Im so annoyed, i walk my dog in a local set fo fields that has a foot path threw them, lots of people walk around/threw the fields too with and without dogs. There use to be sheep in there for a few years, then young male cows for a few months of they year for a two/three years (thankfully no more as i know a few people were charged by them) and since then the owners have been using it to grow hay the last few years. There are gates and stiles for acess and the stiles have allways had enought space to fit dogs, the two either side of a train track had smaller gaps than the others but you could proberly still have squeesed a bigger dog threw but some owners had pulled up a small part of the bottom of the fence to get them threw. Now they have replaced the wodden part of the two either side the train track (the steps are stone) and they have put in an extra pannels of wood so dogs cant get threw at all. People have pulled up more of the fencing now and on the other side of the train track where it joins a bigger fenced in path (not a field) that leads to the main road some one has compleatly ripped off the fencing where it joins the stile.

I can see why dog walkers would damage the fencing so they can get out/in with there dogs but its still not right to damage the fencing. But what would happen if a blind person or someone with a service dog was walking the path? how are they expected to use it if they cant get there dogs threw? I wouldnt want to risk carrying my smaller medium dog over it with me as i know id end up falling over it if i tryed so how is a blind person ment to carry a lab over it.

Looked up the law and apperantly acess to publice right of ways only needs to be acessible for walkers not dogs.

when this happened near me the local farmer eventually got fed up of having his fence damaged and made a lift up section so people could get their dogs through.

I guess it depends on whether dogs have been ruining the crops, I often see dogs charging through crops, destroying and squashing things also seen children doing it too, along with some dogs going to the toilet in the middle of a field growing our food. I actually don't blame some farmers for trying to stop people bringing in dogs if they can.

And you're right it is wrong of them to destroy the fencing, we'd all go mad if someone was ripping up our garden barriers, they should be prosecuted for it, but I dare say farmers are too busy to stand guard and see who it is, we all enjoy walking our dogs through these public footpaths but with more and more people being disrespectful and not caring what are farmers to do?

It's a shame that it ruins it for those of us who keep our dogs under control and sorry it is affecting you Jo, but alas many do not respect property today.

I think we just have to get used to the idea that many farmers do not want other people's dogs on their property, the public they have to put up with and unfortunately no-one can say you can come in and you can't as that would be prejudice. Many places will just become not dog friendly anymore and we all have to blame the few owners who ruin it for everyone. :-(

It is important for farmers to ensure that sheep cannot get through the sides of a stile - and of course this is usually the place where our dogs get through.  I've trained all of my dogs to limbo under or through the stile but wherever they can they wriggle through the easiest access.

You can talk to your local council or parish council about access but yes there is no legal right of way for dogs.  However you're also right about access for the disabled so you might find your local footpaths officer more helpful (dependant on the location of the footpath). The difficulty is that most councils have very little money for maintenance.  Usually there is some middle ground that can be negotiated between an obliging footpaths officer and local landowner but sometimes there is a history of arguments over access which can affect the footpath.  If each side 'sticks to their guns' then it can be the dog walker that loses out.

Try talking to your Parish Council first as they generally have a better relationship with landowners but otherwise have a chat with your footpaths officer.  Alternatively see whether you can find a local ramblers or walkers association as they might also be able to help (and could already be negotiating...).  There are plenty of dog friendly solutions that can be attached to the side of the stile or they can simply install a different type of stile or gated access (such as a kissing gate).

Get in touch with the countryside warden and have a chat with them.

I would also get in touch with the Ramblers Association. They walk all public right of ways every year just to make sure that they are kept open.

>Looked up the law and apperantly acess to publice right of ways only needs to be acessible for walkers not dogs.

That's quite correct.

A good friend of mine can't walk on many of her footpaths as her dogs are too tall to get under the gaps from the styles in her area, there are no dog friendly points just gaps which mine can just about squeeze through. I honestly don't think a farmer will fork out for a completely new style just so some can walk their dogs...

being an ignorant townie I wasnt away dogs were allowed to run in farmers fields anyway. I always thought the actual field not the public right of way was private ?.

Talking to another owner who says it was network rail who put the styles in when they were doing work on the track. You couldn't even squeeze a chi threw the gaps now. Might email the council and see, even if they made it so one of the planks can be lifted up and dropped back down would solve the problem and cost little. Also apparently the owner I was speaking to said the new ones are higher but as the stone steps were not replaced he found it harder to get over and all most fell. But I had no problem and I'm a short ass lol

Yeah I get the sheep thing but the old stile was there when they use to keep sheep so don't see why they need a smaller gap now when they don't keep anything in there, unless the farmer is planning to again, hope not as I'd not leave my girl off around livestock.

>I always thought the actual field not the public right of way was private ?

You're quite right, FF. Only to area of the footpath is the 'right of way' - usually a metre.

Taken from Environmental Law website "If you are walking a dog, you must make sure that it does not stray off legal lines of a public footpath as this may constitute an act of trepass. Also ensure that you clean up your dog mess, if your dog fouls up on a footpath."

being an ignorant townie I wasnt away dogs were allowed to run in farmers fields anyway. I always thought the actual field not the public right of way was private ?

