Dogs for trail rides??

[Persik85]

Hi there,

I breed and train endurance horses.

I’m looking for a dog to walk and trot beside our endurance horses when we are training.

Most of our training sessions are 8 to 15 miles, half walking half trotting more or less.

We live in souther Spain so warm weather most of the time.

We are not sure about shepherd dogs because I’ve seen some that will disturb the horses on their paddocks trying to herd them

Also would like to know if hunting dogs will cause trouble with new born horses and yearlings.

From what I have read I thinks Dalmatian may be a good for us but not sure about how they handle the heat.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Glitter's fun]

Hi, welcome to the forum.
We have Border Collie herding dogs. They are long haired & bred to withstand cold and wet, so wouldn't suit you but they don't bother the animals when they are not being told to herd them because they're trained like that. Any working breed would have the stamina you need but would also be intelligent, very active and need a lot of input from you, especially to begin with. You can't just let them grow up doing their own thing around the place, expressing all their instincts.
Maybe look what locally bred dogs there are available?
I don't know what your locally bred Dalmatians are like but where I live they seem to be bred for looks more than function and have some health issues.

What dogs have you had before? What experience of dog training do you have?

 

[I'm Dun]

You can train any dog pretty much to hack out with you. I've hacked out with my 2 whippets with zero issues and on paper they wouldn't be ideal. So pick a dog you like, short coated, long nosed and heat tolerant and just put the training in.

 

[Gloi]

I've ridden out with my friend's border collie. An amazing dog who stayed beneath the horse's nose looking up at him. Never moved from the spot and never got stepped on, no matter what the gait.

Found a picture. Fab dog

 

[skinnydipper]

Also would like to know if hunting dogs will cause trouble with new born horses and yearlings.

Best to avoid dogs with strong prey drive, you don't want them bogging off after wildlife.

Research breeds carefully. What was their original purpose?

 

[Jenko109]

Perhaps a kelpie?

 

[Persik85]

Hi, welcome to the forum.
We have Border Collie herding dogs. They are long haired & bred to withstand cold and wet, so wouldn't suit you but they don't bother the animals when they are not being told to herd them because they're trained like that. Any working breed would have the stamina you need but would also be intelligent, very active and need a lot of input from you, especially to begin with. You can't just let them grow up doing their own thing around the place, expressing all their instincts.
Maybe look what locally bred dogs there are available?
I don't know what your locally bred Dalmatians are like but where I live they seem to be bred for looks more than function and have some health issues.

What dogs have you had before? What experience of dog training do you have?

The only dogs we have had so far are “Bodeguero Ratonero Andaluz” and we have trained them just the basics so they don’t go inside the house or climb on top of friends that come by. They are very energetic dogs but too short legs to hold a horse trot.

If I finally get a dog to go on trails with us my idea is to hire someone that helps with correct education, so maybe a herding dog wouldn’t be that bad. I see if I can find a good breeder of kelpies or Australian cattle dog as other have suggested

 

[Persik85]

Thanks everyone for your replies

 

[Spotherisk]

My friend hacks out with her English pointers, 5hat always seems to go well.

 

[CorvusCorax]

When I worked at a place in southern Spain, the dogs GSD, a GSD x Lab and their descendants, all the other dogs in the area were free range so the sires were usually from the next farm. They came out with us but one of the crosses had to be muzzled as it tried to have a farmer's chickens. The GSD matriarch did try to herd the horses.

Where I rode during my 20s and 30s, the yard's little hairy terrier used to hack with us for miles.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

I used to hack out for miles with my two extremely obedient border collies and they were excellent riding companions, but that wasn't in a hot climate. I wonder if there is some sort of locally bred dogs that might suit that sort of work in your climate?

 

[DSB]

A working Kelpie,no problem doing the miles when fit.