Dog exercise/play areas

Rowreach

Rowreach

Adjusting my sails
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Looking for advice and suggestions please :)

Any and all comments welcome. What do you consider to the the ideal size for an exercise paddock - say for 6 dogs at a time, and what would you like to see there? I'm thinking an area which could be used for recall/training, ball play, socialising ...

I'm looking for advice on size, fencing, facilities (water, poo bags, bins), obstacles .... anything else you can think of.

Good things/bad things - don't mind either way!

Thank you :)
 
My dog thinks 4 acres is pretty good for racing around! All fenced with horse/stock safe wire to 4ft ish, I’d want higher if it was commercial but this is my horses field. It also has thick hedges by the wire. Things to keep him engaged with me are useful, some agility gear, areas where I can hide search dummies/toys. A treed area for sniffing interest.
 
BBP said:
My dog thinks 4 acres is pretty good for racing around! All fenced with horse/stock safe wire to 4ft ish, I’d want higher if it was commercial but this is my horses field. It also has thick hedges by the wire. Things to keep him engaged with me are useful, some agility gear, areas where I can hide search dummies/toys. A treed area for sniffing interest.
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This would have trees in it, but would be a bit smaller than 4 acres :)
 
If you try to rehome a lurcher I think the rescues say over 6 foot, but that may not be up to date. :) Maybe enquire at lurcher and husky rehoming places, they must be the best jumpers? If the fence sloped inwards at the top, that would help, too.

As for size I can do a gundog (only my own!) training session in my one and a half acre paddock, but it has hidden dips and a big tree for obstacles. Also rough patches of long grass. If you just want space for people to let their untrained dogs run around (tin hat time) smooth grass might be safer?
 
My dogs love their exercise field. It has some thick shaggy hedges, lots of mature trees at the periphery, a field shelter used during sudden downpours and agility equipment, and is very well fenced, including mesh on the gates with the bottom gap blocked. I would like a water point and poo bins but I am used to carrying both. The field is just over an acre which I find ideal as it is large enough for them to zoom around but small enough for me to get across quickly enough to stop unwanted behaviour, pick up poo before I lose track of it, and hold their attention when training. I have only got three dogs though, not six. One other field I tried had sheep the other side of one fence and was completely useless for my high prey drive rescue bitch, I did not even dare take off her training line as the fences were only standard stock fencing.

Re. jumping. Anything over four foot six will stop most dogs but a dog who can really jump will clear six foot, and even higher if half jumping half climbing on any footholds like mesh. Unless you use deer fencing, it might be useful to say it is not suitable for confirmed jumpers.
 
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One I've used had cable drums secured/half buried in them-great for on/off/under/round. also half buried tractor tyres. gravel/sand pits for searching/digging, platforms, really good high fencing-if you're going to get high drive dogs in there then 6ft,possibly higher. large plastic drain pipes for tunnels and small ones anchored down for scent work. agree you don't want it too huge, 1 acre is a decent size although I like the 2 acre one I go to better for mine.
 
planete said:
My dogs love their exercise field. It has some thick shaggy hedges, lots of mature trees at the periphery, a field shelter used during sudden downpours and agility equipment, and is very well fenced, including mesh on the gates with the bottom gap blocked. I would like a water point and poo bins but I am used to carrying both. The field is just over an acre which I find ideal as it is large enough for them to zoom around but small enough for me to get across quickly enough to stop unwanted behaviour, pick up poo before I lose track of it, and hold their attention when training. I have only got three dogs though, not six. One other field I tried had sheep the other side of one fence and was completely useless for my high prey drive rescue bitch, I did not even dare take off her training line as the fences were only standard stock fencing.

Re. jumping. Anything over four foot six will stop most dogs but a dog who can really jump will clear six foot, and even higher if half jumping half climbing on any footholds like mesh. Unless you use deer fencing, it might be useful to say it is not suitable for confirmed jumpers.
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Very good point about the sheep.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
One I've used had cable drums secured/half buried in them-great for on/off/under/round. also half buried tractor tyres. gravel/sand pits for searching/digging, platforms, really good high fencing-if you're going to get high drive dogs in there then 6ft,possibly higher. large plastic drain pipes for tunnels and small ones anchored down for scent work. agree you don't want it too huge, 1 acre is a decent size although I like the 2 acre one I go to better for mine.
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Ooh excellent ideas for obstacles, I'm sure we've all those things lying around. However I did read that as "dogging" platforms at first :eek:
 
Clodagh said:
If you try to rehome a lurcher I think the rescues say over 6 foot, but that may not be up to date. :) Maybe enquire at lurcher and husky rehoming places, they must be the best jumpers? If the fence sloped inwards at the top, that would help, too.

