We hired a field today!!

[Aprilwasverywet]

And saw our Husky running free for the first time!!
Took all 4 of our ddogs and saw a whole new bond. After the initial zoomies they set off round the edge. 2 slightly more ahead... Newest ddog in the middle hanging back waiting for the slacker!! All 4 enjoyed it so much. Only £8 an hour. Can't recommend it enough.
Stress free ddoggy walking was so great!!

We use fields regularly to meet children with their dogs and socialise them. We also like a fully enclosed field to let ours run freely. She loves the agility toys too.

We’ve just been offered use of a friends fully dog-proof four acre field, which is excellent and saves twenty pounds a week.

Ours has good recall within confined space, but on open countryside, with pheasants teasing her, she can’t help but turn her ‘work’ button back on. She has disappeared for four hours running over the Downs. She has a tracker, but we don’t want her out of control.

We’re away at moment and have a few fields booked around the area we are staying to give her free running time. The one tomorrow is six acres, which she will love. It’s not about the exercise as she runs ten miles on lead with my husband every morning. It’s the freedom.

I know our husky would go find the cutest dc and give it a good wash!! The dm /df would probably have a heart attack watching that occur! She is very loving and affectionate. Not what I have heard about local peoples huskies! Mostly owned by men round here so maybe they don't sit with a humongous beast on their legs /chest /head and cuddle them!!

@BFrazzled

I don’t know if it is true about huskies - we had a husky who had (mostly) reliable recall. Although once in a long while she would disappear and reappear again after an hour usually covered in mud. But I’d rather that than always walking on lead. Not specifically regarding your situation, op - maybe your individual dog is untrainable but it just makes me sad that it is seen as normal that dogs spend their life on lead - long lead is not a replacement for free roaming. It is neglect. If ppl believe that some breed has to walk on lead in the environment they live on perhaps it would be better to not get this breed as a pet.

What a load of bull

Plenty of dog are, and should, be kept on a lead for a variety of reasons. Nothing sad about keeping your dog safe.

Shame some feral dc can't be leased imo!!

My ddogs are better behaved than the dc at times!! Imagine tying a dc up outside a shop!! Save a fortune!

@BFrazzled

I don’t know if it is true about huskies - we had a husky who had (mostly) reliable recall. Although once in a long while she would disappear and reappear again after an hour usually covered in mud. But I’d rather that than always walking on lead. Not specifically regarding your situation, op - maybe your individual dog is untrainable but it just makes me sad that it is seen as normal that dogs spend their life on lead - long lead is not a replacement for free roaming. It is neglect. If ppl believe that some breed has to walk on lead in the environment they live on perhaps it would be better to not get this breed as a pet.

Very irresponsible. What happens if, on one of their hour long AWOL sessions, your husky goes and worries some sheep or knocks over a small child and wants to play with them? And you've got no idea where they are or what they're doing?

This is why there ought to be a licence for dog ownership. Unless you could be certain that the dog remained on your land throughout?

OP - your husky has a scooter? Did I misread that? I really hope I didn’t.

I have huskies top of the class in training. One is trained to pull a sled and scooterjor the other one is in training to. Absolutely no way would I let mine off leash. Nothing to do with bad recall, it's prey drive. Even the kennel club advise no off leash. Mine would chase the nearest livestock down nothing to do with bad recall more the breed. That's why you see huskies on a leash or longline.

Well, it is as unnatural for a dog to spend most of their time on lead (short, long, whatever) as it is for a human. The whole point of dogs life is to sniff around and play with other dogs. Of course when there is no alternative like with an aggressive dog this unavoidable.
But I cannot wrap up my mind around people getting a dog while planning to keep it on lead for most walks. Surely in that case just don’t get a dog?

We lived rurally bit what does it matter if it was our land? There is right of way. She could have met other people an we would be just as liable if she caused harm. But she was a friendly non aggressive dog with no prey drive towards bigger animals (hunted mice though)
Btw she was a rescue about I suspect to be put down in the particular rescue. I would have not taken a husky puppy due to the surrounding stigma (mentioned in the OP)

“We lived rurally bit what does it matter if it was our land? There is right of way.”

For people, not dogs.

Dogs don’t need to actually chase livestock to cause issues, funnily enough, sheep and cows don’t actually know whether a dog is trying to kill them or just running about and react the same way to either.

I think BFrazzled, the risk is your dog is liable to be shot if it is off lead and ‘wandered off’ for an hour. I agree dogs need off lead time, if possible. Our Dalmatian rarely went on a lead but wasn’t a wanderer. He stayed close.

