Advice for a rider if a dog is out of control....

[jules9203]

A couple of days ago I was out hacking with a friend and we came across a large dog that was very reactive to the horses. They were approx 150yards away and on a lead. The owner was really struggling to control the dog. We kept walking away from them. We then heard a scream, looked round to find the dog running towards us. Luckily he was on an extendable lead and the owner just managed to stay on her feet and stop him. My question is.....if the dog had got loose what would be the best reaction from us? Do we stand still or run? This dog would have looked very aggressive and tbh I was quite shaken afterwards when I thought about it. Posting this in the dog forum too.

 

[Caol Ila]

As a caveat, this probably would not work with anything that was truly aggressive and wanted to attack you no matter what. In which case, kiss your a$$ goodbye. Or hope you can outrun it.

BUT it works with the vast majority of dogs. It's the mountain lion advice, which is, look bigger, meaner, and scarier than they are. I turn my horse to face it and ride towards it if the horse will comply. I stay still if they won't. I keep facing it and spin the horse around if the dog tries to run around the side of us. I turn my dressage whip around so I'm holding it up like a sword, and I wave it around and shout at dog in a big, mean, ANGRY voice. My whole atitude is, "You f*ck with me, I will f*cking murder you." I mean, I'm not murdering anything with a dressage whip (my horse might with his heels), but I act as if in my heart of hearts, I think I can. Most dogs I meet start rethinking their life choices when the 'prey' acts like a meaner, scarier, predator than they are.

 

[Vodkagirly]

Unfortunately on previous yard, it was quite common to be chased by dogs. I agree with above. Stand your ground, if carrying a whip, use it - I always carry a dressage whip now

 

[jules9203]

As a caveat, this probably would not work with anything that was truly aggressive and wanted to attack you no matter what. In which case, kiss your a$$ goodbye. Or hope you can outrun it.

BUT it works with the vast majority of dogs. It's the mountain lion advice, which is, look bigger, meaner, and scarier than they are. I turn my horse to face it and ride towards it if the horse will comply. I stay still if they won't. I keep facing it and spin the horse around if the dog tries to run around the side of us. I turn my dressage whip around so I'm holding it up like a sword, and I wave it around and shout at dog in a big, mean, ANGRY voice. My whole atitude is, "You f*ck with me, I will f*cking murder you." I mean, I'm not murdering anything with a dressage whip (my horse might with his heels), but I act as if in my heart of hearts, I think I can. Most dogs I meet start rethinking their life choices when the 'prey' acts like a meaner, scarier, predator than they are.

That would be my gut reaction, thank you x

 

[Caol Ila]

Your greatest advantage is that you’re on a horse. You’re already big. You just have to act like a deranged two headed monster instead of prey.

Scares the crap out of the owners as well, which is fun.

 

[Red-1]

I third this. I spin them to face the dog and yell like a screaming banshee. I also have a schooling whip and land one if the dog jumps at the horse.

 

[Caol Ila]

Talking to OH about this thread, I am reminded of my other trick. If I see an off-lead dog that looks like it might be a problem (but before it becomes an actual problem), I stop my horse and give the owner the look of death. My horses are very good about standing and waiting. I glare at the dog owner but say nothing. Most of them frantically scrabble around to put the dog on a lead (not always successfully, in which case we go to the deranged-banshee method described in my earlier posts in this thread). I can't explain why, but this is more effective than my friend's approach, which is to yell, "Put it on a lead, please. Put it on a lead or the horse will kick!" For unfathomable reasons of human psychology, parking your horse in the middle of the trail and scowling silently at people seems much, much more efficacious.

 

[Gloi]

I've not had to do it recently but I fortunately haven't met a dog that didn't turn and flee when being ridden at at a fast trot with a rider shouting at it.

 

[Pedantic]

Never a one size fits all fix for this problem, depends on the situation, you normally have to weigh thing's up pretty quickly to decide what to do, depends on the dog, the horse you are on, your instincts, and your riding confidence, on my own pony, I knew how clever he was regarding his instincts, so depending on the particular dog, he knew whether to stand still or kick it, or if I asked him we would ride repeatedly at it and shout at it to f*** off.
In the particular incident you described, turn horse and ride at like hell shouting like a maniac, but as I said, depends on dog breed, and how brave it is.

 

[marmalade76]

I rode at a dog that was leaping around barking behind my horse and it ran away yelping!

If I came across one that wouldn't back off, I hope that whatever horse I was on would kick it.

 

[paddy555]

For unfathomable reasons of human psychology, parking your horse in the middle of the trail and scowling silently at people seems much, much more efficacious.

more effective still is training your horse to be brave and ride at the dog. Then a very slow funeral march (always good to make the pleasure of the owner last as long as possible) riding at the dog. The owners will squeal a bit. Can you stop your horse. Yes I tell them can you call your dog back. After a few times of this exchange and 600kg getting ever closer to their "furbaby" they start to get the message.

