..and Dog Training - Hacking With Them Together?

[Miss Moneypenny]

I hope you like the slightly shakey pic, this is Purdy, my new dog. She is a 6 year old cocker spaniel. She did belong to my brother in law and his family, but with baby number 2 on the way he can not give her the attention she craves, so Gary and I have taken her.

I hope that she will give me some lift with my current depression, and she is such a loving thing, she just wants hugs.

This was taken just earlier after a walk around the block - as you can see it is a bit much for her!

I went to the beach with stable pals Erica and Katie yesterday. We had a bumble along the sand, but Copper was thinking otherwise! Tried a nice canter at the end, which turned into Penny galloping when she wanted - sharp truns towards the sea soon stopped that behaviour!

I then took Purdy out of the car to see what she was like with the horses and off the lead. We have been told that she would dissapear once off the lead. She was an angel, I don't know if it was because of the horses, but I had Penny on one side in hand, and Purdy trying to grab her lead from the other - it was so funny. She then took to walking right behind me, as if to make sure that the HUGE dog I was also holding didn't attack!

Hopefully I can work with them both so that I can go out for hacks in the plantations, on the beach etc with the two of them.

I hope others have gotten horse and dog hacking together without said Pooch legging it? How you can work towards getting horse and dog together, has anyone else done this with their pooch?

 

[minky]

Hi

 Good luck with Purdy...she looks very sweet!

 I ride out quite alot with my little dog Minx...she's a border terrier so loves lots of exercise!!

  Sounds like you already had some success if she didnt run away first attempt!

  The first couple of times i too her out with polo i too k my mum on foot just to make sure they would be okay & never had any problems!

Minx does come with me alot to the stables so she already had alot of horse sense & it gave polo a chance to get used to her as he can be a so &so with dogs!

  I dont take her when im going around roads ,which i have seen some riders do,
just dont think its worth the risk no matter how good they are.
 
The other advantage i have is Minx is VERY greedy so i always take a few treats with me & if there are any other dogs about show her them till we pass then throw some down for her  it works wonders!

  Its great to be able to do this as the dog gets a good walk & the horse get exercised.....kills 2 birds with ine stone

  Good luck

  Nicola



 
 

[Bright Spark]

Hi, glad to hear that you want the two animals to get on, they do suffer from jealousy. I too have a five year old cocker called "Dudley". I started off by taking lots of treats with me. My husband also went on ahead so that he was around in case of difficulties! It helps for horse and dog to spend lots of time together in the field with you so that they get used to each other on familiar territory!!

[Debbie]

Hi
    Is there another dog at your yard that you can take as well that already rides out??
      When i worked  for Heather, she got Shifty JR puppy when he was about 5 months old he got out of the house(when i rode out he went to the house so as not to follow me and my collie Toby) and managed to sniff us out down the road,as my old mare napped badly i didnt want to turn her to home so carrried on but shorten the ride as shifty couldnt walk to far. Shifty trotted along beside Toby and kept looking to him as if to say "am i doing this right" and when a car came Toby leant against shifty into the hedge so he wouldnt get run over.
        My young collie Moss was the same he would follow alongside Toby and Shifty and follow their lead,now at the age of 3 he`s on his own and walks lovely out for rides,i crossed a busy main road yesterday which he has never seen before and he was excellent!!
     Failing that and your horse is safe use a lunge line from the horse though personally i dont care how good the horse is id rather not take a risk that wa

Good luck Purdy will enjoy it once she gets used to mummy beingon horse back    

[franklin]

Hi,
I used to hack out with Kate and Tess both Heinz 57 variety dogs, they were great company for me and the horses, and as they got older and couldn't keep up in the canter the horse would stop at the top of the hill and wait for them, as soon as they came into veiw the horse would walk off at a very steady pace till the dogs caught up with us.  The other useful thing was when I took a young horse out for the first time on its own, things were not so scarey when they had theit cannine buddies with them.
Good luck with Purdy you and she will have a great time.
Jenny

[Flashback]

i rescued a collie x just over a year ago, she was about 18 months at the time. she had loads of issues with anything with fur, anything bigger than her, anything smaller than her etc etc etc!!!!! i used to leave her tied in the yard when i hacked out but always felt guilty doing so, she always looked so sad!!!!! i moved to a quieter yard with quieter hacking a few months ago and one sunday decided to see if mollie would like to come out with me - she's extremely obedient but can still be a little headstrong at times!!!! - we've never looked back!!!!!! there's one nasty bit where there's a VERY noisy dog whos owner deliberately lets him out and mollie is ace at setting his barking off well before he can scare the living daylights out of my horse!!!!!!! and the big bonus is she gets plenty of exercise! she trots off in front til we canter then lopes along behind us, even after an hour or so hacking she still wants to play stick when we get back!

so go for it!! but make sure your dog is obedient!

good luck!

[Mossy]

I used to take my girl for miles. The secret is an obedient dog, as the dog HAS to do as it is told, WHEN it is told, 100% of the time and off the lead. I always had a schooling whip with me so any thoughts of canine independent thinking could be tickled out immediately. Sheba was exceptional, but with practice and sense most things are possible; having said that none of our currennt canine crew are hackable.