Woman's call for change over dog walking rules after being 'surrounded by' dogs in Hemel Hempstead

A woman is calling for dog walkers to reduce the number of pets they take out at one time after being ‘surrounded by’ in a field in Gadebridge.

Deborah Taylor and her one-year-old dachshund, Mabel, were surrounded by dogs while out on a walk in Home Wood, off Galley Hill last year. Now, she wants something to change after a dog walker was mauled to death in Surrey.

But Nicky, a dog walker from the area, has assured the public that walkers take necessary precautions to ensure safety when out. She explained: “My point is that dog walkers do undertake risk assessments. We do get to know the dogs. We don't put dogs together in a pack that may start to work together. All of those things are addressed.”

She added: “It's not just a question of, oh, let's just pick up 10 dogs and let them run around the field. That would be incredibly irresponsible.”

While there is no legal restriction on how many dogs a person may walk at a single time, the number of dogs running free is in becoming an issue for Deborah, who says she cannot walk her pet until after 1pm.

She explained: “There are seven to eight dogs on an average day. There doesn't seem to be more than two [dog walkers] over there at the same time which means there’s obviously about 14, 15, 16 dogs at one time in one field.”

But she reiterated: “None of them has been aggressive. Not one of them.”

A Dacorum Borough Council spokesperson said: “We can investigate individual cases of nuisance dog walkers under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and would encourage members of the public to report any concerns to our Animal Welfare Officers at [email protected]."

They added: “We will work with the resident who has raised the concerns to assess and investigate the situation.”

Since the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, Deborah says that there has been an increase in dog walkers using the fields next to Gadebridge Park. She alerted Dacorum Borough Council to the issue in May last year but says nothing was done.

She said: “I worry that one will turn and they are like a pack and your dog is not part of that pack. And that is why I avoid them more than anything, if I see them in the field I just go to another one. She’s only a little dachshund.”

The 44-year-old would like to see a change in the law and for dog walkers in the area to limit the numbers of dogs they take out. When asked what she would like the dog walkers to do, she said: “Take a bit of responsibility themselves with the numbers that they've got.”

But Nicky believes a law to limit the number of dogs allowed out at one time would be ‘massively detrimental’ to dog walkers.