 

[Sealine]

I once had a big dog charge out of a property towards us barking. We stood still and I very loudly growled ‘get away’ and ‘don’t you dare’. The dog stopped dead and I carried on growling loudly until the owner appeared. Of course it may not work with more determined aggressive dogs but it’s worked for me a number of times.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I use the 'face them - and spin if I have to' method on most, very occasionally threatening with hunt whip if things get out of hand.
My voice is particularly loud... so I bellow call your dog etc in a very authoritative voice.

One young Great Dane that pulled out of his tiny owners hand and attempted to leap up at withers got a bloody hard boot in the ribs from me, good B Fuzzy as it's the 1st time she ever trembled under me. Thankfully a quick thinking male dog walker came to the rescue and grabbed the trailing rope and tied the dog to a tree, 2 others tore a strip off the woman!

It can be a daily hazard on my home hacking, grr!

 

[Boulty]

Generally if just a dog being a bit of a barky dick & not actually trying to come in for a bite then yeah turn to face & ideally walk towards as generally if they’re doing it cos they’re unsure this will back them off & make them rethink their choices.

Fuzzball is pretty dog savvy and knows if he snake necks & does a version of Spanish walk he can get them to back the hell off. (He grew up around GSDs and used to also play daft games with the collie pups at a previous yard) He generally likes dogs but think he would absolutely go as far as running one over / trampling it if he was asked to. (I mean he walks into the quad if he thinks it’s in his way!) That’s probably what I would ask him to do if something were to genuinely try to attack.

The Welsh didn’t really like dogs but would stand & tolerate non aggressive ones just being silly as long as he knew they were there. Anything that appeared suddenly next to him risked being booted. Would probably have tried to leg it on him had anything attacked us as he was fast enough & sure footed enough to outrun (& he’d have booted anything that came close into next week).

 

[SEL]

I had to have a moan on local FB page last week after a little Yorkshire terrier ran under the horses AFTER I asked the owner to get it under control.

Don't worry he likes horses as it yapped under the microcob's legs. I pointed out our 17.2 giant of a hacking companion didn't like dogs and one stamp from a leg would put a stop to the yapping once and for all.

 

[Surbie]

.

 

[dreamcometrue]

It happened to me a couple of weeks ago, not a big dog but hurtling towards us with intent. I turned pony around to face it and shouted the command “No”
It stopped immediately and the owner was able to call it back to him. My mare is brave though and would have dealt with it with her heels as she has done in the past.

 

[w1bbler]

My old mare sent a dog into orbit once as it tried to bite her heel.
Luckily for the dog it seemed uninjured, I'm guessing as it was so close to her as she kicked,
The exchange between me & owner was x rated apparently I should have controlled my horse

 

[DabDab]

I do the face it and shout too.

On the odd occassion I've had one under the horse's legs before I've had time to do anything then try to move away before turning on it, or if it's small I've jumped off and either obstructed it with my boot, or grabbed it myself. I have to confess that I scruffed and somewhat launched a staffy earlier this year when it came flying out of the front door of a house as I hacked past and its owners stood pyjama-clad in the doorway being of little use.

 

[southerncomfort]

One of my favourite places to ride is some old quarry tracks across moorland.
The tracks are very twisty/turny and on a few occasions I've had dogs suddenly appear around a corner with the owner nowhere in sight. I'll admit it unnerves me!

I usually bellow 'IS YOUR DOG OK WITH HORSES?', which generally brings the owner scuttling round the corner quick smart.

Thankfully most dogs up there have really good recall and we've only had one incident, where the owner of a lurcher cross type decided that putting it on a lead wasn't necessary and assumed the dog would follow her down a side track. It didn't!

Usually I'd keep turning to face the dog but it was too quick, and before I could react it was right behind Bo with its head in his tail.

I yelled 'GET YOUR DOG BEFORE ITS KICKED', I think she clocked my hat cam as well and finally got the dog and put it on a lead.

Was very proud of Bo as its the first time we'd been in that position and I wasn't sure how he'd react, but he stood stock still bless him.

 

[rextherobber]

Also face it and be the authority figure. Circle if the dog is trying to bite the horse's belly. If you can yell something like " BAD dog! Go home! " at it while its still a way away, they generally stop on their tracks ( while the owner is doing the sweet voice " Digby, come!" stuff) As @Caol Ila says you need to sound like you will disembowel it if it disobeys you. It's frightened, how many badly trained dogs there are, (particularly since Covid and the dog buying boom) . I've actually had an owner tell me to "leave her alone", as I'm yelling at the dog because it's trying to bite my horse. I don't usually hack out with a whip, but I started carrying one, purely to defend ourselves if needed.

