Anything for the pets, isn’t it? In the UK, dog owners are paying by the hour for private, secure fields where their dogs can run freely and safely. Rebecca Lee, who lives in rural Cambridgeshire, rents a safe, green field for her dog Moscow twice a week.Moscow barks at bikes. He lunges at cars, children and other dogs. Lee knows that it is fear, not aggression. So taking him to a public park can only worsen the situation. Instead, she books a private field twice a week and lets him loose for an hour. This way, none of his triggers can get in. “Moscow is the world’s most difficult dog,” Lee told The Guardian. “If you’ve got a dog like him, who is reactive – he barks and lunges at stuff, mostly because he’s actually quite fearful – then every walk can be traumatic.”Lee isn’t the only pet parent to pay for a private park. In fact, this became increasingly common after the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of dog owners and pet parents across the country regularly hire private fields for their pets to run and exercise. And farmers like Ben Webster are making a living out of it!
Sheep out, dogs in
Ben Webster, a farmer in Coton, near Cambridge, has watched that demand arrive at his gate. One of his fields used to be let for sheep grazing at £300 a year. So when this opportunity arrived at his doorstep, he spent £15,000 turning the field into a secure dog field. In the summer peak, it can now earn up to £400 a week. In other words, one good week beats a full year of sheep!“You get a whole mix of people. As well as the owners of dogs who are a bit nervous or not terribly well trained, you get dog-training classes. And you get people in the summer who want to just come, have a glass of wine in the field and let their dogs run around while they sit with friends on the bench and chat for an hour, knowing their dogs will be safe and secure,” Webster told the publication.The field comes with a tunnel to run through, tyres to jump over and a water tap. Some visitors also bring paddling pools for their dogs. “We had dog parties,” Webster said.For dogs like Moscow, this facility is a huge relief. The pup was born during the first lockdown and given up to a rescue centre by his previous owners when they stopped working from home. “He hadn’t had a lead or a collar on him until he was six months old. I don’t think he’d ever been walked on the pavement. And I think that led to a lot of his issues,” Lee recalls. She approached a dog behaviourist and has since started using a dog field near her home, which gives Moscow a safe space to play. “We are making lots of progress. He can now go on group walks with a dog walker and is great with other dogs he knows.”
Ten pounds an hour, 756 fields
Webster is one of many. There is a website dedicated to similar private dog fields. The website, dogwalkingfields.com, lists 756 fields covering an estimated 2,270 acres, with more added every week. An hour typically costs about £10, and the fields are usually fenced all round.“During the pandemic, enclosed fields became a refuge for people who wanted to exercise their dogs away from other people, socially distanced. Open spaces were crowded, especially with travel restrictions in place. As restrictions lifted a little, the fields became safe havens to meet up with friends and family and exercise safely,” Katherine Shields Smith, co-founder of Dog Walking Fields, said.The clientele stretches well beyond difficult dogs. Owners book for pets that are anxious, injured, disabled, small, elderly, in season or in training. “The owners of these dogs all appreciate somewhere safe to relax off-leash without being approached by other possibly well-meaning but exuberant dogs,” Shields Smith added.
The unwelcome approach in public spaces is encouraging more and more pet parents to opt for such private fields. The pandemic only added to it. Many pandemic puppies were born into lockdown, when training classes were shut and owners kept their distance. Plenty have grown into poorly socialised adolescents with behaviour problems. Unwanted approaches in public can distress both dogs and owners. “There are lots of dogs who are friendly but whose owners have no control over them.” And for such pups, these private fields are a blessing. The same can be said for farmers like Webster.
