Why is it so difficult to find?

Why is it so difficult to find a secure fenced field to practice recall?
Been out today trying to find some where with a decent fence and nothing. So trolling the internet found a lady that owns a 2 acher field that is currently being fenced so she can solve this problem. She will how ever be charging £7 for half an hour. I would be willing to pay this for having a safe area to take alfie.
I am in the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire area if anyone may know of somewhere as this field will not be ready for around 6 weeks.

Iain

Have you ever used a training lead? They are awesome for practicing recall. There is nowhere near me either which is totally safe. However, the local school's tennis court has came in handy before!

I'd just use the training line, they're pretty cheap, you can get them off Amazon, and they're really long. That way they can have a good run around, but you can also practice the recall and still have control.

MatLogan wrote:However, the local school's tennis court has came in handy before!

This too one of Loki's friends is a deaf, half-blind Shar Pei cross, we took them in a tennis court to run around so neither of them would run off. Maybe you can find something similar, but the training line is worth a shot.

I've used kid's playgrounds at night. No kids after it gets dark and they are fenced.

We had a look at a few kids play grounds as would be ideal but all of them round here have signs on there gates saying no dogs and a hefty fine if caught. Same as tennis courts. We have a huge garden so its not a space thing its more the getting used to being off the lead away from the house that I really want to master. Have seen the training leads and will be getting a 30ft one from our local pet wholesaler.

I think most parks/tennis courts have those signs on them, and tbh if it's night time I shouldn't think anyone would care aslong as you clean up after your dog. It's a case of calculating the risk, where I live there are quite a few fenced football pitches, tennis courts etc, teenagers tend not to frequent them as the lights are no longer turned on and they're too far from the local off licence which means they'd have nobody to terrorise and scrounge from, as a reult of this the authorities also have no reason to go there so I have plenty of enclosed area, a training lead would probably be better as training in an enclosed area means there are no distractions, you may find when you leave that area and come across dogs and people the training has gone out the window and you have to start again, I use the enclosed areas for playing games rather than training

We have also had this issue with Rocky and we eventually found a place we can let him off lead safely albeit a few miles from where we live.

We have also used the tennis courts in our local park for a while to practice recall as advised by the lady who did our home check from the rescue centre we got Rocky from.

The training lead should help out, we use ours alot

Training leads are great! Not sure where about's on the Ox/bucks border you are but our local airfield/gliding club allow members to walk their dogs on the field. I was a member for a while (you don't have to have anything to do with the gliders! and it's ideal, it's fenced and safe. Obviously not a good idea to go when the gliders are flying but it's worth looking at your local clubs to see if they have a similar set up, good for socialization too

kelpie wrote:Training leads are great! Not sure where about's on the Ox/bucks border you are but our local airfield/gliding club allow members to walk their dogs on the field. I was a member for a while (you don't have to have anything to do with the gliders! and it's ideal, it's fenced and safe. Obviously not a good idea to go when the gliders are flying but it's worth looking at your local clubs to see if they have a similar set up, good for socialization too

Im in Chinnor.

Ah i'm further up from you, near Bicester, but it's worth looking to see if there are any local gliding clubs or old RAF bases near you. Ask other dog walkers while you are out, 9/10 people know somewhere. Tucked away on some of the estates up here the playing fields are fenced and then the kids parks are fenced within those. Good luck

I used to use outdoor football/basketball courts which were in my local park, they were really good because they had huge metal fences around them and Zeus loved it.

Only for the council to put up a sign a few weeks back that dogs are not allowed in there , now I'm in the same boat as you

They certainly don't make it easy for dog owners. Was watching a program last night and dog owners in Australia have proper dog parks, this one place had water taps dotted around, a paddling pool and 8ft high fences all the way round. It looked like the most fun a dog could have, every tail was wagging.

I have the same problem here. I don't have a car so have to walk Densil everywhere and there is nowhere within walking distance that is fenced in where I can let him off for a good run, so I have to use a training lead in a grassy area. Not quite the same thing but as near as I can get to letting him have a bit of freedom. I wouldn't dare go in any of the enclosed play areas at night as they get used by druggies/drunks where I live! Like other posters, they all have "no dogs allowed" signs on them.