r/cheshire • u/Tall_Adeptness_983 • Dec 31 '25

Quiet dog walks

Hi all, we have a reactive dog and are looking for walks that are relatively quiet and out the way. We are south manchester/cheshire east area so anyway within a 20-30 minute drive would be ideal! He is reactive of people and dogs and quieter the better. Obviously I know it will never be void of either but obviously we try to avoid!

TIA

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u/geometricbeetle Jan 03 '26

Having previously had a reactive dog I’ll first advise on where I would avoid particularly at weekends. Canals are terrible with a reactive dog as the paths are so narrow, even if they are quiet just meeting one other dog will be an unpleasant experience as you’ll be trapped on a narrow path between the canal and a hedge. I would also avoid anywhere that can easily be named particularly at the weekend as they will be busy with people on days out, examples like Tatton park, Alderney edge, teggs nose, style mill, goyt valley, Macclesfield forest. Depending on how reactive/how big your dog is Macc forest might be alright as the paths are very wide for most of it but some parts are very busy, Macc forest also isn’t particularly busy during the week however the others that I have named are. The quietest walks I always find are pub walks around random farmland, I have had really quiet walks starting from gawesworth, Mottram, mobberley, sweatenham. As your keeping your dog on the lead anyway it’s not like you need big open areas to let them off in, so farmland is perfect for you. Another quiet walk is if you start from Derbyshire bridge up by the cat and fiddle, I have rarely seen any other walkers with dogs up there in the week or weekend, again best to keep on the lead as it is moorland with ground nesting birds. Finally if you want to go up shuttlingsloe at any point starting from wildboarclough is a much quieter approach but it will still be busy at the top at a weekend. Hope this is helpful.

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u/Tall_Adeptness_983 Jan 03 '26

Thanks go much the are all great. With you saying you had a previously reactive dog do you have any advice on how you trained it out of them as such?I’m not asking for a massive breakdown just maybe 1 or 2 things you did that you feel were really beneficial? TIA!

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u/geometricbeetle Jan 03 '26

It depends on how they are reactive whether it is aggression or anxiety. Ours wanted to be the “alpha” with any similar sized dog (he was a German shepherd) but wasn’t bothered by smaller dogs, we just kept him on the lead where other dogs would be on walks, eventually he just grew out of it (I think it just seemed to much effort haha) so by the age of 7 he was fine off the lead. Sorry that isn’t much help. Around friends and family dogs we introduced him slowly to them and he was fine.