3 yeard old QH/TB afraid of dogs in our area

by Brooke
(Parker, Texas)

Our 3 year old (not broke yet but smart and sweet) QH/TB cross is afraid of the dogs that run around in our area. They are sweet "neighborhood" dogs, but our young gelding is completely petrified of them. Our older 11 year old gelding came to us 6 years ago from a place with lots of dogs so it is not as big an issue with him, but he gets nervous when the 3 year old starts freaking out.

We do not own any dogs on our place unfortunately so I'm not sure how I can address this issue. Any ideas?

Answer:
Hi Brooke!
Great question! Interspecies communication can be a complex subject so you will have a bit of a challenge here.
First some things to consider:
Are you sure these neighborhood dogs have not chased or harassed your horses? How many dogs are we talking about?
What happens that you mean “freaking out?” Does he get to a state of fright that his safety is at risk? This young horse is working with his instinctual knowledge that these are unpredictable predators. And I would hazard to guess that these dogs have been showing a herding instinct around them. The older horse reacts accordingly even though his past experiences have been different. Depending upon the severity here’s what I would do.

A) Find out who owns these dogs and tell them you have a young horse who finds them frightening and you would like to teach your horse not to be afraid. Get their permission to put a collar and lead on one of the “nicest” dogs. (Or ask them politely to keep their dogs away for awhile but add you would be delighted to have them participate for everyone’s sake) Have one person lead the dog ahead while another leads the horse behind. Give the horse the impression he is chasing it away. Utilize clicker training in this process. Click & reward every time the horse first looks at the dog but does not leave. Discover how close the horse can get to the dog. Have the horse walk behind the dog while the dog is walking away from him. Work up to the horse sniffing the dog.

B) Borrow someone elses dog. And do the above.

C) Demonstrate to your horses that you will chase a dog until it is outside of their paddock. Yip, this one will work! Horse’s watch everything you do.

D) Teach these dogs with clicker training where they are allowed on your property and how to behave around horses.

E) Build confidence in the young horse with moving objects like rolling a ball and then catching up with it.

If I am ever riding somewhere and a dog comes out and starts barking or chasing, I always turn the horse to the dog and we walk toward it together. Dogs will always back off.

When building confidence in horses it is always best to have the horse follow the scary object rather than us bringing the object to them.

Elaine Polny