeared. Another boarder had a tiny dog she’d let run loose all over the place and then ask everyone else “have you seen Tiny?” BO was constantly telling her to be careful cause some delivery guy was going to nail that poor dog one of these days.

The OP’s barn situation is a disaster waiting to happen - whether a bunch of dogs get into a fight one day, a horse or person gets hurt because of the dogs. It’s a huge liability. I’m not a lawsuit type person but if I suffered an injury because someone’s loose dog that’s it. It’s so easy to be a responsible dog owner. A friend of my got knocked down by a couple of dogs at her barn - she broke both wrists. So great - she’s incapacitated for several months - 2 arms in casts because of irresponsible dog owners.

OP either needs to discuss the dog situation with BO and see if some rules can be applied and enforced or find a less dog “friendly” barn.

6 Likes
#44

Does this include rider getting injured when horse freaks out from a loose and/or ill-behaved do?

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#45

Horses and dogs typically go hand in hand, but I agree boarding stables should have very strict rules around them.
The barns I’ve been at in the past allowed dogs, and I can’t recall any leash or containment rules. None of them had a huge amount of dogs at any given time, the most annoying thing I ever had to deal with was those stupid little ankle-biters that just bark non-stop. LAWD I can’t.
The worst experience I had was out trail riding at a state park. We were crossing a parking lot (I already hate riding on pavement with shod horses) to get to the other trail, and around the corner this lady comes with a giant Shepherd mix of some kind. Thankfully it was leashed, but WOW that thing was snarling and barking and and lunging and gnashing its teeth like nobody’s business. Lady stops about 50 feet from us, stepped off like 2 feet to the side and waived us on; I was like “***** what?” You see your dog wanting to eat our horses, you see my (usually stead-eddie guy whose one bad thing is he hates barking dogs) gelding going berserk over here, and you expect us to just walk right by you? She just stood there chatting with her friend, completely oblivious to the havoc her dog was causing. It was a nightmare.

I allow dogs at my farm, however explicitly state in my barn rules that any dogs exhibiting aggressive or disruptive behavior (including excessive barking, running underfoot, etc.) will have to leave and will not be permitted back. Also, any dogs, even well-trained perfect ones, must be held on a leash while any rider is mounted, not just the dog’s owner.

Sure, we should all desensitize our horses. However there’s a big difference between expecting a horse to tolerate dogs in their vicinity, vs expecting them to be A-OK with dogs being aggressive towards them, chasing them, and running around/through their legs. None of that is okay; I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect everyone to train their horses to be stone walls, and I would absolutely leave the OP’s barn.

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#46

Had a mare who hated corgies…she killed 2 of them at horseshows (the stupid owners didn’t listen and were pissed when I yelled at them to keep their idiot dogs away from my horse who was tied to the trailer…dogs lost and I painted two corgi silhouettes on the trailer door. Yep, very cold.

While I agree with the sentiment of ill behaved dogs- this doesn’t make you look cold - it makes you look like an ass.

Dogs should have been contained and had no place harassing your horse - but taking pleasure and pride in it really makes you a sick person.

8 Likes
#47

  1. When riding, I used to carry a squirt gun full of water, plus I taught both my horses to “get him!” If a dog or dogs came at us.

  2. The few years I had to board, the BO’s dogs were always around and never caused any problems — I suppose some training by the BO might have played heavily into that:)

boarders were NOT allowed to bring their dogs. Which I think is great rule. Although there were some children that should have stayed home and the dog allowed to come:)

  1. I have one horse that will put strange dogs in their place, if they come into the pasture. I have never corrected him and never will. We just got a new dog – dog #3 – they all weigh around 80# or more – they all had to learn the barn rules and to mind the personal space of the horses.

  2. I have never taken my dogs along on trail rides, nor have I ever taken them on over nighters to risk getting them hurt on a ride or stolen while they were tied to the camper.

4.1. I have rarely run into other people’s dogs while riding because I rarely ride in Metro Parks. Those times I did, I had to tell the dog owners to hold their dogs if the didn’t want the misbehaving thing to get kicked. Naturally they were incensed:). If people want to be cute and let their dogs loose around horses, then they had better school themselves and that dog on proper protocol:)

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#48

I think too that part of it has to do with what kind of barn you’re at. I’m at a self-care facility (where the owner is actually a dog person and knows zilch about horses) with only 4 other boarders. I rarely see other boarders and only two of us actually ride. We have a “ring”- aka a sandy area- but no one but me uses it and I only use it maybe once every couple of months. So if I bring my dog I really am not bothering anyone. If I were at a big show barn, it would probably be different. I would eventually like my dog to be able to head out on trails with us- but not local trails where there are strict leash laws. I would never take him out on trails without A) tons of training and B) making sure it is allowed. He also loves going horse camping and to endurance rides- but I only bring him if DH can come too so that he is always supervised.

