Walking a dog on a public footpath through a farm: what to do
Yes. A public footpath is yours to walk with your dog, farm or no farm. Stay on the path, keep your dog on a lead or in sight and ready to come back, leave gates as you find them, and give animals plenty of room. If livestock threaten you, let the dog off the lead and get out.
A footpath through a farm is still a footpath. You may walk it, with your dog, and the farmer has to keep it open. What changes is what is around you: gates, animals and crops, and a farmyard some people find awkward to cross. Here is what the rules say, and what we do about it.
The path is yours
GOV.UK is plain about it: "You can walk on all public rights of way." A footpath is for walkers, and a dog goes with you. The farm does not make it private. Read 7 October 2026. GOV.UK, use public rights of way.
The duties run the other way for the landowner. A stile or gate that is theirs to look after must be maintained so that it is reasonably easy to use, and they are asked to avoid putting "permanent or temporary fences, walls, hedgerows, padlocked gates or barbed wire" across the route. Read 7 October 2026, from the guidance updated 4 January 2024. GOV.UK, public rights of way: landowner responsibilities.
What the Countryside Code asks of you
The Code is advice, not law, and on a farm path these lines are the ones that matter. "Stay on marked paths, even if they're muddy." "Leave gates and property as you find them or follow instructions on signs." "Always keep your dog on a lead or in sight," and be confident it will come back when called. And "follow the farmer's directions when animals are being moved or gathered." Read 7 October 2026, from the version last updated 26 May 2023. The Countryside Code.
Two more lines are worth knowing before the first gate. "Give wild animals, livestock and horses plenty of space." And if animals come at you: "Let your dog off the lead if you feel threatened by livestock or horses. Do not risk getting hurt protecting your dog." The same page adds that a farmer can shoot a dog that is attacking or chasing livestock, and may not owe the owner anything for it.
Where the lead is the law
A path through a field of sheep is where the lead stops being advice. A dog off the lead and not under close control in a field or enclosure with sheep in it is worrying livestock under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, whether or not it goes near them, and since 18 March 2026 incidents on roads and paths count too. The detail is in Dogs near sheep and cattle. The wider list of where a lead is the law is in Do dogs have to be on a lead?.
Bulls
A farmer may not keep just any bull in a field with a path across it. A bull of a recognised dairy breed that is over ten months old is banned from the field. A bull of any other breed over ten months may be there only if cows or heifers are with it. The recognised dairy breeds are seven: Ayrshire, British Friesian, British Holstein, Dairy Shorthorn, Guernsey, Jersey and Kerry. The rule is section 59 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and covers England and Wales. Read 7 October 2026. Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 59. GOV.UK gives the same rule to landowners, and adds that a landowner can be prosecuted for keeping any potentially dangerous animal on land a right of way crosses.
That does not make a field of cows easy to cross, and we never say it does. Cows with calves worry a dog walker more than a bull does, and Cows and dogs is about them.
Crops, and a path that is blocked
Many paths run across fields that are ploughed and sown. GOV.UK tells landowners to "avoid cultivating" a path that crosses a field, and where they do, to make it usable again within 14 days of first cultivating it for a crop and within 24 hours of any cultivation after that. Read 7 October 2026, from the guidance updated 4 January 2024.
About 72 of every 100 walks we hold run beside crop fields for a third of the way or more.
The numbers
| Beside crop fields | Share of walks |
|---|---|
| For a third of the walk or more | about 72% |
| For less than a third | about 28% |
If a path is blocked, a stile has fallen apart or a sign points the wrong way, GOV.UK says to "contact the local council to report a problem". Read 7 October 2026. That is the council's rights of way team, and a report helps the next walker as well as you.
What the app does
A walk that passes grazing ground says so: "Livestock possible. This passes grazing fields, and check-ins confirm or clear it." How we read the grassland is in Dogs near sheep and cattle. What we cannot see is what is in the field today, so we never say a field is free of livestock. A check-in from a walker who was there is the only thing that can clear it, and it carries the date they said it.
A walk through a farm usually has gates and sometimes stiles or a cattle grid on it. If a household has told us they want to avoid those, we count them against the walk.
Questions this answers
- Can I walk my dog on a public footpath through a farm?
- Yes. GOV.UK says you can walk on all public rights of way. Keep to the path, and keep your dog on a lead or in sight, as the Countryside Code asks. In a field with sheep the lead is the law, and on open access land it is the law near livestock.
- Does my dog have to be on a lead on a footpath through a field?
- No law puts a dog on a lead on a footpath as such. The Countryside Code asks you to keep your dog on a lead or in sight, and a dog at large in a field with sheep in it is worrying livestock under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, even on the path.
- Can a farmer keep a bull in a field with a public footpath?
- Not a bull of a recognised dairy breed over ten months old. Other bulls over ten months may be there only with cows or heifers. That is section 59 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, in England and Wales.
- What if the path crosses a crop or is blocked?
- GOV.UK tells landowners to keep a path usable, within 14 days of first cultivating it for a crop and 24 hours of any later cultivation. If a path is blocked or a sign misleads, GOV.UK says to tell the local council.
Read next
- The rules of the groundWhat to do if your dog chases sheepGet your dog back on the lead, tell the farmer and tell the police: 999 if it is still going on, 101 once it is over. Why it matters, and what the law says.
- The rules of the groundPheasant shooting season: what it means on a dog walkPheasants may be shot from 1 October to 1 February. A shoot cannot close a public footpath, but it can close access land for a day. What that means with a dog.
- The rules of the groundDo dogs have to be on a lead? The law in England, Wales and ScotlandNo law puts every dog on a lead in public in Britain. Here is where one does: roads, council orders, open access land, fields with sheep, and Scotland's rules.