Dogs and horses, behaviour?

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emmaln

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Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone knew of any good books or papers i could read regarding the way dogs and horses see each other?

I have a Rhodesian Ridgeback 8 month old pup and two horses. Toffs the 18 yr old ex racer is lovely with her and tuli (the dog) seems to respect her, the other day i was poo picking and tuli was eating poo in the field (yuck, dirty dog!) i asked her to leave and she didn't first time so i asked with my stern voice at which point Toffs put her ears back at tuli and sent her away??? Tuli did as she was told by toffs and that was that! It was like Toffs just saw her as another member of the herd??

Tegan on the other hand my youngster i have to be very careful with her and tuli as, tuli play bows at her and Tegan almost does the same!??! However they will groom each other, Tegan grooms Tuli who lifts her back legs up so that she can reach her tummy.

Just wondered if Tuli could read the hierarchy of the herd, probably a stupid question???

I have a very strange brood!
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Dogs certainly know what horses mean and will understand serious threatening signs. Having said that, there are a number of possible problems:

- both dog and horse may be willing to play, but both may be hurt by accident

- the horse may give warning signs of aggression but the dog may not react quickly enough to get out of the way

- the horse may give warning signs of aggression and the dog may respond aggressively, possibly getting both of them hurt

- the horse may be misbehaving and the dog may decide to help with the discipline, leaving you in the middle of the argument

For these reasons my dogs are not allowed in the fields when the horses are out, they know to stay out of the school when I am riding and generally they are discouraged from interacting with the horses.
 
I totally agree with all of that and Tuli is not allowed in the field when Tegan is out all interaction between the two happens with a fence in between!

I let her in the field with Toffs but only when there are two of us and only now that i know she is listening i have also taught her to sit wait on her spot outside the field and if i can forsee a problem i simply use the command OUT and she returns to her spot! I have owned Toffs for five and a half years and have seen her with numerous dogs of all different characters and she is not bothered by them in the slightest! I am a very very careful owner and would never put my animals at risk deliberately!
 
Sorry I didn't mean to imply that you were not careful!!! Just thinking out loud really about the reasons that have led me to keep dogs and horses separate as I have been caught out by nearly all of these in the past!
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I know sorry re read my post and it did sound like i let her run riot, totally agree that there is always a danger! Have also posted in new lounge so have updated that now in case anyone else worried! :-)
 
My dogs come down to the yard everday and run round the fields when the my two mares are out and neither take a blind bit of notice of each other!

I would love to see a video of Tuli and Tegan grooming each other
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It is very funny, the best bit is when she lifts her back leg for Tegan to do her belly he he he! Haven't managed to work out how to add photos on here yet let alone videos!
 
My Collie x Kelpie comes down to the field with me and my horse. My horse ignores him most of the time, occasionally she's a tinker and entices him to "round her up" knowing that he will then get told off for it!!!!

Jack will lay has football at Ella's feet and look at her asking her to throw it but doesn't understand why she snubs his ball and walks away!!!!

I'm certain they don't understand each others body language yet but they're getting there!!!! However, Jack was only introduced to my horse 6 weeks ago - he's an 11 or 12 month old rescue!

We've had our trials and tribulations with it, mainly because of the Collie Round Up Instinct but I would says that Jack is finally getting the message that Ella doesn't always need to be put in her field shelter!!!!!

I'd love to know whats going on in their heads when they're together!!!!

I used to have a Dally, he would follow me around the field, he'd been with horses since he was 8wks old so he was different with them. He had an inche of skin de-gloved from the end of his tail by a horse standing on it when he was around 9months old. He ended up having an inche or so amputated from his tail. But it he just learned to keep out from under their feet quicker! (Sounds cruel, but too long winded to type the whole story so not really as bad as it sounds!!) We had a mare who used to chase dogs but I could read her and if I know the Dally wasn't ready for her I'd shout "Look out" and he knew that was his cue to get out of the way before she got to him.

The tail and rounding up are the only problems I've ever encountered and have had horses and dogs roaming free together all my life.
 
Interesting to hear that the one you had with horses from young seems to know the score! maybe they do watch each other and learn like we do?

They're probably more instinctual than us as they don't have spoken language to get in the way! All communication is body language oh and the odd growl bark woof whinny neigh whicker!!
 
In general I think dogs simply are good at learning both their own body language and others. Most dogs have been bred for x generations because they're good at interacting with us humans and the earlier they get a chance to begin learning their second or third body language the better. F.ex. take the fact that humans shows their teeth when happy and most dogs don't (though I've heard that f.ex. Dalmatians smile), still most dogs learns that we are showing our teeth for different reasons than them.

My dogs plays with my cats and there is several things in the cat language that means the opposite in dog language, like that a cat that "wags" its tail from side to side is "probably" not a happy cat, but a dog that wags its tail is. And though my cats are interested in playing with the dogs, I would say that the reason for why it works is more (not only but more) because of the dogs being able to read the cats, than the other way around.



Lovely to hear about your animals interacting.
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