What to do about local dog walker

[OnedayIshall]

As I live in a cottage with a small brick yard I bought a field locally a couple of years back which I basically treat like a garden for my dog. He’s recall is pretty shocking, but this isn’t a training field it’s where he can go relax and chill or blow off steam, what your dog would do in your garden really. We do train in their sometimes, but often when he’s in there he isn’t in a training mind.

it has a standard 5 bar gate on it which I keep locked, and a sign on saying private, left over from the previous owner. I was in there last week and a woman appeared in my field with her dog. She’d climbed over the gate and her dog had gone underneath. My dog went running over, not a hope of stopping him (so I am annoyed about that). I asked her to leave as she was on private land, she gave me a bit of verbal but left when I unlocked the gate for her and she could see it was my field.

I then came across her in my field at the start of the week and asked her to leave again. She told me she we were welcome to join her but she was there first and I would have to wait my turn if I wanted to have it to myself.

on Tuesday I put a run of barbed wire along the top and bottom and I’ve just come back and it’s all been bent out of shape where she’s obviously been in again.

i believe trespass isn’t something that the police are interested in, and I don’t want to waste their time, but what can I do to keep her off my property? I don’t think I can do anything privately as I don’t know her details

I was going to suggest this too.

I feel angry on you behalf, OP, just reading what has happened. I think I would lose my rag a bit and tell her to f**k off out of my land.

The other thing you could try is some of those builders fence panels. The metal ones you see round building sites etc. they are not expensive secondhand and would prevent access

A few people are suggesting thing which would make it difficult for the OP to access her land. As i understand it this land is not attached to her house so she needs easy access, which panels, thorny hedge or paint would make very difficult.

A thorny hedge won't make it hard for the op to access! They're perfectly normal around fields in this area. Anti climb paint means the women wouldn't be able to go over the gate and the hedge means no one can squeeze through.

I kept walkers off a piece of land with a Beware Adders! sign. Before that it was Beware Mating Toads! Both true and were unbelievably effective. I would combine with anti-vandal paint at this level of CFery.

I had a persistent man and his dog walking through my land. I told him it was private, I had dogs roaming, one of whom is not social, and he told me he would walk where he damn well wished. I was agog and I’m afraid I swore at him.
I kept finding him in there and kept telling he was trespassing. In the end I resorted to putting horses in there, one of whom is not yet broken and can be ‘unpredictable’. He only came one more time. My next plan was to walk about with a shotgun.

This has got to be a stupid question but I don’t know the answer; if she paints the gate with anti vandal paint, how does she open it without getting it on herself and her dog?
I mean I sounds like a great and inexpensive idea.

Facebook and Nextdoor are also good ideas; the modern equivalent of the village stocks I find.

I also have a ‘beware of the bull’ sign on the gate.

Cheeky bugger.

I'd report it to the police 👮🏻‍♀️

@QuestionableMouse but how does she open the gate without getting covered herself?

“the police”

Yeah but the op has said, correctly I believe, that she is aware the police won’t be interested as it’s a civil matter, and she doesn’t want to bother them pointlessly.

I hope you replied OP when she told you to wait your turn? It's your land/field/garden, you don't wait!

You don't put paint on the part where you push it open/unlock it but all over the rest of the gate. As the woman is climbing over the gate she would get covered in it but the OP would still be able to unlock the gate to access the field.

Don't paint the handle? I'm guessing it's locked with a chain and padlock so as long as the op has a way to open (unlock) the gate and doesn't need to climb over, it won't be an issue.

We had similar. Field with locked gate. A bloke used to drive over, throw his dog over the gate and stand at the gate and let the dog run round. When I confronted him he had a right go saying he wasn’t doing any harm, he’d let the dog go wherever, he wasn’t going to pay any attention, etc. I asked him how he’d like it if I came and let my dogs in his garden. So I said I was going to get the shotgun and shoot the dog and started heading back to the farmhouse. He soon shifted. I told him I’d shoot the dog if I caught it in my fields again as I have livestock around. I don’t think he’s been back. But he was unbelievably arrogant.

You only put the anti climb paint on the bit the woman is climbing over, not on the lock/opening part. OP would still need to be mindful when opening but the woman climbing over would have significant issues.

I like the picnic idea alot. Cheeky fucker.

She’s probably Scottish. Right to roam is hard wired into us! If I was out for a walk here I wouldn’t think twice about climbing a gate and passing through a grassy field as long as there wasn’t livestock in the field and I wasn’t damaging crops. I wouldn’t rule out entering a field with livestock either but would risk assess. The right to do this is protected here. I know it’s not the same in England, but I have forgotten when I’ve been on holiday and strayed into what was probably a private field. I wouldn’t walk through someone’s garden, but a field or the estate lands round a larger house are fair game up here. Even the Royal family have walkers regularly passing through the land round Balmoral.

Cheeky fucking mare giving YOU a mouthful. I'd go ballistic at her next time, I wouldn't be able to hold it in. Also you need to get cctv, you can get good solar powered ones and inform her the next time you catch her trespassing you will report her to the police.

Yeah well it shouldn't be a protected right imo. Why should anyone have the automatic right to ramble over other peoples land?

@Musicalmistress
Gotcha! A should-be obvious answer to a very stupid question!

Thanks!

@OnedayIshall round my way it seems to be a thing to book a field and let your dog run in it. Are you sure not cheeky effer is selling people the use of your field? In which case the woman just thinks you are another dog owner? Did you actually tell her you own it and it is not for public use?

No such thing as a stupid question! It's always better to ask lol