This young male French Bulldog x Mastiff was feeling bad about his owner tending to her Horses. I guided my client on how to create a calmer experience for her dog when she was with her Horses as he was highly anxious, barking and lunging and struggling to contain himself.
The session was a great success meaning that my client now has the understanding of how to help her dog, and help her Horses to all feel more at ease when in view of each other. Helping dogs to behave well in the presence of other animals is a very important aspect of ownership and something I’m an advocate for.
Here’s some tips for you to help your dog to behave around other animals:
– Walk your dog calmly before you venture into territory of animals such as Horses.
– Lead your dog so your dog is not leading you and going out in front. This is the basis for loose-lead walking and should be a common practice with all dogs.
– Do not encourage excited behaviours by throwing objects for your dog to chase before or during taking it into another animals presence.
– Create space for your dog and the other animals so they are not close enough to encounter each other. Always take a detour if you require rather than give your dog no choice but to react.
– Keep your dog on its lead whilst you are teaching it to behave around other animals. When you have consistent good behaviour then you can use a long-line lead for more movement and safety aspect so you can bring your dog to you if recall goes poorly at times.
– Muzzle your dog for safety precautions if required, you can muzzle train your dog by following the steps slowly and gradually. If you’d like an excellent muzzle training video let me know and I’ll send you a link.
– Begin in an environment with as little risk as possible. This could be on land owned by someone you know who is comfortable with you teaching your dog there.
– Request guidance from an experienced professional who has a consistent record of guiding owners on how to help their dogs with other animals. Think farming professionals as well as behaviourists, some dog trainers are experienced in this although ask first as it is very specialist.
Have fun & enjoy the process 
