This involves myself (28F), “James” (30’s M) and his dog who is a little over or a little under a year old and is an Australian shepherd; I’ll call his dog jelly.

I work as a caretaker and trainer for a couples’ horses on one of their farms. James is the manager of their other farm that is produce driven (no livestock), and has recently been visiting our location more often to learn from the produce team here. The problem is he brings Jelly but does not supervise, control, or tie his dog. The most training I see him do is calmly saying “no jelly, we can’t do that.” While standing there WATCHING her actively destroy a garden bed or lunge at a horse.

I have seen her play lunge at them but also get a little prey drive triggered to chase; and he does not seem to see that at all and brushes the behavior aside with “she’s just a puppy”. She gets fixated and he doesn’t understand he needs to work on training her to snap out of it. She barely recalls, I’ve seen her snap at a horses face several times under a fence when it lowered its head to sniff her, she has chased them, she also doesn’t understand she needs to give them space to avoid getting hurt.

Before anyone says “Well, puppies are hard.”, yes, but I also have 3 dogs of my own that understand how to behave on a farm thanks to training. One small terrier mix, one bluenose pit and cattle dog mix, one pointer greyhound. Age and breed doesn’t excuse lack of training imo.

The first time I spoke with him about it, I framed it more as being concerned for Jellys safety, as even one of my dogs had been kicked in the early stages (warning kick, just got a bruise). I hoped that would encourage him to keep her close by him and under supervision, he did not. The second time I talked to him about it I also touched on how her behavior stresses out the horses and can put the horse, dog, or handler/rider in danger so I’d appreciate more supervision of his dog. He was receptive and I hoped that would be it; but then a third incident happened, this time I sent a text (transcribed below). I also followed up in person same day and he seemed apologetic and understanding.

Text I sent: Hey James, (my employee) mentioned she was close to getting kicked while checking (horse names) hoof because jelly ran up to him and was jumping around him. I know she just wants to play and doesn't understand what she's doing is dangerous but you NEED to keep your dog leashed or tied if she hasn’t been trained yet to not rush horses, we talked about this a week or two ago. Horses are PREY animals and will go into flight mode running through fences and people if those instincts are triggered by being rushed or chased by predator animals, including dogs. It’s not just Kelly’s safety, it’s the horses, handlers, and riders; I’ve even seen her trying to bite (horse name) face under the gap in the fence up top. It’s not her fault she doesn’t understand that it’s not ok, but it is YOUR responsibility to either train her to understand that or keep her restrained. I’m not trying to be a dick, but I just can’t have the animals and peoples safety put at risk like that, I take safety seriously. I have trained my three dogs to act accordingly around horses, I’m happy to offer suggestions or maybe even work with her with the horses once a week, but the current state of her being uncontrolled around them can’t continue. (End text)

Now I generally give three chances to be polite about an issue, I want to give people the opportunity to show change. However, James has not shown such change. I’ve even offered to help him train her or take jelly once a week to the farm with me to train through the day and have my most experienced dog (terrier mix) show her the correct behavior. He never took up any of these offers.

The most recent incident had me ready to blow after I had the facts straight. One of my employees was walking two horses to the hitching rails for guests to interact with them. I was higher up on a hill checking our electric fencing when I thought I heard James say “can someone grab her (jelly)? She’s walking the horses and I don’t want her to run up to them.” In the moment I wasn’t CERTAIN that was what I heard so I held my tongue, not wanting to make a scene in front of guests if I had misheard. However afterwards, my employee confirmed he had indeed said, to a bunch of random people, to grab his dog so she wouldn’t charge the horses. None of the guests knew him or his dog and had zero idea of what was going on or being asked, but luckily another employee was present and grabbed her. This infuriated me because I had JUST told him that we would be walking horses out so he had time to grab or tie his dog and he did neither. He was gone by the time I had gotten back down but it was the last straw.

So, if productive conversations, explaining risks, and offering resources and help with training isn’t enough, the gloves come off. So far I’ve been pretty respectful in prior talks but I’m to the point where I’m likely going to have to be a bit insulting to get it through his head since, when done nicely, it seems to come off as a suggestion. I’ve also decided that going forward if I see his dog wandering around I will tie her up to the nearest structure or post and let him know. For the record the farm is 24 acres, 1/3-1/2 is pasture. Maybe after walking around having to find his dog enough times he’ll actually keep her in his eye line. I don’t want to create an awkward work environment or disrupt the produce teams schedule but I’m just done having my animals, handlers/riders, and my personal safety put at risk. Even our own produce team has been fed up with the jelly’s behavior and has talked to him. Also for reference, one of my clients horses was bought for 16k, they aren’t cheap.

So WAITA for tying up someone else’s dog and being rude when telling them to control and train their dog?

Side note: I know jellys’ parents and another half sibling; I was not a fan of any of their temperaments. Mom had a pattern of being aggressive to other dogs and territorial, dad has bad separation anxiety and will bark ALL day if left alone or tied just out of sight, but also runs away if the owner isn’t keeping a constant eye on him; and half sibling was a menace who listened to no human and constantly ran off. I like to believe this was mostly from poor owners/training but I also wouldn’t have taken that chance either. Jelly very much has these traits as well; and while family temperament could be a factor, I’m certain 97 percent of the reason she is out of control is James.