Our Setter is fine on our neighbouring farm, they know her and know it’s only pheasant she’ll set. She has no interest in sheep. Luckily, they had their quad bikes out to catch her when she did off. We knew where she was because of her tracker, but weren’t quick enough on foot.

She ran nineteen miles in the time she was off lead and not under direct control. The farmers six miles away might not know she isn’t interested in sheep. They have a right to shoot a dog who is in a sheep or cattle field without an owner around.

I think if you care about your dog and live rurally, you might want to rethink your position of it being acceptable for a dog to be out of sight and therefore out of control.

A field is a safer option for everyone.

@IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere

We do the same. Our husky is quite good with recall. If he was a small dog he would have a lot more freedom but he is enormous and fast and friendly. When you see 40Kg of hairy dog barrelling towards you with his mouth wide open, flashing his tongue and teeth it is quite intimidating so we tend not to let him off if we are likely to encounter anyone else.

So we hire the field (ours costs £ 10.00 an hour for one family, £ 15.00 for two families) and let all three dogs run.

I went a couple of weeks ago with a friend and her two dogs - no husky, just my small terrier - and found they had installed a bench. It was a lovely morning watching the dogs chase their tennis balls and zoom. I honestly couldn't say who enjoys it most - the dogs or the humans.

You've taught your dogs to conduct Zoom Meetings?

@BFrazzled

We lived rurally bit what does it matter if it was our land? There is right of way. She could have met other people an we would be just as liable if she caused harm. But she was a friendly non aggressive dog with no prey drive towards bigger animals (hunted mice though) Btw she was a rescue about I suspect to be put down in the particular rescue. I would have not taken a husky puppy due to the surrounding stigma (mentioned in the OP)

The point is that even on our property the walkers passing by might have theoretically met the unsupervised dog.

The reality though is that it happened so rarely that she run of (maybe 5 times in her entire lifetime) that in my eyes it was absolutely worth the risk to let her go free. But that’s not the point of the discussion. The reality is that any off leash dog can theoretically run off and come to harm or worse harm or scare other human or animal. We take this risk as dog owners. The point is to make it small enough by training the animal, not to make the animal live in misery because it is convenient for us.

The point is that even on our property the walkers passing by might have theoretically met the unsupervised dog.

If it's your land you know if there's livestock there. Plus, you've a right to let your dog loose on your land, but not in public spaces if they're not totally under control. You do have a responsibility even if you are rural to make sure your dog is under control when off lead outside.

The reality is that any off leash dog can theoretically run off and come to harm or worse harm or scare other human or animal. We take this risk as dog owners

It's not the dog coming to harm I'm worried about. A scared field of sheep about to lamb can result in the deaths of a lot of livestock and serious financial harm for a farmer. It's alright for you to decide to run that risk for your dog, but you don't get to decide to run that risk for the farmers and their livestock. It's pretty entitled tbh.

The reality is that any off leash dog can theoretically run off and come to harm or worse harm or scare other human or animal.

Of course, but some breeds (ie. huskies) are fare more likely to do this than others due to their high prey drives.

If someone can give their husky adequate on-lead exercise (bike joring, cani-cross etc.) then I think that's far better than allowing your dog to just run free to "disappear for up to an hour".

I’d imagine a husky is much happier pulling a scooter for 10 miles a day than plodding around the local park - even if they are off lead; what with the need to pull sleds being bred into them and all…

My small dog isn’t reliable off the lead and is VERY friendly, a recall is very difficult to train as every time he pisses off he gets rewarded by the people he runs over to there is nothing in life he loves more than attention so it doesn’t matter if muggins here is stood with a filet, he would much rather go and check out the locals. He can’t be trusted not to run up to dogs either.
So he is kept on a lead when out in public, me and my mum both have large gardens though (hers approx an acre) and she has a couple of dogs so no need to report me to the RSPCA, he gets zoomies and play dates!

@BFrazzled

Well, it is as unnatural for a dog to spend most of their time on lead (short, long, whatever) as it is for a human. The whole point of dogs life is to sniff around and play with other dogs. Of course when there is no alternative like with an aggressive dog this unavoidable. But I cannot wrap up my mind around people getting a dog while planning to keep it on lead for most walks. Surely in that case just don’t get a dog?

It depends where the dog lives. No matter what breed you own no dogs are allowed off leash rural where I live. They can still sniff around on a long line and there are fields to let your dog off for hire. Just because you don't let your dog off leash in public to run about does not mean it's unhappy. Don't knock others for not letting their dogs off leash by saying don't get a dog. Dogs are on leashes for a variety of reasons and not all breeds are the same. If more people actually understood more about breeds there would be far less dog related incidents.

