Fenced Field.

Hello,

I am lucky enough to be living on a farm, with several acres of land.

I have got 1 and half acres of land which is used for only my dogs. It is 6 foot high stock fencing (with smaller gap at the bottom) as well as being penned into the ground.

It is currently just a grassed field, with slight hill, with one tree and an empty 'pond/lake'.

I was wondering if there were anybody who would pay for such feature? I will be using a system so that you should not meet any other dogs in the field.

Also what would you like in a field as we are hoping to fenced off other section of the farm for yet more playtimes? This will be bigger as well as being more flat. No trees etc so what can I do to make this more 'fun' for dogs?
I would prefer to have natural things if possible.

Obviously it will be at the owner's risk.

How much would you pay for 30 minutes? Or even an hour? Let me know the min and the max.

I hope I made sense.

how about filling the pond/lake up a low end for paddling and a decent depth for dogs who love to swim. also ive been thinking about trying to find a half size telegraph pole to tie a tire to it for my bullmastiff cross to play with. you could do tunnel's half dug in for dogs to have fun with. just a couple there but the possabilities are endless. maybe £5 an hour or £10 depending on what you think is a resonable fee

i think it is a good idea for people that have dogs that they cant let off lead for various reasons. i.e people with northern breeds or hounds that dont have reliable recall.

i wouldnt pay for such a feature because my dogs are fine off lead.

things to add in maybe, i wouldnt mess with the natural setup too much because people that may hire it will want their dogs to have a good run around and stretch their legs, so flat ground with not too many obstacles is good

I would have paid you anything to have access to that when I first got my rescue pointer. She had no recall whatsoever, and just wanted to run and run. It was really tough to progress from being on a long line to off-lead, and a fenced field would have made it so much easier.

I would have had to have been 100% sure that she couldn't get under or over the fence.

I agree with Promarc about pricing...it needs to be enough that you feel you are getting something back for maintaining the field, but not so much that someone wouldn't come back two or three times a week. Also depends which part of the country you're in.

When I've thought about this I thought that £5 an hour would be reasonable but with a discount for regular use i.e. £20 for the week for a set time. However I would expect the grass to be mowed, or at least a path mowed to walk through and more trees!!
Becky

I would certainly pay for something like that providing the fencing is secure. I can only let my dog off leash in secure areas as if he sees something to chase his recall kinda disappears.

You don't want it so expensive it's out of reach of the average person but you need to make sure you're at least getting back what it costs you to maintain it. I'm not really sure how much I'd pay, I don't know what the going rate is for things like this.

brill idea about the tree's as my sammy is more interested in searching and sniffing than running about so some area's were dogs can search and have a good sniff about. a little woodland type area. and a good idea for the weekly discount.

same as me, but saying that if im on my own with no other dogs he responds everytime. its just other dogs it's like play time to him and recall is totally gone. also a good idea for socilising dogs as well as other peeps meeting up. maybe a cup of tea and biscuits service as well.

I would pay for something like that to let the greyhound run... hounds cannot achieve suitable zoomies in our back garden (and my nice tall flowers out at the moment don't appreciate being used as a zoomy hazard). I know someone who pays for use of a riding school paddock to run her hounds on offlead.

As well as filling in the lake, and mowing a path for walkers to walk along - maybe around the fence line - that way when you inspect it will be easy to see any holes etc, I would say Poo bins are what are missing..

You will need a set routine list so people know when there is someone in the field and also signs warning people there are dogs loose - some people are numpties!

Ultimately it is up to you what you put in, less is more in some cases. If you leave it as it is and then after you have a few users you can ask them if they'd like to see any features added - that way you're getting feedback and the money you gain from it can be put back into it.

I'd say you'd charge per time of use, maybe a fiver an hour, but for those who use it regularly, like everyday you could rent it out to them for the week for a lower price than what it would be if they came everyday and paid the fiver - it's really up to you.