I enjoy driving horse-drawn carriages and belong to a carriage club on the San Francisco Peninsula. Combining my interests in horses and dogs, I decided to train my Collie, Shasta (Paragon Wildwood Tapestry, CDX, HC) and my Shetland Sheepdog, Pascha (Glengyle Frost Bi Moonlight, UD, OTD-s, HT) to play the part of coach dog.
In the days when highwaymen plagued the roads of England, dogs were trained to accompany coaches and carriages to act as watch dogs and guards. Dalmatians were popular for this work and became the fashionable breed as the work itself became more of a fashion and less of a necessity. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s classes for coach dogs were sometimes provided at horse shows. A book on Dalmatians, Dalmatian: Coach Dog - Firehouse Dog by Alfred and Esmeralda Treen (1980) has a chapter on coach dogs and references a coach dog article which appeared in the Aug. 1, 1911 issue of Country Life in America magazine, p. 52. (The San Francisco Public Library has back issues of this magazine; it might be available in other large libraries as well.)
Although the Dalmatian is considered the "classic" coach or carriage dog, other breeds have also done the same kind of work, traveling with a vehicle and guarding the vehicle and its occupants and contents. In The Collie or Sheepdog (1890), Rawdon Lee writes: "The collie is admirably adapted as a companion . . . and as such he accompanies the carriage when its owner goes out for a drive; for his fondness for horses is scarcely exceeded by that of the spotted coach dog or Dalmatian." Anecdotes of Dogs by Edward Jessee, first published in 1859 and reprinted in 1893, says of the "Great Danish Dog": ". . . like the Dalmatian, he is chiefly used in this country as an attendant on carriages, to which he forms an elegant appendage." Great Dane coach dogs, particularly those of the harlequin color, are also mentioned in the recently reprinted Classic Dog Encyclopedia by Vero Shaw, first published in 1879-81. The breed is referred to there as the "German Mastiff." Shaw quotes from an earlier work, Cynographia Britannica by Sydenham Edwards, published in 1803, where the dogs are described as often taking a position in front of the carriage.
Farm dogs accompanied their master’s wagon to town to look after things or provide companionship. In the age of the automobile, Albert Payson Terhune portrayed collies guarding the open-topped cars of the 1920’s.
Dog still occasionally accompany horse drawn vehicles at shows and on pleasure drives. In book and magazine photos I have seen Dalmatians, of course, and Border Collies, German Shepherds and others following or riding along.
For someone who would like to take their dog along on a drive, coaching training can be quite advantageous. The dog won't be darting here and there, perhaps interfering with the horse or chasing off after something. The dog should also be taught to ride quietly in the vehicle, so as not to cause problems by excessive barking or fidgeting at the approach of strange dogs or other distractions. The dog needs to be completely reliable whether coaching or riding.
Coaching is a lot like the heeling work seen in obedience competitions -- it isn't just tagging along. The dog should keep a precise position in relation to the vehicle at various gaits, and remain with the vehicle when it is stopped. If the driver leaves, the dog should wait underneath or inside the vehicle.
There are several possibilities for the dog's position with a carriage, the chosen position being used consistently. Some drivers considered the proper place for a dog coaching to a four-wheel carriage to be under the front axle, near the horses' heels. Or the dog could travel under the rear axle. Some dogs would run along in front of the horse. Dogs have even coached under the pole between a pair of horses, or between the lead pair and wheel pair of a four-in-hand—somewhat risky locations. Methods of positioning included coupling an inexperienced dog with an experienced one, or tying the dog to the vehicle (it is to be hoped that this was with a quick-release knot, and it would not be a method to be recommended today), or simply encouraging the dog by voice when it took the desired position. It has been said that Dalmatians of some lines preferred a particular position and tended to go to it naturally.
