A vaguely doggy musing, cattle on footpaths

Yes if I see him I will mention it, if not will mention to landlord to mention to him, I dont have a personal issue, I'm happy to go round but I am concerned that if I feel this particular herd are dangerous then someone less used to dealing with cattle could get into real bother and that will be an issue for him.
 
I am wary of cattle on paths, but do generally think that you can assess whether they are just curious or or likely to become more aggressive. I tend to err on the side of caution as its not easy to lift a GSD over a hedge in case of emergency. In your case Vizzy I don't think a polite word would do any harm. The farmer who owns the field next to us (which I now rent) which has a footpath through it, once put a very aggressive charolais bull in there with heifers which I believe is perfectly legal. Luckily I realised they never got out of the vehicle when in with the bull so decided to keep out whilst he was there, one of their workers wasn't so lucky and it attacked him and put him in hospital.:( The field now has our horse and pony on, and so is a lot safer for walkers, although the pony does trot over to say hello and sent one woman screaming out of the field, and if anyone stopped for a picnic they would no doubt be mugged.
 
I live on the edge of a country estate which leses its land to farms ect. On all the entrances to the footpaths there are signs with a phone number where you can report blocked paths, bad gates ect. Think its run by the county council. I was chatting on the phone to them one day about a gate that had fallen down. I mentioned to her that 3 horses had followed me accross one feild, they had been quite intrested in the dog more so in my bag, I used to keep horses and they dont normally bother me but these would not leave me alone and were quite intimadating. She said I was probibly the most intrsting thing they had seen all day but that she would contact the land owner and advise them of the horses behaviour.
 
I always put my dogs on the lead if we walk through a field with livestock but if cattle start to come over & they'll reach us before we can get out I let them off, as they are more interested in the dogs than me, they can out run cattle & I can't.
If any do get a bit too close for comfort, shouting & waving my arms seems to do the trick, I use horse leads ropes as leads & have had to resort to slapping a couple of over cuious bullocks with the rope a couple of times but it's not something I've had to do many times.
 
Spudlet, birds will be going to wood in the next few weeks for alot of people. you may find though, that they arent to keen on the idea of you dogging in thousands of pounds worth of pheasants around a release pen as just before dusk is when they go to roost and its usually a very queit walk round the pen with the quietest dog you possess if any at all. but its impressive that you'd be up for doing it!
Maybe offer your services after september and work out a route with them around their boundary, That i think would be invaluable. OH has a couple of dog walkers who dog in a couple of his boundaries on their walks, as long as their dogs dont catch the phesants it is a bit of a relief.
 
It would be good training for Henry, I'd definitely be up for it, round the pens or wherever is needed really. I'd probably use a line on him, as he needs to learn when to stop looking for them! Can't find the landowner though, and I'm too shy to start making phonecalls to try and find someone else round here that needs the help:o
 
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