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Visting dogs at the barn - Rules?; I've HAD it!!
Topic Started: Jun 5 2007, 07:51 PM (827 Views)
Applesauce
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Thomas H. Cruise!
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Tonight I put my foot down. I have 3 dogs and 3 cats that live in my barn. When we first got the place I allowed the boarders to bring their dogs to the farm and run around while they rode and messed with their horses. Other people such as vets, farriers, massage therapists, and trainers brought their dogs. It began to look like I was operating a dog park with all the loose dogs running around. Not to mention the fact that several of the visiting dogs repeatedly chased my cats and we have had to break up countless dog fights.

Finally after one of the boarders almost got dumped by her horse spooking at a couple of dogs running around I implemented a rule stating that any visiting dog must be kept on a leash or in a stall while someone was on horseback. Most folks were really good about following this new rule but a few continually chose to "forget" or ignore the rule.

Then this evening a dog belonging to one of my boarders attacked my puppy. :brickwall: I have now implemented a no visiting dog rule for everyone on my farm. It sucks because one of my boarders travels a lot and her dog goes everywhere with her and he's never been a problem but this is the second time this week a visting dog has gone after my puppy not to mention the countless times my aging cats are chased under cars, up trees, and under buildings. I'm sick of it. :soapbox:

So, I'm venting. Just getting it out of my system. And maybe just putting the word out that if ya'll go to a farm where no visiting dogs are allowed it's for a reason and not because the owner is a bitch.

Edited to add...do you think I'm being fair here?
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Hackinaround
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We're on a bridge, Chaaaaaaaaarlie!
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Dont get me wrong I am an animal nut. But visiting dogs and even owner dogs at the barn are just accidents waiting to happen. I have 3 dogs of my own and they are only allowed at the barn during the barns "closed" day. My mother who lives on the property has two big dogs. Great manners good horse sense and even they are carted back to the house when a client shows up. To much to risk..thier saftey and others. :soapbox:

We have had Boarders and freinds bring dogs to the barn even with the rule ... My mother warns them I am the Barn Dog Natzi and will make them take them home or hope they have a full tank of gas to let puppers sit in the car in the A/C!!! :soapbox:

We to have had our dogs , horses , cats and even staff bothered, chased, and even bitten buy visiting dogs. :mallet:

Even dogs at horse shows make me a little catty :lol: I only bring mine when I have to travel alone. I just wish one day one show that everyones dogs would be on a leash. Even at the winter series this year I had to track down a farm whos pack of JRT's had picked our lounge stall to rough house in!! :censored: :shoot:

Your doing your animals a favor tell the visitors to say home!!
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spike25
I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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Our rule is "we love dogs and you are welcome to bring yours as long as long as they are leashed"! Loose dogs can be such a hazard, not only for horses and cats but for themselves if they were to get kicked or stepped on.
One of my favorite things at shows is seeing and meeting all kind sof dogs, BUT I get real unhappy when loose dogs come and pee on my tack trunks or hay and steal food! Lovely dogs, fun dogs, but dogs are dogs and they do stuff like that. My friend was attacked my a dalmation unleashed, in the stalls next to ours. Keep your dog on a leash orleave him at home.
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2hsmommy
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It'll be an adventure! We're going on an adventure!
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I hate dogs running loose. Love pups to death, but not running amok.
You are being very fair :yes:
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Little Diva
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You're BANNED!
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I think every barn should have a no dog rule! The barn I used to manage was the worst. The owners would bring their 5 boxers and they would chase cars down the drive way, run away to the chase the neighbours dogs, run down the road etc etc. They were the worst ill mannered dogs that I have ever met. I used to have to babysit them when the owners were on the road at shows and I hated it. At one point, when everyone was at a show, I had 12 dogs to look after and none of them was mine! And that night, we had the worst thunder storm of the year and I had 12 nervous, panting, pacing, peeing, whining dogs in the house trying to get into my bed with me! :pissed:

On top of that, we had clients that INSISTED on bringing their less than bright greyhounds. Now, I love dogs, enjoy their company but these two :psycho: dogs would run themselves stupid, run into fences blindly and tear down electric fencing, run through the sand ring and jump field while people were having lessons or riding, and then lay down in the middle of oxer's. I have been approaching an oxer when one of these nuts would sit up in the middle of the fence. To this day, I do not know how I managed to keep my butt in the tack!

