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Faustina,

I am not sure how you will manage this on horseback, but I have a girlfriend 
who's aussie cattle dog would always meet me at my car door and often 
"connect" with the back of my calf..playful...yes, hurt..of course! He broke 
the skin one too many times. Here is what worked: Whenever I went over 
there, I took a squirt bottle in my car, and the min I get out, if he was 
there, he got a faceful of water.

Over time, he has come to recognize my car as the one with the 'water lady" 
and totally leaves me alone. You may need a pretty strong spray bottle to 
get them from on top of your horse, and I would certainly try squirting off 
your horse at home first..but it may work?? YOu may even figure out 
something more than just water that is not toxic, but they like even less 
than water..lemon juice? vinegar?? I would get a spray bottle with a strong 
stream and put in in my pommel pack.

Good luck!


Ask me about our newest course, "The Couple's Retreat" in the Smoky 
Mountains of Tennessee

Ranelle Rubin
Coaching and Consulting Services
The Coaching Center

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> From: "Faustina Duffy" <kellswaterfarm@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [RC]   From Cat to dogs charging
> Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 19:42:57 -0600
>
> 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.
>
> Thanks in Advance!!



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