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

'Bull in Field' sign?!

Use a camera, a proper one not your phone to take pictures and video of her trespassing. Post them on Facebook to find where she lives and go round hers to exercise your dog.

Work out where she is climbing over the gate and put dog shit on it. Mind, putting dog shit on things is my answer to everything.

Would you be interested in turning it into one of those safe fields for dog owners to hire for an hour - that way you can make some money and she can bloody pay for the use of your private land - the money will help pay for fencing too

I can tell that you haven’t really thought about this statement.

If a massive chunk of open countryside were owned by the aristocracy, utility companies, rich people, the Church of England and Oxford/Cambridge colleges (spoiler: it is), and the land wasn’t built on or cultivated, do you think that nobody should be allowed to set foot on it, ever?

Look up the Kinder Scout Trespass in 1932. 90 years ago, and there are still people who think that we should all know our place and keep off the land owned by our betters.

None of which helps the OP. I don’t actually know how the right to roam, even the watered down (compared to other parts of Europe) English version, affects her.

You have the right to walk through a field not loiter in a field. This woman is loitering in the field and letting her dog run.

a sign saying keep out, Shooting Vermin

also facebook i think, your community facebook

Thanks everyone for your replies and questions:

-we are not in Scotland so there is no right to roam

-the first time when she came into the field I said what was she doing this was private land and she needed to leave ; she told me that was convenient and how did she know it was actually mine; I said because I have the keys so can open the gate for her to leave and for her to go.

-the second time I told her not to be so stupid and she had to leave; I unlocked the gate and said unless she left now I’d be phoning for help

-I get a farmer to cut it twice a year alongside their hay cuts. I pay him to do this because the hay is no good for livestock because my dog toilets in one corner of the field

i love the goat idea, I do want to run a small number of animals eventually, but don’t really have the time right now.

so the update, I ran an electric fence tape along the back of the gate so you can’t climb the gate without touching it. I did stick up an electric fence sign but I think she’ll think it’s bluster as she tends not to respect signs.

I also put a note on a local Facebook page. A few people have commented apparently the dog is “known” so I think she is looking for somewhere quiet to exercise it. Not sure whether I am slight placated that in one way she is trying to keep it away from others, or even more annoyed she is bringing a known aggressive dog to where I safely have for my dog

I’ve also got a cctv camera coming and a trespasser sign

No I have no interest in turning it into a dog field for hire. My dog toilets in one corner of the field, I have no desire to tread on piles of shit that people don’t pick up, my dog to start marking all over the place, or have to take out various insurances. I also don’t think she’d actually pay

And take your dog with your.

Let him pee on everything.

Anti-climb paint - if you go this route you must put up a sign to warn that you've done this. You can't use any measure that might cause loss or harm unless you adequately warn the public/potential trespassers that it's present. Anti-climb paint will cause loss if it gets on clothing. It's impossible to shift.

Anti-climb paint is not generally advised for use on surfaces that can be reached from a public footpath/road without actively attempting trespass (i.e. not where someone just leaning against the gate could have clothing ruined) or maliciously where a slip could cause injury (so not on the bars of the gate that would be used as a tread). When you see it used on lamp posts it usually only starts 2m up the post - that's deliberately high enough to avoid casual contact.

I've had to implement measures (a combination of anti-climb paint and anti-climb spikes) to prevent trespass on private land and had both the police and the HSE called to "report" me by a local resident. Both were satisfied that the way they'd been installed and the signs I'd used were adequate and the complainant was sent off in a huff.

People climb gates by putting their feet on the bars. Stapling a piece of heavy duty small hole wire mesh across the front of the gate will make this impossible. It has to be a small enough mesh they can't get a toe-poke in.

That occurred to me, too.

Fair enough 👍

She is obviously local. You don’t want to use barbed wire I believe it’s not legal in some situations. Find out who she is? Then work out plan.

Have a Google of fields to let in your area op. See if anyone is renting it out! Any unknown poo around? Hopefully some batshit woman is getting shocked some time soon!

Can you put up a sign suggesting it is a paid exercise field with a suitably high price and a number to book on?