As much as I wouldd love to go for a hack with her Diva-ness and Mr. Tucker the wonder lab, there is just no way. He has never been at a barn, does not know what a horse is and would be hazardous to himself and others with his stupidity.
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Reynard Ridge
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Drivin' The Short Bus
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Applesauce
Jun 5 2007, 06:51 PM
Edited to add...do you think I'm being fair here?

Of course it's fair. Your property and your animals are the ones suffering from other people who are not able to follow a simple rule properly.

I will add, that the most horrible dog accident I saw happen was executed by a dog who WAS on a leash. The leashed dog reached over and grabbed the back of a Jack Russel (owned by the farm) who was dashing by ripping all the skin off it's back. Hundreds of stitches later, the JR was fine, but on my farm, the rules is NO DOGS ALLOWED. Leashed or otherwise.

Unfortunately, my husband's family still doesn't get the rule (sigh) and of course their dogs are the absolute worst. I just keep forgetting to add on their Thanksgiving Day invites, "Hey, leave your dang ill behaved dog at HOME." :brickwall:



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jn4jenny
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Is the meadow on fire?
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Look on the bright side: at least the dogs don't belong to your TRAINER. :pissed:

I like my trainer, she's extremely supportive and I love her teaching style, we've learned so much from her, she's a great lady in general, and so on and so forth. She's an LBNT and well-liked by pretty much everyone.

BUT she has two dogs that she lets run loose while she teaches lessons. In theory they've been taught to stay out of the ring. In practice they have not. It's okay with me if they want to sit there placidly and watch the lesson, but when they come running through the arena with a deer spine dangling from the side of their mouth (not an exaggeration), I think seriously about changing trainers.

Ask me about the day when the dogs ran so far afield during lessons that the trainer couldn't find them, so she left the barn to go teach elsewhere and left the dogs behind. How did the first dog get found? When it came FLYING into the arena many hours later and starting CHASING MY GREEN HORSE AROUND ON THE LUNGE LINE. Thank God he's fairly even-tempered--he thought about taking off, but then he thought it more prudent to crow-hop into a halt and stare at me like "WTF?"

Needless to say, I would welcome a no visiting dogs rule at my barn. :sigh:
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Indy
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You're BANNED!
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It's your barn, so you can make whatever rules you want to. And if your animals are being put in danger in their own home, then by all means are you being fair!

In general, dogs and horses make me very nervous. No matter how trained or calm the dog is, or how good he is around horses/other dogs, I really think that having them at the barn, especialy where people are mounted, is an accident waiting to happen.

Back when I was a junior I was on my large pony, who was generaly pretty spook proof, walking around the indoor at the barn when my trainer's little dog started barking at someone's dad right as we walked by. For some reason, that scared the pants off of Wink and he went left faster than I could...I went right and clocked my head on a ground pole, resulting in a pretty nice concussion. Even if the dog had been leashed, that wouldn't have prevented the barking (though had she been confined to the office or something that would have...).

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SnackPack
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You're BANNED!
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Our barn supposedly has a 'visiting dogs on leash' rule...'cept it only applies to, well...the people that decide to follow it. Seems people think they're dog is special. It's a useless rule. The only dogs that are allowed to be off leash are the owner's dogs and the trainer's dog...all fairly well behaved. And yet, the working students dogs are off leash, the most of the boarders, as well. One dog is just a freak...and another is puppyish and runs everywhere. Another is a 'bounder' by nature (he doesn't walk anywhere...he bounds...in slow motion. He would make an excellent dressage horse :lol: ) Let me tell you...if one of the visiting dogs EVER spooks my horse enough to get me or my horse badly hurt, I will sue the hell out of the owner of the dog and the owner of the barn...and I'm not the sue happy type.

