Farmers dogs on public footpath

[Cuppateeee]

Just been on a lovely walk in the countryside, only to be spoiled by a shouty farmer. Need a different perspective on it otherwise it will just wind me up. Will include picture.

Walking with my dog on a lead through a field, staying on the public footpath when I see two border collies barking in the distance. I stay where I am to look for a farmer to check if they are aggressive or not, no one in sight, they are staying where they are but still barking and in the way of where I need to walk, so I went back and walked down the other side of the fence.

I get to the bottom and see the dogs have gone, also notice the gate was open so they could have got to me anyway, never mind I’m there now and go over the stile back onto the public footpath.

Only then I notice the dogs have come back, so again I check to see if I can see the farmer because whilst they weren’t growling they were barking which is intimidating enough.

At this point there is a fence between us so not a problem but I check to see where the public footpath leads and you’re supposed to join the farm track but their gate is open. The dogs are following me and my dog down the fence, still barking, so I decided to walk away from them not wanting to risk what would happen when we reach the open gate. I am at this point on the farmers field.

After a few steps a farmer comes running shouting for my attention, I stop and see what he wants. He said ‘the footpath doesn’t go along there, you’re damaging the crops’. So he was clearly watching me, and would have been able to see that I was uncomfortable with his dogs around.

There is snow on the field so I wasn’t sure what I was walking on but either way I said, sorry I appreciate that but your dogs were being aggressive towards me and my dog so I felt I had no choice.

He kept repeating that if I can’t stick to the path then I shouldn’t go on the walk, which in normal circumstances I totally agree with, but in this case I felt it best, to protect me and my dog.

He insists his dogs are not aggressive, they are with him at this point, still barking but I admit not growling or coming closer, just staying with him, but I said again that I was not to know this and didn’t want to risk anything happening to my dogs.

In the end I walked away because he clearly could not see my point of view.

So was IBU waking on his land or was he. And if he was is there anything I can do to stop if happening to someone else. Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading.

Thanks for the comments, on the most part they’ve been contructive. And this is exactly what needs to be said, comments like Icypop are actually helpful, because I think it’s unreasonable to tell me not to use a public footpath, I now know what to do in the future!

Ye gods! What a pleasant story, Dishing

The kids 500 words competition is open, are you entering?

Look, you should not have been on his land full stop. Your suggestion that his dogs were out of control is subjective - they will have been trained to alert at strangers on the land.

He's also entitled to keep his gate open, that's not your business.

You should have strenuously apologised and backtracked here. He's probably sick if public walkers "just" doing this or that on his land - his livelihood!

We farm, but I can see where you are coming from. Ideally the farmer should have called his dogs back after they'd alerted him that you were there. It doesn't help anyone to watch you be intimidated by his dogs to the point you walk across his crops.

I have enough experience of farm dogs (not ours) who will run in and nip strange dogs, that I would be very cautious walking through a farmyard that has loose dogs.
Perhaps if you find yourself in a similar situation, you could stand still and shout out to the farmer, who is most probably nearby the dogs, (ours are always milling about near us), and ask him to call his dogs off, or at least check if they are friendly.

A walker should stick to the paths. The landowner must keep the paths usable. The OP decided the path was not useable so took a different route. Seems fine.

Sounds like 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Just put it behind you and move on.

@dishingoutdone I feel as though he waited for me to step on his field, the arrows in the field show where I was planning to go but after about 5 steps he shouted so had clearly been watching in me in which case why didn’t he intervene sooner.
I looked around plenty of time to see if there was anyone around to talk to.

I’ve had this on the last half-mile of a four-mile walk. My dog on lead. Mares with foals in the field the footpath runs over going crazy at my small dog, coming up to us and kicking.

Not going to walk the whole way back, so I go over a gate and walk parallel to the footpath in the next field (no crops). Landowner goes mad. We ask him what else we are to do?

He’s been reported to the county council for other footpath issues and I have no sympathy for him.

@crispyturtle thought this was the likely case just wanted to get it off my chest

@abra1de this is what I thought, I never set out on that walk to ruin someone’s crops, I also didn’t intend on running into farm dogs coming at me.

