Hello!

My name is Jemma Turner and I am the Founder & Owner of Chasing Paws Pet Care a Dog Walking & Pet Care Business local to the area Catterick Garrison.

As a Dog Walker, one of the main things we see are dogs that aren’t allowed off the lead. Not for being aggressive but more because they’re skitty, nervous or just not good off-lead!

When we own dogs, the majority of training most of us do with our dogs, either focuses on off-lead training or leaded training and sometimes there’s no equal attention. Some people can be afraid to let their dogs off incase they run away, which is understandable; so many new smells!; but it can even be because they’re scared of how other dogs will react around their pups.

For me personally, I find that not being able to let a dog off-lead can be frustrating and not for the fact that of having to walk with a puller, but more because you can see how much the dogs want to play and be a part of that group, but how can they when they’re miles away from all the fun - so of course they’ll pull! They want to be in there too!

In Catterick Garrison there is barely anywhere where you can let your dogs roam free without having to worry about escapees and perhaps coming across other dogs if your dog shows nervous aggression or is still in training. There is nowhere for peace and quiet, to be left to your own devises; to not be disturbed when you need it most.

I want to change that by purchasing a piece of land where we can fully fence off and protect those that want to do all of those things and more. We want to be able to provide a service where people can use it publicly or book a time slot to use it privately.

This is is something I believe we need, desperately. There are no shortages of walks down in Catterick Garrison but there are huge shortages of places where you can go that avoid sheep and other livestock.

We already have a field in place, a small one to start off with and this should be ready fingers crossed by the new year, but it still takes time, and money to make it safe and worthwhile.

We’re not asking for a lot, and whatever we don’t use for the area will go to the Hounds for Heroes Charity which provides specially trained assistance dogs to injured and disabled men and women of both the UK Armed Forces and Emergency Services.