Hi,

Tomorrow I am taking Jay (nearly 6 months old BC) to meet a friends horse (Badger) to attempt to get him used to them. He has met horses before a while ago but I am going to give it a go in earnest tomorrow as his herding instinct seems to have awoken! :D. He will need to be used to them in the future as I come from a horse background (although am without one at the mo).
What I plan to do is take them both to a quiet area and walk him (calmly....:D) up to Badger stopping occasionally to praise him for being calm and then hopefully they should both be standing near each other calmly. ;) Then (either tomorrow or in the next session) I will get my friend to walk Badger around Jay and I will praise Jay when he is not trying to go after him, or even look at him... and then move on from there.
Does this sound like it might work, or should I do something else? At the moment the poor birds are incurring most of Jay's wrath :D :D :D
Thanks
Nicola & Jay

That sounds like exactly the right way to go! Reward him when he's calm and ignoring the horse, and get closer and closer until you can walk him round the horse, the horse around him etc. The biggest test comes when the horse is trotting or cantering, as to a dog that is "prey behaviour" (running away) and instinct might kick in and override the training. So take it very carefully, one stage at a time.

Good luck.

Thanks! I will let you know how it goes... :)

There's an article on exactly this subject in the March edition of Your Dog magazine, page 46.....

Hi Janet,
I saw the article and thought it was a good way to go about it, however I have not always agreed with everything in the mag so I thought I would see if anyone on here thought it was the way to go for me:) I wasn't plagerising!! ;) Thanks for the encouragement, and I will post tommorrow afternoon to let you know how it went..
Nicola x

Hi,

Just to let you know that we went to meet the horse yesterday and it went very well. Jay was so excited (or scared) when he saw Badger that he was quivering :D Badger was held quietly while we walked up slowly as planned, stopping occasionally, and we got to the stage where badger walked around us in a very big circle. Jay was so good, he stopped noticing him after a while!:) While we were out in the sticks (if Hemel Hempstead is the sticks!) we also met some deer (but Jay didn't even see them!!!:D) and we met a sheep for the first time. Jay just gave it the collie 'eye' and they stared at each other for about a minute (the sheep was in another field). I could swear Jay was saying to it "I'm sure I know you from somewhere.... I know what to do next..." so we carried on walking! It was a good day :)
Thanks for your help
Nicola & Jay x

Excellent! :) The more you can do this, the better, on the principle that "familiarity breeds contempt". Keep up the good work.

As the owner of both horses and hounds I can see both points of view. Firstly do what you are planning to do, it sounds fine, but also be aware of the dangers for both parties. I know someone who let the dog too near before the horse was used to it and it ended up in intensive care with 5 broken ribs, broken leg and internal damage from the kick the horse gave it. Another thing...the front end is as dangerous as the back! I have seen a horse strike out at a hound with a fore leg & kill it with one strike. Good luck, there is nothing better than horses & hounds (dog in your case!) getting along. Mine all mix together & the horses let the hounds eat out of their buckets and lick their noses!!

Hi Sam,
My beloved horse Zeffer who sadly died just over 3 years ago really did not like dogs, so I am only too aware of how stressful it is to be out riding and meet a dreaded devil dog with a handler who had no idea!:D That is why I do not want Jay to not be used to them or think it acceptable to chase them.
Badger is my friend's oldest pony and is 99% bombproof and has never shown a fear of dogs so that is why I picked him (all my other friend's horses have a dog fear!) so I really do hope that I will not cause either of the animals unneccessary stress or injury.
Living in London, it seems like no horses are used to dogs and vice-versa so I really want Jay to be different!! :)
Thankyou for your concern, and I promise I will be as careful as possible and will take it slowly.
Thanks
Nicola & Jay x:)