Your dog's first off-leash session: what to bring, what to expect

A dog that has spent its life on a lead in a city does not automatically know what to do with an acre. Some sprint. Some freeze. Some stand at your feet for ten minutes and then do not come back for an hour. All three are normal, and none of them tell you anything about your dog except that this is new.

What to bring

• A leash, for the walk from the car park to the inner gate. Off-leash starts inside the fence, not in the car park.
• Your dog's vaccination card, or a photograph of it, on the first visit. Core vaccinations and anti-rabies must be current. We check once and note it, so repeat visits are quicker.
• A towel, if you are adding the pool.
• Water for yourself. There is water for the dogs on site.
• A long line, if you want to walk the wider farm afterwards.

What to leave at home

Toys and food. Both rules exist because of what they prevent rather than what they cost you. A toy is the fastest route to a fight between two dogs who were getting along a moment earlier, and it does not have to be a serious fight to end a good day. Food on an open farm attracts considerably more than dogs.

The first ten minutes

Walk the perimeter with your dog before you let it off. It sounds fussy and it changes everything: a dog that has seen the boundary knows the shape of the space it is in, and a dog that knows the shape of the space settles far faster than one released into the middle of it.

Then let it off and do nothing. Do not call it, do not follow it, do not start throwing anything. Let it go and smell the place. Most dogs do one fast lap, then slow down and start using their nose, and the nose is where the actual tiredness comes from.

The two mistakes

The first is calling your dog constantly. Every recall you make that the dog ignores makes the next one weaker, and in a brand-new space with a hundred new smells, a dog will ignore you. Save the recall for when you need it and it will still work when you do.

The second is running the session to the clock rather than to the dog. An hour is plenty for a first visit. A dog that leaves wanting more comes back into the space confidently next time; a dog that leaves overwhelmed remembers that instead.

One thing worth telling us in advance

If your dog is reactive, or has bitten before, say so when you book. We do not turn dogs away by breed and we do not turn away reactive dogs. There is a separate netted zone that exists for exactly this, and it works far better as a plan than as a rescue. Every slot here is booked by one party — we never put unfamiliar dogs together — so the honest version of your dog is the only version we need to plan around.

Puppies use the Puppy Play Area rather than the open run — lower stimulus, softer ground, physically separated. Under-vaccinated puppies should not be in the open park at all.