A 1914 article in Country Life in America on training farm dogs suggests that the dog be trained to travel under the wagon when going to town, so that trouble with other dogs along the way might be avoided; in town, the dog would provide protection for the wagon. A recent book on the Catahoula (a smooth-haired stockdog breed from Louisiana) mentions a dog of this breed naturally keeping a precise position under the wagon. A German Shepherd I owned had a tendency to naturally keep a position in front of my pony when I went for a drive, and I'm sure he could have been easily trained to be fairly reliable at it (the position in front can be a little tricky for the dog on turns).
When I trained Shasta and Pascha as carriage dogs, they both picked it up very quickly as a result of the formal obedience training which they had had. Because of their heeling work, they already understood the concepts of keeping position and sitting automatically at a halt, and they would stay in place on command.
Their first coaching lessons were on a quiet street and in a ring. I was helped by a friend and we used her road cart and pony. The low-set road cart was ideal for training because I could be fairly close to the dog and the dog could get well up under the seat, between the wheels with nose near the axle.
Working with each dog individually, I first introduced the dog to the horse and vehicle, the dog on lead, allowing the dog and the horse to become acquainted with one another. Then my friend drove the road cart with the pony at a walk while I led the dog behind, guiding him or her in the proper position. After a little of this, I put the dog into a sit-stay behind the cart, ran the lead over the back of the seat, and climbed in. Holding the lead and concentrating on the dog while my friend dove the pony, we started off at a slow walk. At first the dog would zig-zag and try go around the wheel to the side of the vehicle, not understanding what was wanted, but I would guide the dog back into position with the lead until the dog began to understand what I wanted. Then we worked on a loose lead, and when the dog was doing well, we worked off-lead.
Soon both dogs were maintaining position at various gaits end doing automatic sits at the stop. Gradually, faster speeds, more frequent changes of gait, and sharper turns were introduced. It worked out very well—while I was giving the dog coaching practice, my friend could give her pony driving practice.
The usual road gait is a trot of varying speeds for both pony and dog. When the pony really trots out, the dog goes into a gallop. Coaching would be a great way to condition dogs. When the dog has worked enough, it can then come aboard for a ride.
In actual road-work, the dog is working quite a lot on its own and has to do automatic starts as well as automatic halts. Reliability is important because the driv-er's attention has to be on the horse. As is the case when driving with no dogs involved, taking a passenger along to help out in an emergency is practically a necessity. There are a few areas available for horse-drawn vehicles that are free of such hazards as traffic, resident dogs on the loose, or anything unexpected to which an equine might object.
When doing their carriage work, Shasta or Pascha were to remain in place while we entered and exited the cart. For long stops, they were to stay in position as in the long sits and downs of obedience competition. They entered and exited the vehicle when directed. I used "load" for enter and "out" for exit. "Coach" was the equivalent of "heel," and other commands were the same as in obedience. The commands need to be different from the commands given to the horse so there aren't any conflicts. "Get in" said to the dog might sound too much like "Get up" to the horse, leading to an awkward situation. But it is no problem for each animal to think that the praise is for him or her. To teach the dogs to "load," we first showed them the way with the cart unhitched. They needed to learn to get in and out of the cart quickly and smoothly, and only with permission. Inside the cart the dog sits quietly on the floorboard, alertly watching the passing scene. Whether riding in the cart of following along, some dogs will want to "tell off" other dogs when they see them, but this shouldn’t be allowed. The problems in trying to sort out a bunch of dogs while driving a pony cart can be imagined. Both Shasta and Pascha especially loved riding in the cart. This wasn’t Pascha’s first experience as a carriage passenger, actually – he had accompanied us on a carriage tour of Seville a few years earlier when we had taken him with us when visiting Spain.
Both dogs progressed quickly and Shasta later took part in a driving demonstration given by the Peninsula Carriage Driving Club for a horsemen’s association. For the coaching portion of the program, a friend drove her Welsh Section. B pony to a road cart. I road as passenger and Shasta coached off-lead at various gaits, with turns and halts, while the announcer read a narration about carriage dogs and their training.
A subsequent move of my own pony to a location with fewer places for driving led to a curtailment of our carriage dog activities, but I hope to be able to train a new carriage-dog student some day. Teaching a dog to coach may not be highly practical these days, but it is a lot of fun.