 

[Skib]

Our rule was for horse and rider to halt and stand still. Then verbally warn the dog owner that a kick from the horse might kill their dog. Dog owner always retrieved their dog and leashed it, a. s.a.p.
I use the past tense as dogs are now supposed to be on the lead most of the year and owners whose dogs are loose either move away from the riding track or leash them at once.

 

[paddy555]

Our rule was for horse and rider to halt and stand still. Then verbally warn the dog owner that a kick from the horse might kill their dog. Dog owner always retrieved their dog and leashed it, a. s.a.p.
I use the past tense as dogs are now supposed to be on the lead most of the year and owners whose dogs are loose either move away from the riding track or leash them at once.

very different for me and I met lots of dogs in a holiday area especially on a Sunday. The reply was usually my dog doesn't mind horses and they let him carry on running around the horse . That was when I decided to keep moving towards them to force action.

I'm afraid this is the same selfish attitude from dog owners towards horses that I used to see from dog owners towards my GSD when walking him (on a lead) the comment then as their dog ran over to him and around him was my little dog likes big dogs. I gave up taking him out. I got fed up with them.

dogs need to be securely on a lead in public areas.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I always carry a schooling whip, mainly to flick at cars too close, and in some cases in the past I whacked their roof.
For dogs, luckily my boy used to last out at dogs, this mare not sure, but I would prob wave the stick and try hit the dog, and also face her to it or try to run it over.

My worry about galloping or cantering off, is our woods are not huge and what happens when you reach the road???

Getting off would not work on this mare as waving the whip would scare her + me shouting as she hates screaming voices, and she would break free from me.

worst scenario is I would gallop off but that is extreme cases.

My late mare kicked 2 dogs in the past, and I always shout (even if this mare does not kick out) " Get away dog or you will be kicked!!! or get your bloody dog as it will be kicked" but medium low sound voice

My friend had a small sausage dog run round the horses feet, nothing said from the owner who just continued her walk. R said get your dog"! owner did nothing, Tia kicked the dog, and when it hit the ground it was dead"

I won't hack out without a schooling whip either one of these hi viz ones or the flashing one.

Economy Schooling Whip | Shires Equestrian

Ideal for day-to-day use, the economy schooling whip is still smart enough to use at shows. A thread covered stem with a plastic handle.

shiresequestrian.com

Thermatex

Thermatex

www.thermatex.co.uk

 

[Julia0803]

We had a small, fluffy, barky, aggressive mop dog rush out of a house we had just walked past yesterday and rush straight onto the road, trying to chase our horses. There were oncoming cars and it was so dangerous. It could have turned into a very nasty accident for all involved.

The owners scrabbled out of the house and managed to grab it. There was a lot of shrieking from passers by.

We were very lucky that the horses both stood stock still. If they'd freaked out and run, we would have been heading straight into oncoming traffic (up ahead there were cars parked on 'our side' of the road and v little room at all.

No apology from the owners...

 

[Pippity]

There was an incident near me, a few months back, where two scrotes deliberately set their bully type on a horse. With owners egging it on to attack, I'm not sure whether turning to face it would help, especially as you've also got two aggressive young men to worry about.

The rider in that case attempted to get the hell out of Dodge, but ended up coming off.

 

[alexomahony]

This happened to me on Saturday while out long reining my retired horse around the local woods. Luckily the dog was playful and not at all aggressive, but came bounding over to my horse who is fine with dogs, but not so much ones bounding towards him and I gave it 'the stare' and said 'NO' very sternly, and he went back to his owners.

Gosh @Pippity - that sounds horrific. Hope the person is ok.

 

[humblepie]

I think it depends on the horse. Some horses might get upset if rider suddenly yelling even if it’s for a good reason. We had a dog which I don’t think it was going to do anything but it was tearing towards my horse then the owners started running and shouting. Think Fenton - horse more upset by them than the dog. They did get the death stare plus the comment that it wasn’t a foot path it was a track for horses and the farm and perhaps they’d like to keep their dog under control. I have done the turn round and glare in the past.

 

[Caol Ila]

I think it depends on the horse. Some horses might get upset if rider suddenly yelling even if it’s for a good reason. We had a dog which I don’t think it was going to do anything but it was tearing towards my horse then the owners started running and shouting. Think Fenton - horse more upset by them than the dog. They did get the death stare plus the comment that it wasn’t a foot path it was a track for horses and the farm and perhaps they’d like to keep their dog under control. I have done the turn round and glare in the past.

Mine are used to it. "Oh, she's off on one again."

 

[Skib]

I hack alone. Last week I came up behind four walkers, spread across the bridle track with 2 dogs. I didnt dare shout or call out to them in case I scared the mare. Her foot fall is silent on the newly sanded track. Lucilly the walkers soon turned off to the right along a smaller footpath. It worried me that even after 15 years of hacking solo, there are still situations in which I dont know what to do.