Is it a bank holiday?

Just had to drive through Wentworth for work and as you get past Holland common the place is packed with walkers everywhere from there to Greasbrough.

******* idiots

 

I've been down Dearn Vally park a couple of times this week Pretty quiet.

 

I hadn't really seen many people before today but whilst driving through around an hour ago I would guess that I saw 200 people. They can't all live there so most must have driven to the areas to walk.

I can honestly see the lockdown being extended quite considerably because people are unable to do as they're told.

 

I think you may be right, not been down today so don't know the situation a Dearn valley is, had a walk to pharmacy up to victoria street, 2 birds one stone.

 

Are they 2m apart though?

 

Not always no. Some were, some weren't, but with the amount that were there they just have had to pass each other at some point as they were in different directions

 

people were told not to drive to other areas for exercise no matter how far apart they kept.

 

Get the police rung up. Will make a fortune dishing out fines.

 

Went to work this morning and there wasn't a sole on the streets - like a ghost town

 

I know some will disagree but it will soon be time for more authority on the streets to enforce things. If that means the army, so be it. Or maybe we could use some of those nice stewards from Charlton FC, they're not doing much at the moment.

 

Not by the government they weren't. Some local police forces are now saying this. Once again no clear information from government.

 

Correct...they said the other day it was quite alright to drive to exercise or walk the dog

 

Don't know if the garden centre is open, but can you drive there then go for a walk?

 

Agreed. As I’ve said previously, we are boarding a guide dog. We’re not allowed to lead walk her as it comes with very specific rules and training and we could undo all that, meaning a blind person could be put at risk in the future, or she may fail and £55,000 worth of training would be wasted. We are currently still driving the couple of miles to take her to the area they told us to exercise her off lead. We have to do this every day. I don’t want to break the law of course so if that definitely is the law then we are absolutely screwed. As yet though, that is not what the PM has said and the fields we go to are huge with only a few people walking their dogs there with absolutely tons and tons of room to stay away from each other.

 

I'm pretty sure that even if the law said we can't drive to exercise that you'd still be able to as you are doing something essential.

Why can't she use a lead? I'm probably being thick but don't guide dogs use leads? Or some form of harness anyway?

 

We don’t have the harness or the training. There’s no way of training us now and she’s only had a few weeks of harness work so not ready to be allowed out. We have to drive her to the free running area and then she has a lead for the few steps from the car to the field but there’s no kerbs there so no confusion for her.

We’ve had a small amount of training so we have some understanding but not enough to do it, especially with all the different scenarios it may throw up.

The rules we know of are:

• Guide dogs have to wait at every kerb (or what they may consider to be a kerb) before being allowed to continue
• They have to wait at every corner before being allowed to continue (even if the path just follows around with no kerb)
• Guide dogs should only ever cross a road at the end of a street, not the middle as a blind person wouldn’t do that
• Guide dogs should wait at any place a car is likely to cross (like to car parks but not drives as too many) even if there is no kerb
• The dog should walk on your left hand side and in the centre of the pavement

I don’t know the rules about if something is blocking a path like a wheelie bin or car. I do know that they are supposed to judge height and width when walking somewhere to keep the owner safe but I don’t know how to teach them that. Also, if she’s walking on lead/harness she is working and concentrating. Free running is her time to be a dog and properly exercise as she’s large and has a lot of energy.

 

Must depend where you live .
According to North York’s Police if you are exercising you should do it from your home and only drive for shopping etc, they are stopping cars to check

 

No the police have made their own rules up

 

So basically a guide dog has better road sense than 99% of the population.

And now I'm trying to think of the longest road I can to see how impractical the end of roads only bit is. There must be some ridiculously long obes somewhere but I can't think.

Still think it's pretty amazing that you're helping to train her and looking after her

 

The end of roads bit is because a blind person remembers their journeys by remembering turns and stops. So they may cross the road straight outside their house if they are going to need to cross it later and then walk to the end and turn right, then walk to the end and cross right, then walk to the end and turn left for example. If someone knew a route really well and do it every day then they may cross in the middle after so many steps if they really wanted to but it's easy to walk faster or slower and be at the wrong place or get turned around. Guide dogs don't know the route (although they may learn it if doing it regularly) so the blind person has to know exactly where they are going and the dog gets them there safely.

She's the amazing one! We're lucky to have her, even for this short time.