Well I've just had a good laugh at Boxer Boy's story !

It is not illegal to have your dogs off lead around livestock. It is illegal not to have dogs under control ... I believe there is a slight difference. I could never trust Tai enough to walk through a field of sheep off lead, but I know several dogs who ARE trustworthy and would ignore them. Sheepdogs belonging to the farmer are, after all, off lead, so a law that said that all dogs must be on lead around livestock would clearly be rather unenforceable !

The farmers sheepdogs would be there to work the sheep, so your argument kind of falls flat on its face

I'm so glad you find it amusing that sheep could potentially lose their lambs just because someone is too pigheaded to put their dogs on leads......NOT

Jann

Re the farmers' dogs, agreed, but you can't have a selective law ! Either dogs are allowed off the lead around livestock, or they are not. Sheepdogs are ... dogs

Who said anything about finding it amusing that sheep could lose their lambs? !!

Only if Boxer's dog chased them, and clearly they didn't, so what's your problem ? Not every dog is a sheep killer, given half a chance mine would be, so he definitely goes a lead around livestock.

You certainly can have selective law. Take the docking law for example. Working gundogs are exempt from being docked.

That is not the point. It is irresponsible for the reasons pointed out numerous times already on this thread.

The dog doesn't have to chase the sheep to frighten them, if you read previous posts from other people, it is lambing time, and the sheep could lose their lambs.....THAT is my problem It is very irresponsible, and why take the risk that your dogs could be shot.

Well I must say there are more than a few rude pepople here, but I will attempt not to reciprocate in kind.

My having two dogs who are well accustomed to all types of livestock and who totally ignore them, walking close to heel on a public footpath through a flock of sheep was not intended to be the theme of this thread. But it was obviously too good a subject for those that always know best to miss out on.

I have two good friends who farm large areas of my walking territory and can assure you they are quite happy for me to walk my dogs through their land as I choose, for they know I understand and respect my animals and theirs.

I am more than a tad amazed that some of you not only know what dog's think but your " knowledge" even extends to other animal species. Well having lived in the countryside for a long long time all I can say is I have never met anyone who believes sheep think a lot and they certainly give no indication of differentiating between a dog being on lead or walking off lead close to heel. Still I'm sure you all know best. I shall try not to upset you all again, but I can't promise.

By the way I have lots more pics of the sheep today, as with the other one , close to us and totally relaxed. Still I probably faked them didn't I folks

Sorry !!! I explained I thought that I haven't been able to read through this thread, am having pooter trouble at the moment as it is on go-slow. I've obviously missed something, I'll go back and read through them all as things seem to be a bit better now !

I am confused here. My previous dog would definitely chase sheep, so I always kept him on a lead when walking near them. When we were holidaying up in Cumbria we had to walk through a field of sheep, there was no choice, it was getting dusk, we had got lost and it was imperative we walked through the field. The sheep freaked when they saw us coming ... we were on a public footpath incidentally.

Are you saying that we shouldn't have walked through the field of sheep? On a public bridleway?

In the short time you have been here, you have managed it a lot. In fact, judging by the majority of your posts and threads started by you, you don't fit far from the description of a troll.

Are yes you are the lady who told me I was breaking the law today, and I note you also specialise in spiteful comments.

Perhaps in future you would like to vet my posts before I enter them

I am going to have to tell the rest of the story Boxer Boy. I am doubtless going to be shot down in flames for this, but it is actually very funny.

We had Hal on the extending lead when we walked through this field of sheep. They freaked initially, but then seemed to rally following a putting together of their woolly heads, and then started to charge us en masse ! They were tups, young tups, so I said to Mike unless they stop or part and go either side of us, let Hal off the lead. It is him they are chasing, not us, he will run away being a coward, we can beat a dignified retreat over the wall, and he will follow. They sped up and came straight at us, a whole wall of tups, so we let Hal off and he immediately legged it towards the wall with the flock hot in pursuit ! We continued towards the stile and called Hal. He obviously decided that he was NOT going to run away from a bunch of sheep, turned round and sat down, watching them come closer and closer. About 10 feet or so away from him, they screeched to a halt. You could almost hear them saying to each other "guys, guys, that a ******* wolf !". The tups looked at Hal, Hal looked at the tups, Hal took a couple of paces towards them and within a second they parted like the Red Sea and roared off and away across the field. You could almost see Hal dusting down his paws. He very smugly turned and trotted towards us, job done.

It was extremely funny.

And guess what ... the farmer had watched the whole thing and had been ******* himself with laughter ! He approached us in the bar afterwards and said we had done completely the right thing. I thought he was going to have a go at us for letting Hal off the lead, but far from it. He said you have to be careful of Cumbrian sheep, they can be really nasty towards dogs, particularly the tups, and Hal stood no chance against so many. He actually apologised for having put them on the public footpath, and said he would move them as he couldn't have them attacking such nice dogs ! Not a word I would use to describe Hal on occasions, but that's another story !