All The Better To See You With My Preytty…

Why Horses Cannot Be Trained Like Dogs

As horse people, we have all been around dogs, if not owned a few.. or even a kennel full. It seems that a farm is not quite complete without the faithful watch dog. I am often asked the difference between training a dog and a horse, and hear many riders comparing dog obedience techniques with horse training techniques. As horse owners we may have the intuition that dogs and horses are trained differently, but find our words lacking in description when asked by non-horse people what the big difference is between the two. Aren’t they both intelligent, and often considered to be our best companions? The history between both has been first as food for humans, followed by use as servants in labor, travel and finally companionship. If you’ve ever wondered for yourself, or want to tuck the information away for the time someone asks that trivial question, here are some of the hows and whys.

The Predatory Response

Plain and simple, dogs are predators. Horses on the other hand are prey animals. Horses graze, their food source comes from vegitation… dogs were once upon a time ago wild enough to hunt and eat other small animals, or perhaps a conveniently weak, young or sick large animal.

Pack Leaders vs Herd Leaders

Watch any herd interact and you’ll begin to recognize a certain hierarchy. The same goes in a pack of dogs.. only slightly different. Inside a horse herd, there are three basic positions that a horse can fall into - subordinate, superior, or leader. Leaders in the herd are not the ones to cause upheaval and unrest within the ranks, rather that task is left to those who fall into the superior category.. or the middle “children”. The subordinates lack the interest, confidence, strength or drive to challenge their own position in the herd. The leaders of the herd don’t need to go running the length of the pasture to get their point across, one tactfully poised swish of the tail is enough to let everyone in the pasture know whether they are in a safe place or not.

Dogs on the other hand, run in a different order. The leaders of the pack are the most aggressive members of the pack, with the subordinates being kept in their place with the use of force and violence. These leaders are not simply growling when they are unhappy, but make their anger known with every physical sign possible - ears laid back, teeth bared, biting, clawing, etc.

Sight, Site, Cite

Having the ability to focus intently on a single object in our vision, AND have precise depth perception may have limited in our ability to understand the horse’s poiint of view.. literally. With eyes located on the side of the head, horses have a severely limited ability to focus on any one single object. Instead they are designed to be able to see a large abstract at once, enhancing the ability to spot predators in all directions. This same design also compromises the horse’s depth perception, bringing it to almost nil.

Dogs on the other hand share our line of vision, afterall we are predators as well. They have an excellent ability to focus on a single object in their vision, which is necessary to be successful in hunting, coupled with advanced depth perception.

Summarizing

It is for all of these reasons that programs designed for the training of dogs do not automatically find success in the training of the horse. Approaching a horse in an aggressive manner can produce two very different responses from the horse, neither of which are likely the intent. First, the horse may see our aggression as a sign that we are superiors in the herd, or the middle “child”, and trying to move up in the herd status. On the other end, the horse may view our aggression as a sign of our predatory motives, and be frightened. Approaching a dog in aggression is a dominating sign, plain and simple.

It is likely due to our predatory design that we find it simple to train a dog to be “man’s best friend” while searching through books, videos, instructors and seminars to gain the basic trust of our horses. We fight our very nature every day while working with horses. So watch your sights and mind your predatory tendencies the next time you work your ponies..