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?

Unnecessary car journeys increase the risk of accidents happening and emergency resources being used to sort them out. I am utterly fed up walking our dog in our urban environment but I will not be driving somewhere nicer. He also NEVER gets off the lead now - in case he goes up to someone and I have to get him back, even though this is unlikely- and to minimise the risk of him getting injured. We run a veterinary practice and are down to emergency only with skeleton staff and it is extremely difficult. PLEASE keep your dogs on the lead, no matter how good their recall.

@Ohffs66 matt hancock has recently said it's okay to drive an short distance if you need to, to exercise..does your sentiment apply to my situation aswell where I live rurally with nowhere to walk with my baby as there is no pavements and a national speed limit road where I would almost certainly be hit by a car if I tried to walk on?

no need to be so offended and rude - it is your choice to get up at 5am and do that but this woman is not actually doing anything awful by making this decision, it allows her to respect the 2m rule much more which is the whole point of the restrictions

@Flylilly not being rude btw but it wasnt because the field is nicer it's because the OP is saying there are far less people then around where she lives, meaning less contact with others

It's not breaking the rules. I drive to the forest everyday, as do several others, all dog walkers, none of us know each other, just a wave.
The police patrol daily to stop groups, they see us all of the time and have no problem with it.
It is immense space there and you can avoid each other.

I am in a similar position as well ,but try to go for a walk at non busy times .The whole point of everyone being off the road means that there is less risk of accidents /breakdowns and so on .Even if you had a puncture say .then you would have to call out AA ,so that would be an unnecessary contact for a start .I am not driving unless for food ATM, and would worry about being stopped by Police as well.Hopefully this will not last for ever ,and we can go back to driving our doggy about as usual ,but everyone needs to play their part!

Why do you own a dog (a hyper one at that) with no garden. That's unfair on the dog.

The problem is when we have our mind set to do something, we can always find a reasoning that suits our intention. That's provide the sense that it is ok to do so. Except that one's reasoning is not a fact.

@cherrybunx one of the things I'm fed up with is trying to avoid people but I still won't be getting in my car

We honestly tried to not have to take our car out to walk our dogs, we have a great dane, irish wolfhound and large GSD, our local park at the top of our road in now rammed full of people.

Gone are the days where I can comfortably let our dogs exercise. We have tried, if we allow the dogs off the lead (dogs those sizes require a good gallop) we have been met with people who wouldn't usually be using the park shouting at us to put our dogs on leads as they are scared of them, despite being opposite ends of the park.

also the extra people jogging, riding bikes, kicking footballs - all make for very over excited dogs, we literally cannot turn around without being faced with another person/dog.
It's a huge change from our usual park experience! And no, going at 5am doesnt help either. There seems to be no "quiet" times anymore.

Keeping 3 giant/big breed dogs on leads also not a viable option, all the extra excitement and wanting to have a free roam means being pulled all over the place, last visit to the local park saw my GSD managing to shrug his collar due to another person's dog descending on us as soon as we entered the gates. It was an absolute nightmare.

We have taken to driving 10 minutes to our local reserve where theres massive expanse of fields we can walk, in safety and peace. At the reserve we have rarely seen anyone and have been politely asked to recall our dogs all but twice, by people who wouldn't usually be walkers. In this case we are able to keep distance and respect the wishes of people who wouldn't usually be using the parks/open spaces. Everyone is safe and happy.

At the moment we are all living in a terrace house with a small back garden, due to being inbetween buying somewhere much bigger - its means that our one hour exercise is absolutely essential and in the interests of keeping our animals, our selves and the public safe, I honestly think we are doing what is right in our situation.

Our dogs are already going stir crazy without the added pressure and stress of an over crowded park where we are forced into interacting with the public.

I think people need to be sensible and realistic in making choices of what is best to do. Each situation is different.

@Flylilly I think individual circumstance and common sense do have to come into play though. if the OP is going to see pretty much noone vs say 50 or so, I think the 5 minute drive is much more sensible.

To be fair to the OP (and others on this thread) "rules" such as this aren't interpreted consistently.