As for size I can do a gundog (only my own!) training session in my one and a half acre paddock, but it has hidden dips and a big tree for obstacles. Also rough patches of long grass. If you just want space for people to let their untrained dogs run around (tin hat time) smooth grass might be safer?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking that shorter grass would make picking up poo easier (and more likely) too.
 
Rowreach said:
Ooh excellent ideas for obstacles, I'm sure we've all those things lying around. However I did read that as "dogging" platforms at first :eek:
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dirty mind! the ones I used had short grass. another use of a fenced paddock is tracking, land for tracking is very hard for people to find apparently-so a bigger field with grass that isnt too short would be useful for that too.
 
Our local dog field for hire is about 2 acres, is fenced with some pretty heavy duty fencing up to at least 10 feet (it's much taller than I am) and has an "air-lock" type design to get in through the gates. All fences and gates are covered to the ground in a heavy duty wire mesh. It also has an easy to use online booking system (apologies if you are asking this question for your own purposes, in which case I realise this isn't relevant). All these things are great. The only thing that isn't so good is that it gets very muddy in winter, so well drained land would be better. The grass is all fairly short and the field is quite flat.

I really like it, it feels very secure and is great for letting them work off some energy in a controlled environment.
 
Widgeon said:
Our local dog field for hire is about 2 acres, is fenced with some pretty heavy duty fencing up to at least 10 feet (it's much taller than I am) and has an "air-lock" type design to get in through the gates. All fences and gates are covered to the ground in a heavy duty wire mesh. It also has an easy to use online booking system (apologies if you are asking this question for your own purposes, in which case I realise this isn't relevant). All these things are great. The only thing that isn't so good is that it gets very muddy in winter, so well drained land would be better. The grass is all fairly short and the field is quite flat.

I really like it, it feels very secure and is great for letting them work off some energy in a controlled environment.
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I like the idea of an airlock gate, that sounds sensible. Do you get sole use or is there a maximum capacity rule?
 
I gave up trying to teach tracking in a dog exercise field. Far too many other exciting smells! I would not mind some tips is somebody is doing it successfully?
 
planete said:
I gave up trying to teach tracking in a dog exercise field. Far too many other exciting smells! I would not mind some tips is somebody is doing it successfully?
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it something I hadn't thought of and I only do very basic baby tracking but haven't had more of a problem than doing scent work in one. the tracking fields we had our first lessons in were ex dairy grazing and covered in cow muck-didnt stop him tracking but he would roll given half a chance! I only play at it though.
 
Depends what type...is it Working Trials, scent work/searching, man trailing or IGP (Schutzhund/IPO) type footprint tracking or service type?

There's different schools of thought, some like to start in a completely sterile environment, some like to make it hard from the get-go.
 
Rowreach said:
I like the idea of an airlock gate, that sounds sensible. Do you get sole use or is there a maximum capacity rule?
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You book it for sole use; you can take in a maximum number of dogs. The fixed price per half hour / hour session covers "up to six", so it's easy to arrange a meet up with friends and all go in under your booking, or to book for just you and one dog. They would never have more than one booking at a time. And the airlock is a simple idea but very good for peace of mind!
 
"Depends what type...is it Working Trials, scent work/searching, man trailing or IGP (Schutzhund/IPO) type footprint tracking or service type?"

It is the smells from other dogs that seem be the problem. I was hoping to start doing some scent work to vary what we do. One of my bitches is ace at tracking down deer and my male will find me on a 20minutes long trail in the middle of the Forest in most conditions (he got loose and found me in the middle of a crowd once!) but we just do these things as enrichment and fun for the lurchers (and ourselves).
 
An alternative to the 'airlock' entry system that I have seen is to have rubber mats/paving slabs in the field by the gate such that a car can reverse in, open boot and let dogs out. Useful if one person has multiple dogs, wants to let them all have a burn and then just train them one at a time with the others in the car. Saves a lot of faffing around going in and out of the field etc.
 
We take our boy to a doggy play centre where the fences are 8 feet all round. They also have an area which used to be 4 tennis courts (to give you an idea of size) which is astro-turfed for use in wet weather, as well as a larger - about 2 acres - grassed area. Equipment wise, they have agility gear - ramps, tunnels etc - and provide beds of the canvas frame type to give dogs a place for some time out if they need it. It's very popular, well run and our boy loves it socialising in small packs. All access areas are double gated to prevent escapes.
 
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