It's not fair to me, who doesn't have a dog (I do love them, though), to have to deal with drooling, dirty, peeing pooches and to listen to the constant 'NO, fido. Sit, Fido. Out Fido."
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Nanelle
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I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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Well, I was just judging a small jumping event at an even smaller club... all the visitors had decided that a great idea was to bring their dogs to the show, we all know dogs and horses are the same, right? :psycho:

So there I was, trying to judge the smallest of cats, you know, really starters that can't even take the proper canter, going up some very small poles (1.5) in the middle of 8 or 9 dogs that thought they "owned" the place!

Thank god nothing happened... but it was really a very lucky day for all... when I asked the dogs owners to please come and retrieve their pets from the arena, I got the silence for an answer... they all thought it wasn't their dog... I guess... :pissed:

I have a great lab that was raised between horses, but he is not allowed near an arena, be it practice or show... it's finally just a dog... he can be with me while I'm on foot around my horse... not once I'm ON the horse... :)
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Lawndart
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Slave to Horses, Beagles, and Kids
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I have to agree with the 'no dogs' rule. Leashes are only useful if there is a human at the other end, and even then, with those twenty foot things on a reel, plus an inattentive human, well, it can get ugly.

I meet loose dogs all the time while trail riding. I don't bring my own dog, who is excellent around horses/dogs/people/cars because I cannot control her 100% of the time. It breaks her heart, but I won't impose my dogs on others. Unfortunately, we often meet a woman who does not feel that way. Last time we met her (after her twenty minutes to round up her ill-behaved dogs) she told me we should ride somewhere else, as this was 'her' trail. I pointed out that it was in PA State Forest, and therefore I had just as much right on it as she did, and a lot more right then a domestic animal that was not under control. When we left she was still screaming with a red face (making no sense whatsoever) having a temper tantrum. I hope one of the dogs got tired of the noise and bit her :innocent:

I don't believe dogs belong at horse shows either. I know people want them along for companionship/safety. Then keep them tied to your trailer on a SHORT leash. More then once I've been walking past a trailer, didn't see a dog sleeping underneath it until it came charging and barking out at me on a lunge line . That really sucks let me tell you.

I love dogs, have three, have always had dogs. But they stay at home! At your home, not mine.
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Applesauce
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Thomas H. Cruise!
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Thank you, guys, for your words and support. I try to make my barn a fun and enjoyable place to come but people were abusing the whole dog thing and then when most decided not to follow the leash rule and my own puppy got hurt... :argh: well, that was that.

The other thing that really gets my goat is how freaking presumptious people are. They come onto the farm for the first time and bring their damn dogs without asking prior and just open the door and off they go. Just because I own a farm doesn't mean it's a dog park. :censored:
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OTF
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You're BANNED!
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Anytime you want to hear a multitude of donkeys braying simultaneously, just bring a dog here. All ears are UP and everyone's on high alert. Might be bad for the dog's health however.
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vxf111
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You're BANNED!
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We had a good system worked out at the old barn. Naughty dogs off leash were welcomed as long as owners didn't mind getting them back in quasi-smooshed condition.

Seriously though, it's not cool. I had my finger broken as a result of a loose dog that spooked my horse-- causing him to take off with the lead rope and my hand attached. Not cool at all. it hurt like heck, required a surgery, and my finger is NOT the same, has lost motion, and is gnarled. Thank you loose dogs. Loose animals, not under control, are not safe. Period.

Your barn, your rules. If you don't like people's dogs there-- the dogs should stay at home. It's not a dog park. I don't bring my horses when I go to people's houses, and unless I invite- the dogs should stay away from the barn. Especially poorly behaved ones!
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SnackPack
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OTF
Jun 6 2007, 12:26 PM
Anytime you want to hear a multitude of donkeys braying simultaneously, just bring a dog here. All ears are UP and everyone's on high alert. Might be bad for the dog's health however.

The two places I house sit for have donkeys. While they don't bray at the dogs, I do have to watch for the ears back, head down charge.

The owners at one place started feeding said donkeys outside the horse's stalls...where the dogs regularly roam. Guess who thought that area was now their territory? Poor puppies were getting chased left and right. The donks even targetted me once or twice. Thankfully, they are pretty scared of crazy white women, waving their arms wildly and yelling "How Dare You Charge Me." :lol:
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