To hire a private field to walk dog and have a sandwich?

[millerjane]

Is this a reasonable or unreasonable thing to do.

2 mile car journey required.

Couple had a sarnie on a blanket whilst the dog "zoomed" around.

Matt Hancock says it’s ok to drive for 5 minutes, I think 2 miles is too far.

So 24 miles per hour is too fast?

@Haffiana you know they can't. The author of that comment clearly has not read any of the legislation. An awful lot of people are relying on tabloids for their understanding of what is and is not permitted and are really quite muddled over what lockdown means here verses Spain for example, where there are much stricter rules (even the easing of restriction today leaves them in a stricter lockdown than us).

I think some of the people making these comments have got themselves into a rut of thinking people are not allowed to enjoy themselves, which is a great shame and entirely untrue. There are also people who are using the lockdown as an excuse to articulate the chips they have on their shoulders. Lockdown is not a license to be rude. There is no rule against greeting someone 2m away from you in the street as you walk to the shop. There is no rule against driving 2 miles to a suitable place for a dog walk and there is no rule against having a picnic on privately owned or rented land.

And what is wrong with putting your dog on a lead, and walking it for a mile or so around the streets?

If you have a dog that is very fit and used to being walked off the lead this will do almost no good at all. It’s a bit like expecting someone who goes running every morning to be tired/satisfied by a one mile stroll. It’s better than nothing but it’s not really good enough, which is why people are so desperate to find a way to give their dogs a proper walk.

I actually think mine would be worse after a one mile walk on a lead than he would be not going at all

Problem is the woods and trails ARE packed. So that is the.sensibke option.

They could easily have walked the 2 miles there tho. Lazy sods.

The dog walk is not a problem. The picnic is. If they posted on Instagram a photo of their picnic it normalises picnicing.

Matt Hancock says it’s ok to drive for 5 minutes, I think 2 miles is too far.

How slowly do you drive?!

It’s not compulsory to photograph everything you do and post it to Instagram. Most people don’t.

@WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo you don't know enough about them to know that. My husband and I used to lodge with a couple who had a dog that needed a lot of exercise. After the husband had a stroke they were no longer capable of navigating the pavements and road crossings to get to a footpath. They had to drive to a field where he could walk on the flat arm in arm with his wife.

It's the field equivalent of a 2nd home

It's not permitted to travel there and that's that

What a steaming load of bullshit.

And what Matt Hancock isn't the legislation - it is advice.

Well, if the dog can't be walked by traffic, presumably they were having to travel to exercise him anyway, which is allowed by both the law and guidelines - reasonable and limited travel for animal welfare. They've just found a quieter place than their normal dog park to do it.

They could easily have walked the 2 miles there tho. Lazy sods.

There and back would have been at least an hour, and maybe with more other people around. By driving they were minimising time and contact, but 2 miles is near enough they could have got themselves home if the car broke down.

Again, people and their lemming-like brains. Fgs stop going on about things you do not understand.

This was absolutely fine.

FGS - driving 2 miles is too much of a risk? You could walk home if you broke down, and the risk of an accident (especially at the moment) is miniscule.

I don't see people telling everyone to keep the kids out of the kitchen, or to keep their cooking from scratch to a minimum, which are also risky activities and would reduce the burden on A&E

I am so sick of reading about people’s precious dogs!

How is it an issue? It's been said by ministers several times (despite the social media police banging on about it) that it's fine for people to travel a few miles to walk in an isolated place. The fact that they ate a sandwich there is neither here nor there really. I'm sick to death of all the fuss about how we exercise, where we do it, whether we are allowed a sit down halfway round etc, it's all bollocks as long as people are staying the correct distance away from others.

Much more concerned about idiots who are having all the extended family round for a bank holiday bbq (friends next door neighbours did exactly that yesterday) or people travelling to their second homes in areas that only have one cottage hospital that's unable to cope.

Can somebody please link to the rule that says you can’t drive to a quiet open space to exercise or the one that says all dogs should be kept on leads at the moment! Thanks.

It’s utterly laughable, and really quite frightening, how many people are just obsessed with policing others and frothing about absolutely nothing. Getting all het up over supposed rules/regulations/‘laws’ and ‘legislation’ when no such thing exists and all we’ve been given is a set of guidelines which have room within them for reasoned and sensible self-determined analysis of risk. But it seems that’s way above a lot of people’s capacity. So fine, stick to the ‘rules’ as you see them. But leave the rest of us be, fgs.

I am so sick of reading about people’s precious dogs!

So you clicked on a thread about someone walking a dog to tell us how fed up you are reading about dogs?

are people honestly that funny about the rules that they are allowing basic common sense to go out the window?

Yes, they definitely are. Especially on MN.

I am so sick of reading about people’s precious dogs!

I'm proud to be from a country that (on the whole) treats animals well

@millerjane what was the point of the thread? Honestly curious.

Me? Yes, a picnic, boiled eggs and dukka included! We'll take coffee and cake this week, if the cold sets in.

As pp have said, owners of dog fields, their insurers, have had the ok to stay open. I, along with others, posted the government confirmation a couple of weeks ago. Their reasons: safer, more secluded, keeps small businesses ticking over, and a few other equally common sense reasons.

The usual dog walks in many places are now much busier with joggers, cyclists, families with small children, so many dog walkers are making the necessary adjustments, legally, within the CV recommendations.

You don't have to like it or agree with it. But it is allowed. As with many things that may change, but this week, so far.... it's allowable.

A lot of people simply don’t have common sense. They literally don’t have the capacity required to do that kind of thinking. In an ideal world that doesn’t really matter - there’s room enough in the world for all levels of capability and function. But in situations like this they would much rather be told exactly what to do and where to do it, and what not to do, and then apply those rules with an exacting rigidity born from complete helplessness. They would likely welcome a police state with open arms simply because they would feel so much safer with all personal responsibility and accountability removed. Fine for them, but definitely not fine for me.

the safe field we rent is an unnecessary journey.

I've never owned a dog (big or otherwise) but isn't a run part of its welfare requirements? If I still had a horse I'd be making two car journeys every day to turn it out in the morning and to bring it in again in the evening. I wouldn't see that as 'unnecessary'.