Where do you walk your dogs off lead?

[newglassesplease]

Am struggling to find quiet places to practice off lead with my 1 year old.

My local parks are quite small/not fully enclosed, beaches are busy (he gets very excited seeing other dogs) and my local public footpaths aren't very good (two you have to enter through fields with lots of cattle and one has a private house whose grounds you have to walk through and they have two large dogs that roam free and bark aggressively/scare him)

I have used a paid enclosed field before which was great and will use again but can't afford that every day.

Those that walk in fields/woods - are they public footpaths/public access? Do you have permission from land owners or do you just use without permission?

I know difficult to say without knowing where I am but just mean generally really, how do you know where you can go/find local places?

Thanks!

Is there any enclosed 5 a side pitches or public tennis courts? These can be good if you can figure out when they're unused.

I have a field 5 minutes away, it's council run, there have been rumours about banning dog walkers due to some not picking up the dog poo.

We have a border Collie and she knows exactly where we are going as soon as I pick up the ball flinger.

Do you have any local parks you can take them?

There are footpath apps you can download, or OS maps to find the public footpaths in your area.

I’ve always used public rights away across farmland, good to have a few options so you can avoid certain ones when there is livestock in them. As it’s the summer and mornings are lighter could you go to local parks really early when you can have it to yourself?

Have a look at an OS map of your area, there might well be some footpaths or bridleways you don't know about. Bing maps has an option to display an OS map rather than standard road map once you zoom in to a certain point which is very handy.

It's also worth having a look to see if there are any enclosed fields for hire near you. They're becoming increasingly popular, more and more are popping up all the time. Try the Dog Walking Fields website or their FB page.

Woodland areas and some national trust land are often okay for off lead walking.

We live next door to the downslink so walk there. We can can walk for miles without coming to a road, and my dogs are well behaved so I can call them back or grab them if we meet cyclists/wary kids/dogs on leads.

I’ve walked them both off lead since their first days out though so they are both very good (BigDog less so right now because he’s an adolescent but still under control).

The end of that post was meant to say that you can find walking routes/bridleways online, try your local council website.

The park from 10 weeks, fields, the canal towpath. He's been off lead since he was vaccinated

I have the OS app, and unless there's a sign specifically saying dogs on leads he's off, obviously checking for animals but he's well behaved

I also use the OS map app. There are loads of rights of ways that I haven’t ever noticed before. I try to walk next to woods.

This is a great website to identify safer areas for you to practice until you are confident with recall: www.dogwalkingfields.co.uk

Some you have to pay for (eg. private fields etc) but most are free.

Once confident, Forestry Commission places are great as they usually have a boundary fence, but lots of land.

I am fortunate to have miles and miles of forestry commission land in the new forest where we can walk off lead.

We do drive to several areas though as the forest near my home isn't suitable for ball throwing as there are no open areas unlike a 20-30 min drive away.