Dogs + horses

[MetaJayne]

I have a 2yo lurcher who I've had for 7 months. I also have a silly 4yo forester. They both learn quickly, and I would love to be able to hack out on my pony with the dog. However, there's a short strech of road to negotiate before I'm on off road hacking. Is the best thing to do train the dog to be led from the ponies back, should I walk that strech or is it possible to train him to walk to heel along there?

 

[kerrylou123]

while im schooling, my JRT follows me around. He keeps up with us and changes the rein when we do, but i wouldn't take him hacking with me, its a bit risky, although the road my horses are on, your probably only likely to pass about 3 cars the whole time your out

 

[TrecPeter]

We take our "sheepdog" out with us. As some other posts have said, the horses are much less wary of unusual things if they see the dog going forward.
If we come to a road (not so many of those were we are luckily), my wife leads him from her Welsh Cob, and has a system were she can unleash the dog again without having to dismount. He didn't like being so near the Cob's feet at first, but soon got used to keeping clear

He's normally excellent at keeping up with us apart from when he spots a hare...
The furthest we've trailed with Shep is 36km.

Here's a pic of the threesome
http://www.alwena.com/4feet/shep/shep_May06-2.jpg

and here's a pic of Shep taken from the horse when he's trotting alongside!
http://www.alwena.com/4feet/shep/shep_May06-1.jpg

 

[Tia]

2 of my dogs ride out with me - my Belgian Shepherd and my SpringerX. The old collie likes to come out for short rides but can't keep up with the longer ones so she gets left behind most of the time nowadays.

I don't ride on roads here; it's all trails with no traffic; however back in England the collie and the Springer both came with me although I didn't have much roadwork there either. I trained both of them from horseback....however they were both VERY well trained beforehand!

I am not sure I would ride out on a road with a hound of any description - they don't think quite like shepherds and sheepdogs.

 

[TrecPeter]

We come across quite a few french hunting hounds when we're out in the autumn - most of them looking completely lost

Quite often they follow us for a bit, but then the nose takes over and they find some interesting scent to follow, and off they go their own way !

PS. We also frequently meet annoyed game hunters looking for their lost dogs