To drive to take dog for walk

[Chimpd0g]

Before you hurl abuse, please hear me out

I have 2 choices of where to take dog for walk locally:

1. small busy park within walking distance, getting there by walking along pavements therefore risking infecting others or getting infected myself or
2. driving literally 5 minutes up the road and walking in a bigger open space where I won’t see many people, and if I do I can easily go the other way and avoid them

Surely it’s better for everyone if I go in the car?

Not to mention the police are stopping cars and handing out fines to people. Driving somewhere to walk your dog is not a justifiable reason to be driving anywhere. The police will not let you off with it if they stop you. And you’ll have the dog right there in the car so you won’t be able to lie and say you’re going to work/shopping.

bringincrazyback it’s not just about avoiding people, it’s about stopping the spread. The further you go the further we spread it, plus the hazards presented on the roads, we’ve been specifically asked to stay at home which is what we should be doing. A short time (an hour) our for exercise is allowed at the moment but this won’t last if people keep travelling for it.

I have the exact same situation as you op.
Walk from my door but encounter many, many families, couples, cyclists all out for their daily exercise.
The road my house is on seems to have turned into a motorway for people. And it’s a steady stream all day - no avoiding it by going early or late.
Or I can drive 3 minutes in the opposite direction (can’t walk it as it’s a bendy, country road with no footpath so not safe) and walk my dog in the woods where we very rarely see another soul.

It’s common sense. Driving 30 minutes or an hour to go to a beach or beauty spot with the family and a picnic is obviously not ok.

Driving less than 5 minutes to walk in a quiet place and avoid meeting other people is just a no brainer to me.

And I’ll take the word of the actual Minister of Health, I think he should probably know what the rules are seeing as he wrote them:

We always drove a few minutes away to walk the dog. Now we just choose better timing to walk him for exercise when there are fewer people and walk around our home. It’s on pavement and doesn’t harm the dog. You cross the street if people are coming. Don’t go middle of the day and you’re usually good to go. There is literally no excuse that you HAVE to drive to walk your dog.

Better timing doesn't exist for some people. A lot of people like myself and PP's alike don't get quiet moments to go out with our dogs.

And for those harping on about beauty spots, there is a reason the place I walk my dog is quiet and I don't see anyone - it is not a beauty spot. It's a muddy, wet, narrow little dirt trail along a river. I have to wear wellies even on warm dry days. I'm not driving somewhere "nice" to walk the dog I'm driving to go somewhere nobody else goes.

Plus, if Matt Hancock says it's okay then I'm sticking by it, not the gestapo on here.

I’m surprised to learn that people drive their dogs to their normal walk.

Matt Hancock said on question time on Thursday, that it was fine to go for a short drive in order to walk your dog.

Driving a dog is NOT essential!!!

Well I'm off to do a 13 hour shift, DH has not long got home, we'll keep risking our lives to protect people. You lot keep risking yours and other time and resources to walk your bloody dogs

I think if it’s 5 mins drive it’s ok. Pavements are more risky to you. I think just stay in your own town - that will involve some driving, to shops etc. Just don’t drive 20 mins down the road

I drive 2 mins to walk my dog because I have a health condition which means more pain from a pulling dog. 2 min drive we avoid people on narrow pavement and very narrow underpass, and means I can just let him straight off. I’m also working at home, so I don’t have long to let the dog get his exercise (he usually goes to a dog walker who is now not working but I’m still paying her) and make the kids their lunch.

This is the problem with our current guidance and wishy-washy statements. No one has a clue where they stand or what is allowed when the government website says one thing but the spineless politicians say another. We should be on a total enforced lockdown and maybe people should understand the severity of the situation. Treat us like morons because the vast majority of us are.

It was clearly stated by the health secretary last week that a 5 min drive to walk or exercise is fine.

Everyone needs to calm down.

We drove 5 mins for a walk yesterday as our usual route is so busy now - when you'd not at only see a couple of people max - and the walk we then took we didn't see a soul. Much safer.

The 5 mins in the car would be about an hour to walk as it's up a very steep hill for 2 miles and DS wouldn't last.

I'm in the same position OP. Ten minute walk up a crowded park of seven minute drive to an empty massive green space. I drive to the green space.

We can use common sense with this. And yes Mat Hancock himself has said we can drive (a little way) to walk dogs/exercise. I am doing it. The people who scream FOLLOW THE RULES are starting to really fuck me off. We don't beat this by magical thinking "the more good and virtuous I am the more the virus goes away". Well it doesn't. Use common sense, drive to a quieter place. If it is busy there then go somewhere else.

haddaway Yes I agree.
It has previously been specifically said that you must not go in your car to exercise (walking dogs is not specifically mentioned in the law but obviously counts as exercise) and now he’s changed it and given people a licence to think that everything is flexible.

