Insurance for putting horses in field

Animals
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I got everything Jackie, which is the reason why it cost me a total of over €600 just to adopt my boy, even though the association that brought him from Spain with his Dobermann companion not only made no charge on me but were willing to pay me to drive from the Dordogne to Paris to collect him.

As regards your first comment

It’s a shame the Rottweiler breed is frowned upon in France

I would go further and say that there should be no breeds automatically treated as dangerous because no breeds are inherently dangerous, only dogs (of all breeds) which have been badly treated or specifically trained to be so.

In a lifetime of dog ownership and transporting I have been bitten only 3 times. A small Terrier when I was a child, a Border Collie that I was transporting and which objected to me putting my hand into his space to release him after a walk en route, and a Pyrenean Mountain dog for exactly the same reason.

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Absolutely agree with your comment about animals being potentially dangerous if abused and badly treated. However, certain breeds are picked for various work because of their personality. The last boy, whom I still have and is 6 now, was only 15 kilos when rescued by the gendarmes,(50 kilos now,) was petrified of every movement anyone made and had been chained up for his first year of life. It took me a year to bond with him and for him to respond to commands before he went for his evaluation as knew he would not pass. I will say though if anyone came up behind me whilst walking him I could not guarantee they would be in one piece after! They are a protective breed along with Dobermans. However, one has more chance of being bitten by a Jack Russell / lab than a Rottie according to figures. This will be my last big boy, as I’m now over 70 and am not as fit as I used to be. Where are you situated David, I’m in Orne 61?

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Dordogne 24. Apologies to the OP from whose query we have drifted somewhat although my original intervention was on that albeit dogs rather than horses, but I will say this regarding

@jac I will say though if anyone came up behind me whilst walking him I could not guarantee they would be in one piece after!

this was precisely one of the tests that the first vet put him through. On our walk outside, while on the lead (un-muzzled) before I was instructed to release him, unknown to me she crept up behind him and without any warning, grabbed his rear in a hard and most aggressive manner. He barely turned his head. I was disgusted, not only after this at the level 2 assessment, but because, if he had been aggressive, I, walking him on a short lead at the head end, could have been put in danger.

I am 78 and would have another Rottie in an instant, if it wasn’t for the legal pantomime required to own one.

I refute entirely though this ‘protective breed’ mentality. I will say again, most forcibly, that no breed is inherently dangerous. If a vicious guarding dog is required of course you would choose one with powerful muscles especially in the jaw department, thus Dobies, Rotties and Allys (why aren’t they on this stupid list anyway?) will be chosen to be trained thus. Bulldogs were bred and developed to be able to breathe while hanging on indefinitely with ultra powerful jaws, but they aren’t listed as dangerous (anybody read White Fang by Jack London? The hero dog of the title, trained to be an ‘unbeatable’ fighter, was rescued from death after being put up against an English Bulldog. )

Sadly your Jack/Lab comment on statistics might be a useful tool in our campaign against breed discrimination if it wasn’t for the fact that it is just their sheer numbers that produce this result. :frowning_face:

Dobies are dangerous in Spain, but not in France :roll_eyes:, which is why I have transported uncountable numbers of these gentle dogs from there over the years. I have never been bitten by one and only once been threatened, again the ‘hands in space to release syndrome’, soon overcome by 5 minutes of calm conversation. :wink: