I couldn't believe this (http://www.torridge.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=9599)when I read it

I think I'll be scratching this place off my list of destinations for starters

If this council succeeds in bringing in such draconian and unjustified measures, what's going to stop it being rolled out across Britain?

Presumably this will also affect the work the police do, if dogs are not permitted off their leads in specific places, and there is no indication of any expiry to the instruction by an 'officer' of KEEPING your dog on a lead, so once you've been told, that's it - never, ever again can your dog run free

I suspect some strongly worded letters are in order - preferably sensible ones with good points for objection, not that pet owners should be allowed to let their dogs run riot ;)

[cross posting encouraged btw ;) ]

[edit] this is even more ludicrous (http://www.torridge.gov.uk/media/adobe/b/m/Dog_Control_Orders_Guidance.pdf)

Strix

I do know that many areas in Portsmouth, Hampshire had restrictions on dogs.

If I remember rightly, you were always expected to pick up after your dog (which I never had a problem with), many city parks, if not all, didn't permit dogs to be let off the lead, and there were precious few beaches or foreshores you could even WALK your dog on.

Some of the beaches only permitted dogs on them between September and March or something. Essentially outside of grockle season (a grockle is a local name for a tourist).

Whilst I think some of these regulations are a good idea, they're making sweeping declarations which encompass ALL dog owners, not just irresponsible ones.

For instance, my parents' GSD is huge, soppy, and very obedient. Whenever my Dad's out the front of their home clearing snow, cutting the grass, working on his vehicle, she lays on the front lawn and watches the world go by, sometimes going out onto the pavement and verge to have a nosey, then mooches back again.

When he walks her either in the city's parks and woods, or out in the Peak District, she's off the lead, and ambles about at her own pace, mainly ignoring other people and dogs, maybe wagging her tail at them and having a quick sniff, but that's it. One word from my Dad or any of us, and she responds immediately. To insist she's kept on a lead in any public area is ridiculous. She'd be tarred with the same brush as those dogs whose owners let them run riot. THAT's unfair.

Anyway, I'd like to know how Torridge intend to enforce these regulations. Despite Portsmouth having a similar set up, the place STILL reeked of dog muck, owners STILL exercised their dogs off the lead all over the city, and on the beaches all year round.........

This was in your dog magazine this month and its all to do with separate councils and if they want to restrict where you can have dogs off lead or at all. Its the people with dogs that cant or wont control them that have made it this way. Its not fair for people who have well behaved dogs.

But also i dont know if anyone has seen the signs saying no dogs at all on some access land but its not true. If there is a public right of way on that land they cant stop dogs going on and sticking to the paths. Me and my sister were stopped by a ranger on one of these paths and wish id have known this then!!!!

that's an interesting point Lynz&Rox - do you have any evidence or link to support that info? - for if we ever need it

I can understand (to some degree, and that isn't to say I agree with it in the least) attempts to 'control' dogs in a town, but the boundary on that map seems to cover the countryside too

now does that mean there are animal rights activists with their own agenda against hunting are trying to encourage these measures which impact upon ALL of us owning dogs?

What chance does a dog owner stand against an organisation with funding and an agenda?

Ive not got a link but i will have a look and see if i can find something else about it. The signs are new ones that have been replacing the ones that say 'dogs must be kept on a lead' although when we saw the sign there was both there!! Very confusing! Even on the sign it says 'This does not apply to dogs on public rights of way'! But its only in small letters! Dont think they want you to read that bit!! They are putting them up to try to stop people walking dogs through fields with sheep and moorland birds. People just see the big lettering and the picture and think they cant go on. It says in Your Dog magazine - These are legally protected public rights of way, you have every right to use this route, as long as you and your dog are responsible and stick to the path. Putting up misleading signs on rights of way is a criminal offence.
Hope this helps people who have been put off by these signs. Wish i knew this when me and my sister were pulled up with our dogs because i would have told the ranger where to stuff the sign!!!! :) . We were doing a walk from a walking book so we knew it was a proper path!

Found all about countryside restrictions on the Your Dog website. Its in the section Out and About under How do i make the most of my countryside dog walks? :)

im sorry but i think having to keep dogs on leads constNTLY will just cause problems and dogs wont be able to burn off suffiecient energy as dogs shoul;d, unles you can walk all day none stop , yes if you have unsocialised dogs fair enough but an owner with a perfectly lovley well behaved dog, im sorry but its wrong

that argument doesn't have a leg to stand on though mummysaz

'my dog is lovely' is arguably the most common excuse people trot out for not exercising any control over their dog, regardless of how tempting a kid's ice-cream is, or that a nervous dog on a lead doesn't want another dog in its face

This is an issue of control - and if more of us took the care to keep our dogs under control, this whole thing wouldn't be getting off first base

btw - those 'dogs must be kept on a lead' signs used to be 'dogs must be kept under control' signs - it's just that far too many people now take their unruly dogs out into the countryside and can't see a problem with them bounding about disturbing wildlife

I've taken the trouble to teach Brude to walk WITH us on a footpath, and know immediately when he's getting other ideas (outside a specific radius and his virtual lead doesn't exist), so we usually walk him off his lead to save accidents with him leaping across streams and taking us with him, or jumping down rocks and hanging himself

I find dogs bounding about on retractable leads when Brude is sitting under command to keep him under control hideously infuriating. IMO retractable leads don't constitute 'under control', but hey, they satisfy the criteria of those pointless signs - even if ground nesting birds are disturbed by badly supervised dogs running riot on one :mad:

i agree about those retractable leads how they can be classed as under controll is beyond me lol, me personaly i have a lab what does exacly as shes told she heels to command and leaves a dog alone when told so, so with her shes very rarely on a lead and i wouldent start doing so shes been doing that 7 yeears lol

We do use one for Brude when we're in an area which specifies unnecessary leads, but he's not allowed to treat it like a lead - he's still under verbal command on his

It's also not exactly suitable for a beagle - it's one of the string sort. If we wanted to sensibly restrain him on it it'd have to be one of the strap sort