If this is an issue the farmer runs into often why not just shut the gate or whistle them back when he hears them?

The idea of crops being fenced off so they don’t inconvenience the public just made me spit out my tea 😂

I loathe farmers.

A lot of people would feel this comment is bigoted, but I think it's sometimes reasonable to sweepingly dislike whole groups of people based on a single characteristic. For example I hate dickheads; no offence StreetwiseHercules.

People are on a rant today aren’t they. Why’s it never enough for someone to say you were being unreasonable instead they need to get personal. Just because 2 barking dogs wouldn’t scare someone especially close to an open gate doesn’t mean the OP can’t be intimidated by that. No she shouldn’t have walked over his crops, but it’s happened and she knows not to again. People don’t need to be cunts for no reason 🤦🏻‍♀️

Next time eother call for help or turn back. Cutting across the feild is trespass.

Hi OP, I can understand why you thought it was safer to go to the hedgeline. But as a few pps have explained, that was actually the wrong decision. The public footpath is the six foot wide strip, even if it is unfenced on one or both sides. You were doing the right thing having your dog on a lead in that situation, as farmers/landowners/gamekeepers can get quite understandably angry if a dog runs all over the field that a footpath also runs through.
The right thing to do if you felt unsafe was to go back on yourself. Annoying I understand if that was going to add a big chunk onto your route! For future reference, working farm dogs tend to be very noisy but not dangerous. And usually their master or mistress is not very far away even if you couldn't see her or him. Please don't let this put you off long country walks, I'm sure both you and your dog will love them, and there are usually good long chunks where ddog will be able to have a lovely safe off-lead runaround! There are various websites and local walk guides around that give good routes, often with where to park and the phone number of a good pub for lunch .

You were on a public footpath where you have every right to be (whether the farmer likes that or not). His dogs were unsupervised and causing a nuisance on a public footpath, they should be under the farmer’s control but clearly weren’t. I would have given him the Vs and told the arrogant twat to do one.

Sorry about 30 xposts including several from OP

But because the dogs belong to a farmer then being aggressive means they are doing their job?!

They weren't aggressive they were just barking.

@MrsFoxplus4 thanks 😂 I think coming on here does more harm than good!

I just needed to be told IABU and now I even have tips for next time.

Some people can’t be happy with that and find comfort insulting people behind their screens

I think he's probably worried enough about his crops in the snow, without you and your dog trampling over the top of them too.

It’s annoying - we once had to take an hour long detour because the route through the farmyard at the end was blocked by a really arsey turkey 😄 But, it’s their land and the proportion of dickheads in the population is reflected in the farming community so we just tend to put it down to experience and avoid that walk again.

@JenniferJareau Can you not see though how this could even be the slightest bit intimidating, especially when past experiences tell you that they could nip, especially as I had my dog with me.

Most farm dogs are well controlled but I have certainly met many Collies that would put you in your place if you got too close and I couldn’t move away unless straying from the footpath as the public footpath leads right onto the farm path

@Saucery will defo be doing that next time 😂

OP, I don’t think you were unreasonable at all. I’ve been attacked 3 times by dogs, and one of those was on a public footpath.
The farmer’s dogs were loose and barking at you- how are you supposed to know if they’re safe or not? If you’d carried on, they might have attacked you, your dog, or both. I think you made a perfectly sensible decision not to risk that.
The farmer was being totally unhelpful if he could see you from the start, and waited until you’d crossed onto his land so he could shout at you. Why didn’t he call his dogs off the path? What were they doing on the path anyway - shouldn’t they have stayed on his land?

It was very embarrassing be chased off by a turkey 😄. Made it more annoying than the usual herd of bullocks or farm dogs tbh!
For some reason, Farmers round here are bad for blocking public footpaths with bad tempered livestock. I think it’s because tourism and the Rambler £££ aren’t a big factor in the local economy. We rarely have any problems in the LAkes or Wales, or instance, but then some dog walkers take the piss so I don’t really blame them (not suggesting you are in that category).