How to speak sternly to my dog without my mount thinking I'm talking to him.

[didgery]

I trail ride with my mule and my cattle dog, and while the two are generally very compatible I do face one challenge that I'm not sure how to deal with. I like to encourage the dog to trot beside or in front of me, and I can't STAND it when she trots right at my mule's heels. (He's not crazy about it either!) If I reprimand her verbally (a growling sound and the command "go on out" will get her right out from behind him) then Fenway, the mule, acts reproached, as though I were scolding him. Story will NOT respond to a gentle voice or just the command "go on out" without the stern rebuke. I don't want to insult my mule on top of having him deal with the annoyance of a dog on his heels, nor do I want to make him touchy about having the dog behind him. I hate to have him think he's in trouble when I scold HER.

"Go on out" is well established in unmounted practice - Story definitely knows that it means to get up in front of me and range ahead 10 or 20 feet - so how do I move to getting a good response from horseback without the scolding?

For those who care, I ride on very private trails with extremely few other trail users. Off leash dogs are allowed. My dog is totally 100% reliable on recall and is never out of sight, so I feel very safe taking her along.

[ellemayo]

I think you may have to go back to the beginning and train her to respond to a quieter "go on out". However, you may have to choose a new phrase, since it appears that she's already conditioned to respond to that one in a specific way.

It may help to train with a remote collar as well. I'm definitely no expert, but I believe that if you train her to respond to the softer command and she chooses to ignore you, you're able to use the collar as a reminder instead of a harsher tone.

[kellyb]

I had the same issue, dog would get a little tired and follow at the horse's heels. I would just stop the horse, look the dog and the eye and calmly tell her to go out. After a few times she got the hint - and just a quiet 'go out' was all she needed when she seemed to forget for a moment.

[goodhors]

Try Dog name first, then give command. Mule should KNOW his name, and learn to ignore commands that do not include it. We do driving, Multiple animals at once. Horses know their names and that correction is meant for Him, or not. Horse NOT named does not respond to command.

You have to do this kind of training or you can not correct the errant one individually.

If horses can learn name, command, and respond individually, then mule and dog should have even less problem.

Just name which animal you want response from when you start giving out directions. Then enforce command to that animal, without doing something to the second one.

We start with name for attention from animal, then give direction you want followed. We want ours all driving, so training starts very early with name and direction. We do the same, starting with dog obedience as a pup. Practice calling one dog, ignoring the other, so they learn name better, attend when you say it.

[threedogpack]

I trail ride with my mule and my cattle dog, and while the two are generally very compatible I do face one challenge that I'm not sure how to deal with. I like to encourage the dog to trot beside or in front of me, and I can't STAND it when she trots right at my mule's heels. (He's not crazy about it either!) If I reprimand her verbally (a growling sound and the command "go on out" will get her right out from behind him) then Fenway, the mule, acts reproached, as though I were scolding him. Story will NOT respond to a gentle voice or just the command "go on out" without the stern rebuke. I don't want to insult my mule on top of having him deal with the annoyance of a dog on his heels, nor do I want to make him touchy about having the dog behind him. I hate to have him think he's in trouble when I scold HER.

"Go on out" is well established in unmounted practice - Story definitely knows that it means to get up in front of me and range ahead 10 or 20 feet - so how do I move to getting a good response from horseback without the scolding?

For those who care, I ride on very private trails with extremely few other trail users. Off leash dogs are allowed. My dog is totally 100% reliable on recall and is never out of sight, so I feel very safe taking her along.

use Dog name to get attention then a hand signal. Teach the hand signal from the ground by using the hand signal, then the verbal, gradually reducing the volume of the verbal till you just eliminate it.

"Pepper>hand signal>go out".

"Pepper>hand signal>whisper go out."

"Pepper>hand signal>even quieter whisper...go out"

"Pepper>hand signal>"

[Foxtrot's]

The Huntsman's horse knows the difference and the hounds all know their individual differences by name. Pretty clever, I think. If the cap fits wear it, when calling hounds.

