Northumberland - stiles

[BrokenButNotFinished]

I'm wondering if anyone can help?

We're going to Northumberland in the summer with a Scottish terrier: portly of girth and short of leg. He manages ok with the kind of stiles we've found in other parts of the country, whether they are stone set into the wall (up and over) or wooden stiles or some sort of narrowing impediment to a gateway. I am remembering a holiday on the Yorkshire / Cumbria edges a while ago though where we encountered a number of ladder stiles, which proved problematic - and he's substantially older now. We haven't come across these anywhere else in the country yet.

So - my question is whether anyone can give me an idea of what sort of stiles are common in Northumberland? Before I give in and just buy 'dog handles'... which he will hate and which may provoke a strike of canine protest.

Thanks.

[CalebWomble]

Can't remember what sort of stiles we encountered in Northumberland, but can't you just tuck him under your arm?

[fredabear]

all sorts, often with a dog route through but not always

[BrokenButNotFinished]

They're not really a tuck-them-under-your-arm sort of breed. He weighs 15 kilos for a start. Plus he wriggles - which is a danger to both of us when you're trying to climb over a stile, with one leg in the air and can't use the other hand. (And - as an aside - he also tends to get an erection when you pick him up: I love him dearly, but that's more intimacy than I was really looking for...)

It's a problem of a barrel-shaped breed. A smaller, more lithe dog can usually get through or under a lot of stiles. A bigger dog can go over more easily. Picking him up is absolutely a last resort because he makes me filthy and it messes with his control-freakery...

It's principally ladder stiles I'm concerned about - which was the first image which came up when I googled. It may have been the only one in the county...

[CalebWomble]

Oh, I've got a Welsh Terrier, and he's very tuckable, lol, but although he's on the large side for the breed he's not quite as heavy as your Scottie.

[BrokenButNotFinished]

My Scottie is at the top end of the breed standard. I saw his mother when I went to collect him from the breeder and she was pretty big too. Welsh terriers look to me a bit narrower in the body. Mine's just a solid barrel of determination. And they're not hydrodynamic at all... I thought all dogs could swim before I got him.

[honeyroar]

I live in the Pennines. We have some of the ladder type stiles around, so I know what you mean. The stiles aren't all the same in the region though. A lot of the metal ladder types are on Waterboard property (around reservoirs).

I would be delighted at a 15k dog though. My labs weight 25 and 40kilos! The smaller, more athletic one can jump them, the larger, heavier type lab needs lifting, and is often wet through as, being a lab, she throws herself into rivers and ponds whenever she can. We've managed to train her to climb up the stiles nowadays, while we shove from behind!