Policy on Dogs

We love dogs and some of us are quite used to walking with them.  However, they pose some challenges for organised walks, particularly when travelling by train.  For these reasons, we only allow dogs on specific urban walks which don't involve group travel by train.  If you want to bring a dog on one of those walks, please complete the relevant questions on the booking form.

The first problem involves potential numbers on trains.  Can you imagine the scenario if 30 people turned up for a walk by train, 15 of them had dogs, and one of them turned aggressive? (We have witnessed that on trains!) Would that be fair to other passengers?

The second problem involves cattle.  Every year a few people are killed or seriously injured by charging cattle.  Most of those incidents involve dogs, as confirmed by this research.  You may feel it's a small risk worth taking with your own dog, but would it be fair to impose that risk on the other walkers? 

As we cannot control where and when we might encounter cattle, we have reluctantly decided not to allow dogs on rural walks.