#49

Being matter-of-fact of how one handles a threatening dog is not equivalent to being a dog hater. If you are having to protect your animals from a predator or threatening dog(s), it’s not a pleasant experience no matter how it ends. I have never taken pleasure from killing an animal; but, I’ve done it many times - as part of my job, to protect my own and when off the job to end suffering (usually of wild animals mortally injured) that couldn’t be managed any other way. I’ve spent endless nights patching up dogs that attacked each other to the point of killing each other at times (I pull emergency shifts). While I have lived and practiced long enough to have seen freak accidents, I also am acutely aware that most incidents happen due to careless or at least thoughtless humans. While I know where to appropriately place the blame, at the end of the day if the health and safety of either myself, my family or my animals are threatened I’m not going to pause to say…oh poor doggy, it’s not his/her fault that he/she is being allowed to be unruly and is just acting out on it’s instincts… and allow injury to mine happen…Sorry, I don’t hate dogs but I do hate the situations that irresponsible or careless/thoughtless people put them in. I will seek out every non-violent alternative to avoiding or controlling a potentially threatening situation possible to see that no one gets hurt; but, make no mistake about it, if someone’s loose dog does not back off in an attack, I’ll take whatever measure I am legally afforded to stop the attack. Some of us with horses live in areas where extreme measures are occasionally needed.

Boarding stables should never be allowed to become one of those areas. If dogs are present they should not pose a threat to rider, horse or other dogs. Horses should be de-sensitized to dogs; but, it’s still the expectation that the owners and dogs are acting reasonably. If someone is in a boarding situation where reasonable safety precautions cannot be guaranteed then unfortunately it sounds like moving is the safest option.

6 Likes
#50

Or a horse needing stitches on his nose and ankle after a dog “he is just playing” bit him.
Or a dead dog from a horse kicking it.
Accidents happen enough even when we are safety conscious.
Loose, unattended dogs are an accident waiting to happen.

The OP doesn’t has a horse or dog problem, it has a clueless, uncaring dog owner problem.

Yes, even if it is your barn, don’t let your dogs bother your horses, much less other people or horses or their possesions, chewing stuff, marking every place?

Folks, if you can’t control your dog, confine it.
Loose dogs are free, yes, free to cause trouble and get killed.
What caring dog owner would put their dog at risk like that?

8 Likes
#51

I can’t love this post enough!!!

1 Like
#52

I have moved from a barn that let playful city dogs run wild. I am at a barn with free roaming barn labs, but they are horse savvy dogs that do not interfere with the horses in the slightest. IMO barns that let boarder dogs run wild tend to let boarders run wild too (and their horses). There tends to not be any serious riding going on at them.

1 Like
#53

Oh, aren’t you Speshul! (as good Southern ladies say). didn’t take pleasure or pride…annoyance at the two idiot women who brought their equally ill-behaved mutts to a horse show and demanded everyone tolerate their ill-behaved dogs. I was in the military…we put mission stamps/designs on things. My mule had 2 foxes on his stall door for obvious reasons. If it’s a choice between my mare getting hurt/spooked or an ill-behaved dog out of the gene pool…I’ll always choose the dog to lose.

3 Likes
#54

I think there is a big difference between a barn that has a few reasonably well behaved dogs that live on the property +/- a few guest dogs that have good manners and have their behavior monitored by their owners VS a barn that allows boarders to use the facility as an unrestricted dog park. My horses show and hunt and are well acclimatized to dogs underfoot, but I would not necessarily expect them to tolerate a dog-park like environment. I think that is a safety hazard. Personally, I think that such a chaotic environment has a bigger chance of making your horse MORE sensitized to dogs vs. less. I think that moving would be a reasonable option in your situation.

3 Likes
#55

I left my last barn in part due to utterly unmanaged dogs. My horse is pretty solid, but it wasn’t fair to her. When dogs act aggressively (chasing +) towards us, we turn and face them. I might yell and then basically charge the dogs. This helps the horse’s confidence and does make a lot of dogs back off right away. It probably helps that I’m a dog person who can read them pretty well and my mare really follows my lead. Of course, it can be very dangerous with a pack of dogs (I have only used this on 1 or 2 dogs).

At my current barn, there are a few very good dogs and then there are other dogs that boarders bring. It is annoying. I think the barn owners should charge a large monthly fee if you bring your dog to the barn. I find the worst offenders are people who treat the boarding barn as their personal park (and routinely bring dogs, family, friends, etc.). As I say to my mare, that dog is not a boarder and should not be here without paying!

Clearly these dog owners are just lazy and unwilling to exercise their dogs at home or at an appropriate location. I’m at a large farm, so if the doggie boarders just kept their dogs under control near the barn and then let them run off lead in woods/fields far away from the arena and facilities, that would go a long way to keeping the peace. But I suppose that would be too much effort for these dog owners. I mean, they might have to walk their dogs on lead. I especially hate that a boarder who is very nervous about any normal farm activity (ex. tractor work) while she is riding allows her two rambunctious dogs to run all over when she is off her horse and others are riding. N I C E…

p.s. I have two lovely high energy dogs. They have good manners. They are never brought to the barn. I exercise them at my large property at home or at specific dog-friendly venues.

p.p.s. Thank you for letting me vent!

