24th July 2024

10min read

When I first got my dog, Oakley, I had visions of my usual relaxing, carefree countryside photography hikes with the addition of a well-behaved, reliable dog along for the adventure. 

How wrong I was!

Ok, I admit it, like many first-time dog owners I was completely naive. The reality of dog training and all the unpredictability and nuance that comes with it quickly came crashing down on me, and an adjustment of my expectations were in order.

Oakley was already a year old when he came to me, with next to no basic training and very little experience of the outside world. He is also a challenging mix of two working breeds, beagle and springer spaniel. I had (and still have) my work cut out. Now at 4 years old, he has come a long way. But there is one thing that we come up against time and time again – other owners’ inability to effectively manage their dogs, especially in the countryside.

In our first year together, we had an unfortunate run-in with an off-lead dog who bit Oakley, and his response to other dogs has since been largely unfavourable. Training to counter reactivity in dogs is actually very straightforward in theory, and he’s much better with these efforts. But in practice the real world is unpredictable, I can’t always prevent the unexpected and every negative encounter with another dog can set us back weeks, if not months, of hard work in training. And this is where my gripe with many other owners comes in.

If your dog doesn’t have bulletproof recall, it shouldn’t be off the lead. If your dog cannot resist the impulse to run up to every dog it sees, it shouldn’t be off lead. End of. None of this “My dog is friendly” nonsense because guess what, in the dog world, running up to an unfamiliar dog is considered bad social etiquette. Your dog is not being friendly, it’s being badly behaved and is poorly trained.

There is something about wide open landscapes that compels many dog owners to abandon all sense of caution and responsibility, and let their invariably inadequately-trained dog off the lead to go and do whatever it pleases. I partly blame television and film for perpetuating this romantic idea of dogs running free, whilst omitting all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to train these dogs. Now I can’t stress this enough, if there’s one place you should be extra cautious with your dog, it’s in the countryside. It’s full of every exciting distraction imaginable, and no small amount of dangers. On the exciting side, there’s unlimited scents, squirrels, birds, deer, farm animals, to name a few, and on the danger side there are factors such as fast flowing rivers, steep drops, adders, poisonous plants, chemicals sprayed on crops and farmers with guns. Yes, if a farmer sees your dog worrying their livestock, they are legally allowed to shoot it. And it does happen.

Unfortunately, I also have to include other dogs in this list of potential dangers. Just last week I was on a camping trip in the Peak District, where we visited Stanage Edge on a fairly quiet weekday. We were enjoying a peaceful sunny walk along the ridge when out of the blue we saw two panicked sheep running toward us, followed a moment later by an off-lead, unmuzzled XL Bully giving chase. The owners of the dog appeared another few moments later, trying to no avail to call their out of control dog back.

It should be noted here that XL Bullies are a banned breed in England and Wales, and can only be kept with a Certificate of Exemption, a condition of which is the dog must be kept on lead and muzzled in public places. I’m of the opinion that this breed is not inherently dangerous and they’ve just gained a bad reputation through irresponsible breeders and owners (like these ones), so I’m not totally convinced on this ban and more in favour of licensure for dog ownership across the board. But nonetheless, this is the law now, and the owners will have known this. Anyway, back to Stanage Edge.

So I’ve seen this big out of control dog coming toward us, and I know there’s a good chance given his reactivity Oakley could antagonise the situation and possibly attract the attention of this XL Bully, in a foolish effort to warn it away. Not a scenario he would fare well in. But Oakley is under control on lead as always (he has his standard 6ft lead, and a 30ft long line for freedom when there’s space for it). He also had his muzzle on (we have a Baskerville muzzle that gives him plenty of space to pant, bark and drink through. More on the muzzle in a bit). I know from experience that our best shot of de-escalating the situation is to create as much space between us and the other dog as possible (Oakley’s not interested in the sheep, we trained that out of him in the early days!). So I hurried Oakley, who is none the wiser about the other dog at this point, to our only escape route out to the moor on our left, since there was a steep cliff on the right, and I hoped the Bully would be too fixated on the sheep to notice us.

Thankfully, the loose dog went on by, Oakley was too busy with his nose to the ground in the long grass and we were safe. But sadly, the XL Bully did follow the two sheep off the edge of the cliff, and I’ve no idea if either dog or sheep survived.

