Ring of steall with dog

[Lab077]

Im hoping to do the ring of steall this weekend with my dog but I'm worrying about the wire bridge that needs crossing.

Hes a small dog and not a strong swimmer, is there any other way that he can cross safely?
How deep is the water? Am i able to walk across it carrying him?

Is the wire bridge easy to cross? Because i do have a carrier for him but would not want to risk taking him on it if its not stable enough.

Sorry for the million and one questions. Any advice would be a great help.

[WalkWithWallace]

Just cross the river further up stream (if not in spate).

[Ben Nachie]

Unless the river is in spate you can usually splosh across it a short distance upstream from the bridge. You could probably carry your dog across without much bother. You may want to take your socks/boots off to cross the river as I've found it generally above boot height.

If you do need to use the bridge, you could maybe put your dog in your rucksack, but you might want to train him to sit quietly in it first. The bridge is not exactly what I would call 'stable' and you definitely need both hands free to cross it. I would not attempt to use the bridge unless you were certain that your dog was going to remain calm in whatever you were using to carry him across.

What breed is your dog?

[Lab077]

Thanks for your replies! We managed to walk the full ring of steall yesterday but he would not cross the river by himself but we just popped him in the carrier and walked across the wire bridge😂 hes a westie so hes small enough to carry and hes a very calm dog in any situation (except water)

I do have a picture of this happening if you want to see him in action😂

[Ben Nachie]

I do have a picture of this happening if you want to see him in action😂

As with everything on the internet, if there's no picture, it didn't happen!

[Lab077]

I do have a picture of this happening if you want to see him in action😂

As with everything on the internet, if there's no picture, it didn't happen!

Oh it happened 😂

[AdventuresWithGimli]

That picture just made my night. I don't think we could do that with our lab he's 35kg but luckily he loves water so it's never an issue with him

[CarolT]

What a fantastic photo - looks very comfortable there - bet he thought he was in that for the whole walk!! I could't do that with my lab either!!