 |
[RC] Inadvertently training the dog to be agressive. - k s swigartFaustina Duffy said: 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. ... 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. What is happening her is the dog is getting positive reinforcement for the behaviour or barking at and chasing your horse. The first time you come by, the dog wants to protect its territory so it runs out and barks, and what do you know, it successfully chases off that big intruder. The more you do it...just go on by, the more the dog is being trained to chase you off, and the more agressive it will become with its success. Passers by inadvertently train dogs in this way all the time. The only way you, as a passerby, can untrain this behaviour is to make it so the dog fails instead of succeeding, and instead have the dog learn that you won't go away until it does. You had better have PLENTY of time to devote to this is you want to have any success. Because what you will have to do when a dog barks at/chases you is STOP, and stay there until the dog gives up and goes away. If it turns back and chases you again when you proceed, you have to stop again. In essence, what you have to teach (somebody else's dog, mind you) is "barking at me will not chase me off, what you have to do to get me to leave is turn your back and walk away." I will do this with dogs behind a fence. With dogs that are not behind a fence, I simply chase them with my horse. I have yet to meet a dog that is willing to take on a horse coming at it. It helps if you have trained your horse to chase dogs--and, BTW, this is a handy thing to teach the horse anyway even if you don't want to be able to run down dogs. If you teach your horse to chase dogs that come after it, by turning the horse around and running the dog down and using a verbal cue (I say "git 'im."), what your horse learns is that if it turns and faces the things that it might find scary and runs towards it, it runs away. That way, any time your horse starts to spook at something, you can turn your horse towards it, say "git 'im" and the horse immediately moves out of flight mode. If nothing else, loose dogs are a great schooling opportunity for you and your horse. Teach your horse to run them down. You will have a braver, more confident horse, and you get to use somebody else's dog for the victim. Loose dogs are fair game anyway. kat Orange County, Calif. :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|