Then obviously don't take any bookings but if she is in there you can demand the money and get arsey about her using your business premises? Police more likely to get involved?

We have similar problems with our hay fields, dog walking businesses using them to free run their dogs. Bailing dog poo into haylage can make the horses extremely ill! Can speak to the same person every day and they just say 'sorry I didn't know'.

Started taking pictures and putting them on Facebook in the hope that the owners of the dogs would be bothered but no luck. Finally put up signs and Facebook posts a month before bailing saying 'danger, pesticides sprayed, harmful to animals' and that seems to keep them out until we've cut it.

Wow. Shocked at this CF and the others people have encountered. Where do they get the nerve?

Hope your updated measures work, OP. If your cameras pick her up then do post the footage on FB and shame her. Also wondering what her dog has done to become ‘known’ and yet still be out and about.

I can't believe you have to go through all this exercise to stop 1 stupid woman using your field.
If she has a problem dog and wants/needs a field, she should buy her own field. Or rent one by the hour as numerous dog owners do.

It’s weird I know but you could be held liable for injury from barbed wire. You hold a duty of care even to trespassers I believe.

you’d be better off with deer fencing to stop her dog.

NO! 😮

Nose/spite/face springs to mind!

Goats are absolute gits!

Sometimes it will be your friend then 5 minutes later it will butt you (hard) just out of sheer arshlery! It will eat your hedges and hop over the fence and be a bugger to catch. While free it will eat destroy anything it can (including clothes - with people in them) and terrorise your neighbours.

If it is a boy goat it will stink to high heaven and savage people. If it is a girl goat it will pretend to cuddle you and take the opportunity to eat your hair. Girl goats also like company so they can gossip - you need at least two.

Also goats like to stand on high things and watch everything with their evil yellow eyes. OP will have to build a small mountain in the field to keep the goat happy. The goat will then hide behind it and jump out on her suddenly as a joke. (Goats have a fierce sense of humour).

Nothing elegant about your average goat, but they do add excitement to life.

@Emotionalsupportviper hahhaahh I had numerous pet goats growing up and you have described their fun ways and arseholery perfectly. Thanks for the laugh and spitting my tea this morning!

This post is amazing! You've persuaded me - don't get the goat op!

She sounds like she is extremely thick skinned. Hope you find the solution to keeping her out just check any legal ramifications before doing so is all I wanted to say. Some of the ideas sound entertaining but you don't want to end up as the one in the wrong.

Oh - just seen that you may actually want goats OP (no accounting for taste . . . 😄)

You still need to stop her anyway, because if the dog is aggressive (and especially if you have young kids in the filed) the dog may savage them.

People with aggressive, out-of-control dogs really make me angry! Their entitlement is often unbelievable.

A a few years ago a local lady was exercising her elderly dog very early one morning in a local nature park when a mastiff type shot out of the trees and attacked it. it not only savaged the old dog, it knocked this lady over breaking her leg in two places.

The woman who owned it finally managed to retrieve her dog, said "it had never done anything like that before" (obviously lying) and left - didn't try to help the injured woman or the dog. It was winter - she left the two of them lying in icy conditions and just buggered off!

If this woman hadn't had her mobile on her they could literally have frozen to death. Fortunately she was able to call her husband who was on his way to work and who turned round immediately to call an ambulance and meet them so they could find her in the woodland (he knew her route). She was in a wheelchair for weeks, and the dog was never the same. It was a large elderly dog which was just as well, as a small one would probably have died.

You're welcome - I do love them but they are hard work!

😄

I can’t believe the cheek of this woman!

Take up shooting op......seriously though l understand your pain, we have lots of strangers roaming, camping in and trekking through our private fields. There are no footpaths or right of way and private signs on the gate!

I am afraid l start off politely explaining it is private property and my home, but if they do not get the message and leave l get rather nasty, and let them know that l am letting my 3 dobermans out to play....( l actually have a spaniel)...that works every time.

You will have to be much tougher, borrow a couple of neighbours sheep if you can for a month and put a sign saying any out of control dogs entering will be shot...sounds harsh but people like her do not respect polite.