Oh boy, I'm joining the great dog debate...

["Sarah Roxanne Zawacki" <zawackis@pilot.msu.edu>]

    Two things: first off, my lone bad experience with dogs at rides.  Probably
because I have only been to one ride, a condition that will (hopefully) be
changing soon.  :) :) :)  I forgot about it until someone posted the dog tied
to fifty feet of line.  We were riding around in morning, before our 25 miles
CTR.  There were five of us, two experienced horses with experienced rider,
one newbie on an experienced horse, a *very* laidback QH, and me (newbie!) on
Elliot.  We were walking (some of the horses who knew what to expect were
dancing a bit) around camp.  As we went past a trailer and got within eight
feet of it, a dog jumped out from under it, snarling like mad and barking
and frothing and scaring several of the horses very, very badly.  Then he
quickly retreated under the trailer, invisible and waiting for the next
group.  Elliot didn't panic because of several experiences he'd had with dogs.
A friendly dog used to trot behind us on trail rides.  Elliot hated having
something following in the brush out of sight, but definitely there, at first.
But then he got used to it.
    The other dog experience was an aggressive but non-biting dog we almost
always rode past.  The dog would come bounding up the driveway as we rode past,
barking, and then come onto the road and try to run after the horses.
    Which leads to the second thing: a long time ago, when I was in the 4-H
CTR club, we used to go on training rides twice a month, with about thirty
people.  Anyone who wanted to could come, and we had a lot of adults who rode
weekends come along.  It was quite the event, and we had a great time.  I
remember one lady, who wore a fancy black hat (the kind someone would wear for
sidesaddle or driving) with a red scarf tied around the brim, responded quite
differently to a threatening dog.  We usually just tried to walk past, but
this lady said that if you turned around and chased the dog, they usually got
scared and ran away.  She demonstrated.  She was on a Rocky Mountain horse
and she held her arms out from her sides as the horse trotted right at the
dog, ears pricked, as she made the most awful noise.  The dog got scared and
ran away.  While Elliot would *never* tolerate the letting go of the reins
and holding my arms out part, we have practiced the chasing bit with great
enthusiasm.  Elliot is sort of timid, but chasing dogs away seemed to give
him a bit more confidence in the face of barking canines.  It also helped
us out a bit when we tried team penning a couple of times. (*great* fun!)
Has anyone else here tried chasing the dogs away?  Any good/bad results?
Safety concerns?



                            Sarah & Elliot (BARK!)


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