From: mlr21@cas.org (Mary Lee Raines)
Subject: Re: Help Dog chases Horse
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 18:49:23 GMT

In article <1992Dec19.182046.1142@mala.bc.ca>, bigrasl@mala.bc.ca writes:
|> Help!!!  I need advice on this one.
|> I have a nine month old male standard schnauzer who has taken up
|> chasing my horse.  He has done this four times to date.
|> It has occurred when I went to take him out of his pen adn he jumped 
|> through my arms and took off after her.  The last time he ran her
|> 3/4 of her pasture till I was able to cath him.  Also this last time 
|> she kicked at him three times with her hind legs.  In order for her
|> not to continue kicking at him I made her go faster so that she
|> couldn't make contact.  It appears that they are both jealous of each
|> other.  A couple of days ago I had the dog on lead and had him in a
|> sit outside the paddock and I was letting him look at the horse.
|> He was behaving himself fine however, the horse started trotting in
|> the paddock as if she wanted him to chase her.  I bought the dog
|> in hopes of being able to take him out on the trail with me when 
|> he got older.  So I would really like them to get along.  How does
|> one go about this?  Any help in this matter would be appreciated. 

I've never really "worked" to make this kind of thing happen.  I've
just always had dogs, and my dogs have always just kind of gotten
along with the horses.  Doesn't mean nobody ever got kicked, though--
but nothing serious. 

And my dogs have run the gamut from basically ignoring the horses
(Husky, and a Collie X), to playing tag with the horses (Dalmatian, 
and a terrier mix) to trying to boss the horses (little terrier mix).
(And all of them have gone with me while riding.)

Assuming you have board fence (i.e., not electric).  I would tie the
dog on 8-10 lead so he can get under the fence.
That way, the dog can't chase the horse, and, if the horse were to
try to hurt the dog, the dog could get under the fence.
Get yourself out of the way (if you have to watch, do it from the
barn, out of sight of the critters).  Leave them alone 
long enough for them to work it out on their own (that's probably
a couple hours).  Do this every day for a few days, and I would
assume that the horse and the dog will figure out their relationship.

By the way, the Dalmatian and the terrier would run into the field and
chase my horses (well, the young horses; the older ones chose not to run).
Then the dogs would stop and turn away from the horses and look over
their shoulders at them.  You could just about hear them saying, 
"Hey, c'mon, chase me, it's fun."  Then the horses would chase the
dogs out of the field, and everybody would stop for a while, then the
game would start up again, usually until the horses decided they would
rather eat grass than chase dogs.  Then they would just stop, put their
heads down to graze, and the game would be over.

Mary Lee
Ravenswood Apps
Ohio

P.S. If you get everything worked out between the dog and the horse,
but then you find the dog trying to get bossy while you're riding
(my wee terrier mix doesn't think a horse with a rider should do
anything over a trot), you might try a squirt gun with water in it.
You'll have to play cowboy here, riding, asking for a canter,
and squirting the dog if he tries to interfere. If straight water doesn't
do it, add a little (not much) pepper juice).

I'm just bringing this part up because schnauzers are terriers and terriers
tend to be bossy (sorry for the gross generalization).