From what I've read there no requirement to keep dogs on lead on public rights of way but they must be under control you you stick to the path, but it would be an offence if a dog was to worrie livestock so should be on lead if livestock are present, not sure if a law to that effect is in place or if it's just common sense.

Your not ment to walk all over the field just the paths but everyone seems to walk around the edges of these ones, you can see where they all stick to the same routs so the farmer can see people are doing it and I would have thought if they minded they would put a sign up asking people to stick to the path. I know they had to put a new chain and padlock on a big gate just by my house as people kept using it and leaving it open!
It would be a shame if they do put a sign up, I know some people wouldn't follow it but If I knew the farmer wasn't happy about it I would stop walking around it (don't know which farm owns it to ask) but it would be a shame as its the only local place safe enough to let dogs off lead for a good run and play as its fully fenced and hasn't had any livestock in it for years.

> If you are walking a dog, you must make sure that it does not stray off legal lines of a public footpath as this may constitute an act of trepass.

Gosh I am so glad I live in Scotland, here we can legally roam pretty much anywhere with our dogs off lead :-)

And I'm very glad I don't own land in Scotland!

Much as I appreciate the generous " right to roam " legislation in Scotland, some of it, I think goes too far, for instance, someone can walk across a field with a crop in it, if the crop is no more than ankle height, I don't think that's fair at all.

I agree celli, its not very fair. Yes, as dog walkers we like to appreciate the green open land but too few dont respect that it belongs to a farmer and is his way of earning a living. As someone mentioned, most of us would object to having people walk through our gardens, some with disobediant dogs who cause damage and disruption, its no different (just on a larger scale for farm owners)

I always walk my lot on lead in the country due to livestock or crops, adn have always had to lift the dogs over stiles, quite fun with 6 20kg dogs.  Just occasionaly they cna utilise the steps themselves.

Best stiles I've seen are at Lochore Country park near where I live, there's the regular stile, and then a sort of portcullis type contraption for dogs.

I think that because we have the right to roam anywhere in Scotland we tend not to ;-) We have adverts on the telly about the right to roam, and how to behave, and on the whole it works. So long as you are aware of the rights to roam, and the wildlife laws, you shouldn't have a problem. I wouldn't like to live in England with the trespass laws there.

I walk in fields, but only after they have been harvested. My main walks are on country tracks, leading to rivers where the dogs can swim, but we have to be careful of the anglers and their rods and lines. We get asked to be careful around livestock. I have only once been shouted at to get my dogs under control (which they were) and that was by a gamekeeper who had had a call about dogs killing 'his' pheasants. Sorry, but the pheasants were local wild ones, and my dogs hadn't killed any. When he saw how well behaved they were (they actually all sat nicely looking at him) he was pleasant enough.

Walking with dogs in Scotland is just so nice.  I take mine on holiday to the West Coast and if there is an empty pasture field, it is good to be able to run the dogs without worrying. I have observed that landowners who really don't want anyone to do this, put a chain and padlock on the gate. I find in the Highlands, a generally more dog tolerant atmosphere than in most parts of England. Maybe it is different in other areas of Scotland?  We have our fair share of 'grouchy' game keepers here in the West of England- who can blame them though if they think their valuable game is at risk!

>a gamekeeper who had had a call about dogs killing 'his' pheasants. Sorry, but the pheasants were local wild ones,

Strictly speaking the pheasants, even 'wild/feral' ones belong to the land they're on.

> and since then the owners have been using it to grow hay the last few years.

Hay is a crop to a farmer just like any other, and maybe the farmer is getting fed up if some people are letting their dogs run all over the field, which could flatten the grass making it difficult to harvest, and dog faeces would contaminated the hay. It would actually be dangerous to feed hay to cattle which had dog faeces in it-- there is a disease which can be passed to cattle which causes early abortion http://www.nfus.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Campaigns/Disease%20in%20Livestock.pdf I really sympathise with you though-- there seems to be fewer and fewer places for dogs to run free in some areas.

> and dog faeces would contaminated the hay. It would actually be dangerous to feed hay to cattle which had dog faeces in it-- there is a disease which can be passed to cattle which causes early abortion

Having the freedom of many local field & Downs, I'm not surprised if farmers get fed up with dog walkers when I see the amount of dog faeces left lying in the fields.

yes most walkers i see dont pick up after there dogs in the fields, even at the woodland park i like to take her to at the weekends theres a part along the path just around a cornor from a bin and the grass either side there is normaly covered in dog mess. Gives us all a bad name.

My father is a farmer and he said most he knows are the same, no issue regarding leaving dog poo within the main part of a field, it's when it's left on official footpaths or in bags he takes umbridge with. Most of his fields are now cattle and he said what's a bit more poo.. As for crops, he used to and wasn't happy with dogs running through it flattening it, however the odd poop in the crop was no issues...
We have very few poo bins about in our countryside so most farmers would prefer people to leave it than bag it and leave it which is much worse.. A bit of rain and said poo is gone anyway