Horse Training V.S. Dog Training

As I sit in the Phoenix Airport with nothing to do but wait for my flight to National Western Roundup, I can’t help but ponder both dogs and horses. Last semester I took a complete break from training dogs with the exception of doing a few agility classes with Merlin and watching other people work dogs. Instead my focus switched to young horses and learning how to work with them. I don’t prefer one animal over the other but they are both very different creatures and there for, many different ways to work with each. A lot of what you do with dogs can apply to horses and vice versa. I personally feel that working with troublesome horses has helped me to become a better dog trainer.

To be completely honest, before I started with the horses I was terrible about over correcting my dogs. Instead of giving a command and then correcting after I gave the command I would just give a command and a mild correct at the same time. Not a good thing to do when your preferred training collar is a pinch collar. Most dogs aren’t as sensitive to correction as young horses are.

When dealing with young horses that have not been imprinted they have a huge fear of people. Unless they have been abused or hurt in some way, dogs don’t typically have this type of reaction to people. This is because dogs have been domesticated so much that they are no longer “pack” animals. Horses, have not been domesticated to the extreme degree that dogs have. They still have a strong flight instinct and have a natural view of humans as predators. They are also prey animals and not the predators that dogs are. They often feel venerable and it’s easier for them to run.

Horses require gentle correction and lots of patience. To learn to train them you must first learn how to control your body pressure. They pick up on slight changes in your emotion. Because I have learned how to be calmer and more controlled I get more positive results from the dogs. Working with my dog, Sage, while I was at home, I noticed a few new things.

When training a new behavior I noticed that Sage picked up on what I was asking her to learn a lot faster. She didn’t lose focus as much as before. I have more confidence and I think that my dogs feed off of that. I’m looking forward to seeing how much of an improvement I can make on my service dog  training because of all the horse training experience I have been getting.

I have learned that being calm and taking your time has a better outcome on my animal relationships. Instincting fear in an animal does NOT result in a confident well trained animal. It only creates more problems that will later need to be resolved. Learning natural horsemanship has helped in many aspects of my life but by far has helped me to become a better dog trainer. In just a few days I will start working with my first weanling. I’m excited because I know it will help me improve the way I train both dogs and horses. Practice makes perfect. 

That’s All, 

Kyia minus pup ~ National Western Roundup Team Demonstration Arizona Delegate