walking with your dog in Shropshire
Walking with your dog
Please keep your dogs under control, adhere to the Public Rights of Way at all times and collect up all your dog’s faeces, to help minimize the risk of spreading this distressing disease.
Look after your dog
Carry water for both you and your dog and take time to rest and cool down
Make sure your dog has a couple of forms of ID and store a photograph on your phone in case they stray.
Keep your dog on a lead, or keep it in sight at all times, be aware of what it’s doing and be confident it will return to you promptly on command ensure it does not stray off the path or area where you have a right of access.
Special dog rules may apply in particular situations, so always look out for local signs – for example:
- Dogs may be banned from certain areas that people use, or there may be restrictions, byelaws or control orders limiting where they can go.
- The access rights that normally apply to open country and registered common land (known as ‘open access’ land) require dogs to be kept on a short lead between 1 March and 31 July, to help protect ground nesting birds, and all year round near farm animals.
- It’s always good practice (and a legal requirement on ‘open access’ land) to keep your dog on a lead around farm animals and horses, for your own safety and for the welfare of the animals. A farmer may shoot a dog which is attacking or chasing farm animals without being liable to compensate the dog’s owner.
- However, if cattle or horses chase you and your dog, it is safer to let your dog off the lead – don’t risk getting hurt by trying to protect it. Your dog will be much safer if you let it run away from a farm animal in these circumstances and so will you.
- Landowners have a legal responsibility to provide access for people through any boundaries that cross a Public Right of Way. This is normally via a stile or gate. This legal responsibility does not extend to users’ dogs.
Everyone knows how unpleasant dog mess is and it can cause infections, so always clean up after your dog and get rid of the mess responsibly –‘ bag it and bin it’. Make sure your dog is wormed.
Neospora
Neospora eggs are produced by infected dogs and excreted in their faeces. It can cause abortions in cattle and is thought to be responsible for the highest percentage of all cattle abortions reported in the UK. Cattle will then become infected if they eat food i.e. grass, or drink water contaminated with the eggs. The prevalence of the disease in herds, and its potential impact on farm economics due to infected cows being more likely to abort, premature culling and reduced milk yields make this an important disease to try to control. Neosporosis is the infectious disease of animals caused by the Neospora caninum parasite.
Neosporosis is dangerous to dogs, causing illness in adult dogs and death in young puppies. Dogs can become infected with Neospora after eating raw meat, fluids, or placenta from an infected intermediary host, the eggs are shed in their faeces and left in fields are infectious for up to six months. Cattle then consume these eggs in pastureland or in feed and water. While dog faeces left in farmer’s fields isn’t just unpleasant – the diseases they carry can also pose a serious risk to livestock and other dogs.
