nicky Posted May 17, 2003 Report Share Posted May 17, 2003 we have a lovely three year old black and tan mongrel who is more of a border collie than anything else. She is a super dog, obedient, well trained and will do anything for you as long as she understands what it is. The problem is that she regards our family as her little group, and gets quite distressed if one of us is not there. This is not usually much of a problem as there is not much she can do about it, but we do a lot of horseriding and this is when it can be difficult. If my daughter is having a lesson in the riding school, I keep the dog on the lead, but she becomes quite distressed as my daughter goes away from me on the pony. In this situation its not too bad, but we like to go out on walks with the ponies and the dog. I rarely take the dog on a lead as she is normally well behaved and stays close to me. I walk with the dog, and the two girls ride on small ponies. this should be a lovely thing to do, and it is, apart from one thing. The dog cannot bear to see the girls and ponies moving away from me, and as soon as they do, she rushes ahead of them barking and tries to drive them back to me. (Luckily the ponies are very well trained and completly ignore her). The situation can be managed by me always walking with the ponies or ahead of them. While the ponies are behind it is fine, although the dog is always anxiously looking for them. While the ponies walk along side me she is happy. However if they pass me she runs ahead of them barking to drive them back. I was wondering if I could manage this by giving her some rudmentary herding training, kind of 'if you cant beat it join it?' so she could understand what she could and could not do. I dont know how to explain to her that herding is not useful for us at all. the only alternatives I have currently got are 1. leaving the dog at home (waste of a good walk and means I have to walk twice, once with ponies and once with dog, separately) 2. keeping dog on lead in otherwise safe environment which is a shame 3. always walking ahead (I am twice as old as the ponies and only have half as many legs and would like to get less excercise not more so this is annoying) 4. put up with her barking which is totally annoying and getting more entrenched as behaviour 5.training the dog to do something else. anyone any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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