[TikiSoo]

First of all, I'm green with jealousy! I was sent to your area last June for a month to work....and they provided a horse for me to ride. Gorgeous trail riding, dogs along no problem. Lucky you :cool:

The verbal signal I taught my horse for "canter" is the kiss noise during lunging. I experienced your dilemma while cooling horsie out after a riding lesson and cooing to one of our barn cats. The second I made the kissy noise to the kitty BOOM the horse took off! Can't blame the horse for that!

I then decided to reinforce verbal commands as the previous posters have suggested - addressing the animal by name first. I was actually taught this when I learned to carriage drive and still did it somewhat, now always.

Hopefully, the two names sound very different.
And dogs are smart...eventually you can drop the verbal and rely on the visual.

[Blugal]

I have tried to teach my horses that a scratch on the withers is a praise/relax signal. I usually just have to over-praise, verbally and scratching, the ones that get offended when I yell at dogs (usually not mine!).

[Cielo Azure]

Try Dog name first, then give command. Mule should KNOW his name, and learn to ignore commands that do not include it. We do driving, Multiple animals at once. Horses know their names and that correction is meant for Him, or not. Horse NOT named does not respond to command.

You have to do this kind of training or you can not correct the errant one individually.

If horses can learn name, command, and respond individually, then mule and dog should have even less problem.

Just name which animal you want response from when you start giving out directions. Then enforce command to that animal, without doing something to the second one.

We start with name for attention from animal, then give direction you want followed. We want ours all driving, so training starts very early with name and direction. We do the same, starting with dog obedience as a pup. Practice calling one dog, ignoring the other, so they learn name better, attend when you say it.

I am with you good hors.

It could be a whole different thread but I cringe when people get a "new" adult horse and decide on a name change! Do they not know how some horses know and respond to their name?

I isn't just driving either. Most of my horses will respond in all sorts of situations to their name first. For instance, Joanna knows to not charge the gate when I command "Joanna, back off" at the gate when getting another horse out. The other horse will come with me, because she knows the command was not aimed at her.

Maybe since I drive my horses, and I know the importance of names to many, many horses but to me, it is like changing the name of an adult dog! I suppose it can be done, if the animal's name isn't known but, but, but...it is so much training, starting at birth around here, to get to the point where a horse knows his/her name.

Too often, the new owner just loves the name "Muffin" and the horse came with the name "Mr. Ed." So, "Muffin" is re-named. Then they wonder why "Muffin" doesn't react to them and doesn't listen. Often, "Mr. Ed" is just used to his name being used before he is issued a command!

But, it is the same with owning multiple mixed types of animals, as well as multiple dogs. But it is probably something people who own single dogs don't think about. All my dog understand that their name and a command means them, as do my horses (at least my adult horses).

[Drive NJ]

We have had several adult horses that were OK with changing names - even responded better than pre-name-change - and then there was Max.

Dusty became Macrae
Candy became Harry
Kramer became Ned and

Sergio became Alex... now honestly, can you see yourself at the gate calling Sergio?

All caught on quickly and actually seemed to prefer the new name (according to the barn owner as well as us).

Except Max

Max informed us early on that we could call him whatever we want, but if we wanted a response - the name was Max :winkgrin:

I'm not against changing names as long as you listen to the horse and realize he or she may have their own thoughts on name changes.

[xeroxchick]

Drop the lash and cheerfully say "watch out!" That does the trick for me. The whip is for cracking near the dog, not touching the dog, btw. Also, no previous experience with hunt whips required - they all seem to respect it, even horrid neighbor dogs. See if you can borrow one (just take care of it - they are quite expensive).

[Vesper Sparrow]

I taught my shepherd-husky the command "out of the way!" for cross-country skiing. Very useful when you're going down hills...

I never had the OP's problem when I had two dogs, or with my dog and horse, or with both horses. After the correction, I simply say to the one not being corrected in a soothing tone, "you're a good girl/boy" followed by their name. Works like a charm.