@Sitdowncupoftea sorry, I don’t believe it is a good life for any breed to spend their life on a long line.
If you have a dog you probably know how different their behavior eg with other dogs is when on leash vs off. This is just a small reflection of how different they feel when off leash and free to explore and exercise their own agenda. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that, that’s the reason why op hired a field after all. It’s not about physical exercise.
They are quite intelligent and social animals, no matter the breed and they need to interact with other dogs and their surroundings in a natural way, and not run for hours after the scooter.
Sled dogs often roam free around the camp in the evening. Not that there is much at all in common between them and the husky breed - honestly most huskies have only looks in common with sled dogs…

And also, just to add to that - sled dogs pull a sled because they are required to, they are working for their owners. It doesn’t mean that your pet dog should pull a sled or exercise in a similar fashion for fun.

I bloody love a secure field. Ddog is very dog reactive, a million times more so on the lead so we hardly ever lead walk her, its just not at all enjoyable for her or for us, she is super stressed the whole time. Luckily we have somewhere near us we can take her every day for some off lead time where its usually pretty quiet, then twice a week we go to a secure field. I took her yesterday and it absolutely fills my heart with joy to see her run and run and explore without worrying about other dogs in the distance. Those places are a godsend.

Also interesting to know about huskies / recall. There are three that walk in the same area we use daily and they are always, always on lead, I have often wondered why.

@Sitdowncupoftea sorry, I don’t believe it is a good life for any breed to spend their life on a long line.

Well, that's your opinion, but as a professional dog walker, some dogs just can't be trusted off the lead - and it's much safer for them to be restricted than to risk them running off to be hit by a car or worse.

Of course it's great if a dog can run free but it's not always safe for them to do so. Why would you let your dog run free if they were unsafe doing so? It's neglect.

@cupsofcoffee of course I am not suggesting you should let a dog with no recall of lead!!! Seriously how could you understand this from what I wrote?

I think dogs should be trained to walk off lead from an early age (this is hard. But very necessary) and that owners should not acquire an animal woh the expectation that it will do most walks on lead. So if you live in an area where a dog can worry livestock get a small trainable dog breed and train it’s recall. Don’t get a greyhound and walk it around on lead only and then muzzle it when it becomes insane and reactive to other dogs as as a result (real life example from my current neighborhood)

[quote BFrazzled]@cupsofcoffee of course I am not suggesting you should let a dog with no recall of lead!!! Seriously how could you understand this from what I wrote?

I think dogs should be trained to walk off lead from an early age (this is hard. But very necessary) and that owners should not acquire an animal woh the expectation that it will do most walks on lead. So if you live in an area where a dog can worry livestock get a small trainable dog breed and train it’s recall. Don’t get a greyhound and walk it around on lead only and then muzzle it when it becomes insane and reactive to other dogs as as a result (real life example from my current neighborhood)[/quote]
But my point is tat not all dogs CAN be safely off-lead, no matter how much training you do, because their prey-drive is so high that nothing you do will overcome it. Their dog could be also be reactive through no fault of their own.

People move house, their lifestyles change, and their dogs don't always turn out the way they imagined. It's unfair to criticise owners who are just trying to keep their dogs safe. Sometimes all the training in the world can't overcome their natural instincts and as the owner, you need to make sure your dog is safe.

You say yourself that your husky used to ignore you and disappear for up to an hour at a time. If my dog did that, I wouldn't just keep letting them off the lead - I would use a long line to make sure my dog remained safe and under my control at all times.

As the owner you're ultimately responsible - and if your dog had hurt someone or caused an accident while on one of her adventures, you'd have been the one responsible.

Really pleased to see there are responsible dog owners out there who understand the needs of their dogs. We had a hen savaged by a dog yesterday in our yard. It happens on a regular basis, and the dog owners are usually surprised that their little fluffy baby would kill someone else’s pet, but also admit that they let their dogs run around in the woods where their dogs often chase pheasants. Apparently that’s ok because pheasants are wild birds but they fail to understand that allowing a dog to chase a wild bird reinforces the behaviour in their dog that it is ok to chase birds. My neighbour had one of her chickens killed last week by a husky on a retractable lead. The walker was surprised that even though she had her dog on a lead it had still managed to kill something. People like this should be made to pass some sort of exam before they are allowed to take charge of a large animal with big teeth.

“Don’t get a greyhound and walk it around on lead only and then muzzle it when it becomes insane and reactive to other dogs as as a result (real life example from my current neighborhood)”

Dogs do not go insane or become reactive because they’re walked on lead... if someone told you that’s what happened they have very little understanding of dogs.