Barking at Horses

Each morning, Shadow and I go for a 30 minute walk along the backwoods road in our neighborhood. There are a number of dogs along our route that are sometimes in their yards and sometime not. One day I was talking with a guy while Shadow and his dogs were getting to know each other. Their dog conversation turned to snarls and Shadow and the black dog were in a dogfight. They didn't seem to be hurting each other and the other guy and I knew enough to keep our hands away from the snarling and snapping teeth.

I was able to pull Shadow out of it by his leash while the other dog finally quit. Later that morning I noticed Shadow limping. His left front paw was tender and he didn't want to put it on the ground. I looked and it seemed a little swollen. He decided to sit the game out and went to his crate. The poor guy spent the next few days just laying down unless it was mealtime or "outside" time.

A few days later he recovered and we went back to walking together. I began to carry a six foot walking stick with me to keep other critters at bay.

Yesterday. along our normal walk we came upon a small pasture with two horses. Shadow has met horses, ponies and even a miniature horse before, but something set him off. The horse wasn't affected by the barking and sniffed the little gray dog at his hooves. Shadow settled down and another horse wandered over to see what the fuss was. He "met" Shadow but returned to grazing right away.

We returned to our walk and were home in fifteen minutes. I was glad Shadow was well enough to walk with me agsin