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Location: Derbyshire, UK
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 253
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Just had the walk from HELL....
I've often read posts with similar titles and thought how lucky I was as I rarely had any problems.....until today.
It's such a nice day I thought I would take the dog an new walk and make it extra long. The start of the walk I 'rediscovered' a couple of months ago - we used to go on it when we were kids. Anyway after the first field you go next to a farm and I've often passed the farm henchmen and I always wave or say hello. I'm usually with my dobie and a friends dobie but they are always on the lead past the farm as there is livestock about. Anyway, today is the first time I've been in a few weeks and when I arrive at the second style it's been replaced by a huge fence (chest height) with 2 'bars' sticking out either side to step up - fine for a person but how the hell do I get a 7 stone dobie up there. Well I cajoled, pulled, pushed you name it and I couldn't get him over. In the end I had to virtually pick him up - I am only 5'4 so not easy. It must have taken about 15 mins to get over and I was worried he'd break his leg or something. Well after that I find that they have changed the next two styles also!! They aren't as hard as the first but still it's not easy for dogs. It makes me wonder if they have done it on purpose
Anyway I'm not going to be able to go that way anymore which is a real shame as it's a gorgeous walk.
We carried on at this point as I would have been worse to turn back and I thought we were past the worse......I was wrong. Right at the very end of the walk (I have never gone this far before) you come out in a farm yard. Well there were 3 or 4 HUGE GSD crosses running loose, barking and snarling at us. They were proper farm/guard dogs too, all thick fur and dusty obviously not pets if you see what I mean. I didn't know what to do - we had to go right through the yard to get out onto road home. Well I decided to go through (what choice did I have) and I was shouting loudly at the dogs and shoeing them away from us whilst keeping my dog stuck to my side. No-one came out to help me or anything. I was shaking like a leaf - they were circling round us and sniffing and snapping at my dog. We got through without incident but I was shaking for about 20 minutes. All I wanted was a nice walk for my boy and instead I've had to man handle him over a fence and then put him at risk by going through a farm with nasty dogs. I feel like a bad mother
Is there a law against the styles not being accessible for dogs? What do other large dog owners do about them? Is there a law against having dogs running loose when it's a public right of way??