My mother has various health issues and she lives on top of a hill. Therefore she can walk down the hill but will physically struggle to walk up again.
So she and my father drive the short distance to the bottom of the hill and park in a car park there to go for a walk on the flat. They've been challenged by the police a couple of times but, on explaining why they had to drive to where they did the police have told them this is perfectly ok. So it seems as though the "rules" aren't quite as black and white as some on this thread might suggest.

I think you should use common sense as to what is best and probably driving 5 minutes is fine. Yes you could have an accident but you also could walking down the pavement.

If it’s a 5 minute drive, can’t you just walk to the bigger space?

@PeppaisaBitch was that aimed at me about why do I own a hyper dog with no garden

1. my dog isn’t hyper (the hyper comment was from someone who made a point of it’s better to not walk a dog and therefore have a hyper dog, than drive or take it to busy park
2. as for not having a garden, I literally have to cross the road to the park. It is like our front garden

Why do you own a dog (a hyper one at that) with no garden. That's unfair on the dog.

Yes, it would seem so :(

So, if you have no garden, do you have to go out for a walk every single time it needs the toilet?!

I drive 15 mins to a private use dog paddock. DM has two pointy dogs, one with no recall for anyone else but DM and is also unpredictable with other dogs. DM and her DH are both vulnerable hence why I'm walking them. They need a good run off lead, and we don't come into contact with r even see anyone else.

To all those saying you should walk, if you have a dog on a lead on the pavement and meet someone coming the other way you will be less than 2 metres apart.

To be further away, one of you will have to step off the pavement. In doing so you could twist an ankle stepping off the pavement and have to go to A and E, you might trip over the lead and break an ankle, you might get run over, a car might have to swerve to avoid you, lose control and crash into a petrol station which then ignites and kills dozens.

Most of these scenarios are about as likely as having an accident during a 5 minute drive to walk the dog somewhere quiet. The guidelines don't say you can't drive so I would drive.

The guidelines are clear - you can drive a short distance to exercise (dog or otherwise), you should just aim to exercise locally whenever possible.
So go for it. It is within the rules.

At 20mph, a 5 minute drive there and 5 minutes back would take more than an hour to walk at a decent pace. The journey would be the walk.

The government have never said people couldn't drive a short distance to walk; it was not specified, and the police and some of the public filled in the blanks. Hancock clarified, as there was so much confusion, that a few minutes drive to get to a different part of your local area was fine.

Lots of conflicting info out there. On the tv officials have said its usually fine for someone to take a 5 minute drive to a more remote area. Local police in my area are saying absolutely not. Everyone is contradicting each other.

There’s a small risk you could break down or have an accident putting a strain on services or risking infection with a break down company but this is unlikely driving 5 miles so I would do it.

Also I know people who are walking miles and miles across roads, fields and paths when they don’t normally walk this far. They could have a fall or get hit by a car so it’s really hard to know what’s best.

I live in a village and lots of people out working and it’s hard when you spot someone walking the other way. If I got in my car and drove a few miles I wouldn’t have that problem. I have only been walking from home but it causes me stress. There are lots of people out walking yet live in the countryside so lots of remote areas in driving distance 😩

A five minute drive could be a round trip of up to ten miles, so not always walkable.

There are NO RULES about not driving short distances to exercise or walk dogs. What they don't want is people driving out to country/coastal beauty spots all congrating in the same place.

In the circumstances you describe (driving a short distance to a quiet field to avoid a busy area) is perfectly reasonable and I don't see a problem with it.

It is reducing contact with other people that slows the spread of Covid19 not quality of rule adherance.

It can be difficult to keep up with local police enforcement.
DH was told by a PCSO to leave our local park, to which he had walked (5 minutes away) with DDog.
There was no one else there at all.

Absolutely no!!! Have you not seen this? It’s making its way to National news

www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/group-caught-after-crashing-car-18047329

metro.co.uk/2020/04/06/friends-crashed-driving-10-miles-walk-dog-12514164/

I think it sounds safer to drive the 5 minutes in order to be able to social distance, but the problem then is that people are driving further.

Its really difficult for people in big cities such as london to be able to get out at all now because of how hard it is to social distance