Pip it does go against the guidelines but it seems not against Hancocks most recent advice and in terms of infection (not accidents etc) is logically better.
But wouldn’t it make sense for everyone to just follow the guidelines for a few weeks to get this over with. And please stop with the gestapo stuff, it’s incredibly offensive. You want to walk your dog. It avoid being sent to the gas chamber.

Not avoid that should say.

I’m driving 5 mins to exercise my dogs. I have a condition that affects my mobility so the distance isn’t walkable. I drive to a field with a level walking ground that doesn’t agitate my joint problems.

We've started driving 5 mins out of the village where we live to go for a walk as then we are walking in fields where is it easy to socially distance. All of the other walks which you can do from our house are on pavements which are surprisingly busy or involve at least a couple of sections of 100m or so where it's single file and, however much you pull off the path (fence on one side; barbed wire on the other) you cannot get 2m away. It is safer for us to drive for 5 mins. This isn't a beauty spot - just some fairly bland fields which happen to have a footpath going across them and have the opportunity to move well away if someone else happens to be coming the other way.
Yesterday we were out for an hour and met 4 people coming the other way and were overtaken by one runner and called to another family and suggested they over take us. We were at least 3m - and often much more - from all of these people. On my previous pavement walk, I'd seen 60 people some of whom were only just 2m away. When we'd done the "single file" walk, we'd had to turn back three times before abandoning it!

This situation is exactly what I saw happen yesterday, lots of people driving to normally quiet spots to walk dogs or go for their daily exercise. The result was tonnes of cars parked on the road. Although I'm sure people were sticking to the 2m rule of what I could see it still meant lots of people in one place. This for me is what the guidelines are trying to stop.

Do what makes most sense in your particular environment.

Btw, I'm not driving anywhere myself, but on roads around here a 5 minute drive would get me at least 3 miles, so there and back might be a longer walk than some might imagine. If I lived in a larger with lots of people all walking from their home inc going to the local shop then 5 mins in the car might well get me somewhere much safer to walk - the countryside has lots of paths which aren't particularly attractive to locals let alone people from elsewhere which would serve the purpose.

We have exactly the same situation where I live. Beautiful nature reserve on our doorstep, lots of paths across fields that have turned into mayhem. On my 1h dog walk yesterday I crossed 53 people, yes I counted! We're all trying to hug either sides of the path as much as possible, but it is really tricky. The path is simply not 2 metres wide. 5 minutes down the road is a vast comyn where you can easily give anyone a wide berth. I have actually walked there and back from my house, but with little legs that sometimes come with me that turns into a lengthy walk indeed. I do honestly feel the risk of transmission is less if I drive the 5 minutes, rather than staying in my neighbourhood.

I live somewhere where there is genuinely no pavements or anywhere to walk. it is very rural and also situated on a national speed limit road. I have a young baby and have been driving a few minutes up the road to walk her in her buggy as she is far too heavy now for me to carry around (not that there is anywhere for me to even do that)

so not technically sticking to the guidelines but the alternative is me and my baby never getting outside, or worse, walking directly on a national speed limit road and most likely being hit by a car.

common sense is missing big time on these threads. we need to be social distancing so of course go with the option that limits contact the most. people on here are so desperate to he "right" and "following the rules" they are completely missing the point as to why we are having our movement restricted in the first place.

people on here saying you are the reason this will be extended is hilarious, you are more likely to move the virus around passing multiple people then in a car and then in an area where noone is.

dont let the morons make a decision that puts you at risk of being around lots of people. maybe also dont ask this kind of thing on here, most have let this situation completely fry their ability to think

I have a health condition which means more pain from a pulling dog. 2 min drive we avoid people on narrow pavement and very narrow underpass, and means I can just let him straight off.

You need to train your dog how to walk on a lead!!

So it's absolutely impossible that you will crash your car and be a drain on the emergency services then? Your car is 100% guaranteed not to break down so you definitely won't need to call the AA? Please tell me your secret because then maybe I can do the same and my anxious reactive little rescue dog can go to a field for a lovely run rather than me getting up at 5am to walk her round and round our estate to avoid other dogs and other people, and then playing games with her at lunchtime to keep her busy. FFS. I am SO sick of people dreaming up reasons why their situation is different and how they have "assessed the risk" and decided that actually, screw the rules, little Jonny / Fido's enjoyment of the daily trip out is way more important than protecting the NHS, because that is what it basically boils down to.