2 Likes
#56

I finally stopped silently tolerating clueless dog owners when 3 border collies erupted out of their owners car and began leaping and running everywhere causing an absolute ruckus!
I called out to the owner ‘‘please control your dogs’’ . I explained to her I was saddling a youngster for the first time after 4 months off with an injury. She looks daggers at me now, but I don’t care. She tied her dogs up, and other than barking like fools they didn’t pose a threat anymore.
The rules of the barn are that all dogs must be under control. To some people that seems to mean ‘‘maybe they come when I call them’’ Nuh uh, it means they don’t interfere with paying customers enjoyment of their expensive hobby .
The barn owner told me those dogs had caused a dangerous situation spooking a horse with a farrier under it, why doesn’t she DO something about it ? I don’t know.
The upshot is that now some of the well behaved delightful dogs are being kept crated unnecessarily because their owners don’t want to be lumped in with the problem dogs and they probably all think i’m mean . It’s a shame for the trained dogs that one irresponsible owner has cast a shadow on them all.
Anyway, SAY something and see if it helps before disrupting your horses life with a move.

3 Likes
#57

Then 1) you are at barns where the dogs have been trained and 2) you are lucky.

I love dogs. I do not love dogs who attack my horse. Not only has my horse been attacked on the trails, but a friend’s horse was chased and bitten. Twice. Separate times, different dogs.

More accurately. I don’t like irresponsible dog owners.

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#58

Bless your heart. Clearly you DO take pride if you painted the silhouette of 2 dogs on your trailer, as a fellow armed service to another. Own it.

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#59

I love dogs. But I’m so glad I board at a facility that does not allow dogs (other than barn owners’, who very seldom make appearances at the barn – always on leash and well behaved). I’ve seen too many horse people who should get it w.r.t. animals needing their help to be solid citizens bring dogs that cause chaos or otherwise make the barn an unpleasant place (e.g. getting loose and chasing each other through arenas with leashes trailing, getting aggressive/defensive when tied unattended in barn aisles, barking their fool heads off the whole time their owner is riding). Only a small minority of the dogs I’ve encountered at barns have caused problems, but I’d rather miss out on the many well-behaved dogs than have to deal with the antics of the occasional dog who was set up by its owner to fail at the whole barn etiquette thing. I wouldn’t stay in the boarding conditions that OP describes w.r.t. dog behavior.

I’m a lot more sensitive (snobbish?) about dogs and whether their owners have trained them/are handling them appropriately for public situations after my horse was bitten on a multi-use trail (silly horse is afraid of blowing leaves but will stand there stoically if a pack of dogs races at her – go figure). I tend to be the default dog-sitter for many in my social circle, and even among people I respect it’s amazing how many who really love their dogs and think they’re giving them every advantage are oblivious to the training they’re missing. My view on the matter is that dog problems are usually a situation of humans needing a little intervention. With dog-sitting I explain that I don’t want to contribute to the kinds of dog-related conflict I’ve experienced, so I set some boundaries (e.g. no off leash outside enclosed private spaces if I don’t 100% trust the dog’s recall in all conditions) and try to point them toward training resources.

With strangers on the trail I’ve tried to say something friendly (“cute dog” in good times; “what an energetic fellow” in tenser situations) before asking for intervention, and try to point them to resources if they’re struggling to control the dog (I used to do a lot of trail riding in a parks district that offered training/trail etiquette workshops for dog owners – so much easier to tell people to check out a free training workshop than to tell them in a more direct way that their poor handling is doing their dog a disservice). On the occasions that people have been hostile when asked to follow rules w.r.t. dogs and horse right-of-way on public trails I’ve not been shy about taking photos and sharing them with rangers – everywhere I’ve lived the parks rangers have taken safety-related dog incidents very seriously, and for good reason, given the damage they can do.

2 Likes
#60

I am a BO, dog lover and ride a good bit. My dogs are loose around the horses but are up when we ride. I don’t like dogs popping out of the woods or chasing things and barking while I ride or boarder’s ride. I did have one who was allowed loose while I rode, but I lost him last month to a tumor on the heart. He would go find a spot and lay down never causing any issues. I do have a boarder who brings her dog, she is sometimes loose and sometimes leashed. She is always leashed when riding.

I have also fostered for dog rescues for years (though taking a break for now) and it would take time for the dogs to get used to being around the horses. Very few of them were allowed loose except for the puppies, most would spend a good bit of time working on the manners and training either on a short leash or long line and in dog fencing. My boarder’s dog was one of my fosters. She was one of the few fosters who was allowed loose around the horses (GSD x) she had good manners from the get go.

I do have horses who will go after dogs. I have also had two young horses run over a gate by 2 pit bulls. We warned the owners if we caught them again in with our horses we would shoot them. Have not seen them since.

I agree move, find a less dog friendly barn or at least one that has more sense about them.

I’ve never had a cat run any horse over a gate.

4 Likes

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