The discussion on the roaming animals has been great to read-thanks,
everyone, for keeping it balanced and trying to keep things positive!
It brings to my mind a situation I regularly have to deal with, and I was
wondering if I could collect some methods that any of you have found
helpful.
Here's the basic situation: Where I live, it is very rural, but all
of the land is privately owned and fenced, leaving very few trails for
conditioning. Not really a big problem, though, as the roads are windy and
rough enough that even the wildest drivers can't make it to very high
speeds. There are also VERY few of those. An 8 mile ride MIGHT let
me see 2 vehicles...
But, (there's always one of those, no?) there are several houses along the
route that have dogs which invariably come charging out into the road as I ride
by. There aren't often a nuisance to neighbors livestock (or the neighbors
likely WOULD Shoot, Shovel and Shush), but they seem to feel that they MUST
drive off that immense equid on THEIR road way. I don't mind the barking
and yapping, especially when they stop at their yard boundary. It's the
ones who get more and more aggressive with each pass (have recently had one
swinging from my young mares tail-she impressed me to no end by taking it
calmly) that concern me.
Owners are rarely home, or if they are, they ignore the commotion (or
worse, yell futilely for darling Scruffy to "get back here!!") I am NOT
comfortable riding into yards belonging to the animals to try to get anyone's
attention. I have in the past had one arterial puncture to my gelding's
right rear fetlock from a "playful nip" as the owner described it to her cousin
the Sheriff (can you guess how well THAT was handled?) and on a different
occasion had a Shepard swinging from a pony mare's muzzle (had to get off
and KICK the dog to make him release...dog entered my pasture and chased a foal
the next day and was never seen again). (These events were quite some time
back, not recent....just laying out a little history).
I am seeing the same behavior patterns of steadily increasing aggression in
some of the dogs I have to pass. The dog that would stand off about 20
yards and bark 2 months ago but today swung from Frostbite's tail being one had
begun small charges coming closer and closer until today it attempted a
grab. Others are approaching closer and closer (at other farms, as
well. Indeed, the dog who grabbed today is a lab/pit cross (according to a
neighbor who heard me cussing him) that has a "pack" of pets from the same place
consisting of about 8 different forms of mutts (some are quite cute, but they
are making me VERY nervous lately, they are ALL getting bolder). And they
follow me farther and farther from their home of late.
What are ways to handle this that have worked for any of you? Both to
stop the acts of the dogs OR ways to get the owners to help? The "Your dog
might get run over approach is rarely effective because the roads are too bad
for a driver to go fast enough to seem much of a threat.
