February
Rodeo season prep: crowds, trailers and neutrality.
Rodeo season brings trail rides through the suburbs, horse trailers on the roads and crowds downtown. What it asks of a dog, and how to prepare one.
Late February in Houston means the trail rides roll through the northwest suburbs on their way to the rodeo, horse trailers share the roads with school traffic, and the city fills with crowds for three weeks. For most dogs that is background noise. For a reactive or under-socialized dog it is three weeks of triggers.
What rodeo season asks of a dog
- Neutrality to horses, which most suburban dogs have never seen
- Calm around trailers, loud trucks and crowds on the sidewalks
- Place at home while the street outside is busier than usual
- A recall that holds when a trail ride passes the park
How we prepare dogs for it
The dogs in the training home in February get a field trip to a trail ride staging area at a distance the dog can hold, and then closer over several days. Our founder grew up around horses, so the horse side of it is familiar ground. At home, practice place by an open front door while traffic passes, and walk the dog past the busiest street you can find at the quietest hour, then work down to the busy hours.
Leave the dog home for the rodeo itself. Livestock grounds, crowds and heat are not a dog outing, however friendly the dog.
Trail ride week in the northwest suburbs
The trail rides converge on Houston in the last week of February, and several of them come through Cypress, Tomball, Katy and Spring on the way in. That means horses on the shoulder of roads your dog walks, camps in parks it visits, and a lot of trucks and trailers at odd hours. A dog that has never seen a horse reacts to one the way it would to a bear. Watch the route schedules, and use the week as an exposure opportunity from a distance: park across the road, put the dog in a sit, and let it watch until it can look away and take a treat. That is neutrality, and it is the same skill that lets a dog ignore a jogger or another dog.
Crowds downtown and at the fairgrounds
The rodeo parade and the carnival are not places for a dog, however well trained. Crowds at that density, livestock smells and heat by early March are a bad combination even for a steady dog, and the grounds do not allow pets outside service animals in any case. If your family goes, the dog stays home with a chew and a settled routine, or a graduate boards with us for the weekend. Use the season instead for the practice that matters: neutrality to the unfamiliar, at a distance the dog can hold, closer over days. It is what the dogs in the training home do every week of the year, and February gives the whole city a reason to practice it.
Best Dog University Team
Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team