This seems like a trivial event to me now looking back, it was over as quickly as it started. But I have to remember how easily this could have gone horribly wrong for us, and may have done so for the other dog. I’m conscious of my breed-bias in the moment and how that played into my fear for our safety, but with only seconds to make a judgement call, you have to rely on a quick assessment of what you can see in front of you, and I saw a big powerful out of control dog with the potential to do a lot of damage.

As for the owners, I have trouble understanding what could have possess them to put their dog in a situation where it was able to behave this way, putting the lives of their dog, the livestock, other hikers, and other dogs in danger. And this is far from just an XL Bully problem, in just a few years I’ve seen many other breeds behaving in ways they shouldn’t be in the countryside. Dogs who otherwise might be top of the class in obedience, might be the sweetest well-mannered canine on the comfort of the sofa, but whose desire to listen to commands are overridden by the many enticing and novel experiences the countryside has to offer. I’ve also seen countless pleas for help finding lost dogs in my local area, who’ve run off on the moors, and I’ve been out on some of those searches myself to help recover them. Some are found, some alive, some not, and some are never found at all.

The incident at Stanage Edge is just one example of how things can go wrong when a dog isn’t kept under control with appropriate management. I took Oakley to a peaceful glen once, he was on his 30ft long line happily exploring, until he decided to jump into the river. What he didn’t consider was the river was fast flowing (I mentioned this earlier in the dangers list), and he found he couldn’t get out again. Luckily for him, I was already prepared for this knowing that he likes a swim, so I just reeled him in on his line and lifted him out, and he didn’t try going in again! I dread to think what would have happened without the safety line. I can think of many more examples, but you get the idea. 

So what can we do to keep our dogs safe in the countryside? Well, firstly, all owners must at least follow all the directions required by law, regardless of their own assessment of their dog’s abilities. That includes having them on a lead where signs require it (it’s probably no surprise to you how often those are ignored).

As well as complying with those legal requirements, consider your own dog. Is their recall bulletproof? Do they leave other dogs alone unless invited? Will they leave that suspicious piece of chicken on a walking trail alone? That last one is from a real experience, a whole chicken breast left on a popular trail, who knows what was in it… it might have been harmless but my gut tells me it was planted there… 

If the answer to any of those questions is no, you need to have management tools in place until better reliability is built up. Long lines and muzzles are excellent for allowing our dogs freedom in the countryside whilst keeping them safe. Long lines should only be used in the countryside where appropriate though, as a dog on a long line can still disturb wildlife habitats such as those for ground-nesting birds.

Muzzles have this stigma that they’re for bad vicious dogs who’ve bitten, but the truth is they’re used for all kinds of reasons. I use one in the countryside predominantly because Oakley likes to eat things off the floor when he thinks I’m not looking, and that’s a huge risk (take the chicken incident for example). I’ll also use it on trails where, as much as I try to avoid them, we might come in close quarters with other dogs, so I have it on him to prevent any potential escalation of an encounter. I also use people’s bias toward muzzles to my advantage, because it often causes the public to either give us a wide berth or be put off from trying to pet him without consent. It also often causes other dog owners to bring their dog under control while we pass. 

On that note all owners, again regardless of their opinions about their own dog, should put their dog on a lead whenever they see a leashed dog coming toward them. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had completely avoidable reactivity setbacks because someone didn’t do this, and their dog subsequently invaded our space.

If everyone did their due diligence and took responsible dog ownership seriously, the countryside would be a much safer place for all our dogs. Sure, we can’t protect them from everything, but we can dramatically reduce the chances of something going wrong. 

Be wary of the false sense of security that says “My dog has never run off before”, because that’s what everyone says until the day their dog runs off. 

Be wary of thinking “My dog is friendly”, because not every dog they encounter is going to be, and it only takes one for the worst to happen.

But most of all, be wary that it’s our job as the responsible human to keep our dogs safe in the world, so they can enjoy it with all their innocence, joy and curiosity! 

I still love our countryside hikes. They’re not always quite as relaxing as they used to be now I have an inquisitive dog to look out for, but that’s dog ownership, that’s the responsibility I took on. Seeing him enjoying himself and exploring the world after a tough first year of life makes all the hard work worth it though, and now and then he even pauses long enough to let me do some photography…

If you’re interested in learning more about dog training and effective management, I highly recommend the content from Zak George, Kikopup and Victoria Stillwell as a good starting point.