I agree that if you can avoid walking through fields of cows (especially with calves or young bullocks) with your dog then you should do so. There are many cases each year where people are injured, sometimes very seriously, and sometimes even killed by cows. The thing to remember if you do come across an angry, charging cow is to let your dog off the lead. The cow will be after the dog, and the dog has a much better chance of getting away (as do you!).

My point was that you said such a law would be unenforceable, due to the shepherd having working sheepdogs. I was merely pointing out that this was not so

I think everyone should be as responsible as you and put their dog on a lead when they are walking through fields with someone else's livestock. After all, you may know your dog is safe, but the livestock and farmer don't know that. It would just save a lot of hassle all round.

Good point Moobli.

About the law though - sorry, I was being a bit tongue in cheek when I originally made that statement. I know full well of course that farmers' working dogs would not be required to be on the lead around livestock, I was being a bit devilish when I made that remark. However, it is an interesting point though - as the law stands currently, it does not make an exception for working dogs owned by the farmer, so if a member of the public was had up before the Beak for not putting his dog on a lead, he might be able to plead that the farmers' dogs were not on a lead, so why should his be ?

A bit disingenuous, but nothing would surprise me when it comes to the law and Courts (I'm a legal secretary).

According to Defra, working sheepdogs and police dogs are exempt http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welf...estic/dogs.htm

My personal view is that my dogs will always be on the lead amongst any livestock. Most of them have perfect recall but I personally know a few too many trigger happy farmers for my liking and I am a tingling memory of a case recently where someone tried to pursue a case against a farmer who shot their dog who was offlead but according to them only a metre or so away with perfect behaviour amongst the sheep. Hmmm will try and look it up.

On a personal note i really wish my dogs understood full English. It would have made my life so much easier at times

I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to take their off lead dog that close to sheep on purpose, but I guess they did, perhaps to prove some silly point about how well trained the dog is. And how terribly sad that the poor dog had to pay such a horrific price for the owners selfishness.

Very sad. I am almost sure the judge threw the case out of court confirming that the farmer was well within his rights to shoot it if he felt it was a threat to his livestock in any way. Guess that's a matter of opinion. *shrug* Will try and dig it out...