The NFU is launching a new initiative called #TakeTheLead to educate dog walkers about the need to use a lead near livestock when in the countryside.
It has joined forces with partners to reduce the incidence of dog attacks on livestock by encouraging dog walkers to #takethelead.
It is urging people to keep dogs out of trouble and spare the livestock any stress or harm.
The initiative asks dog owners to invest in a long or extendable lead to keep control.
It also educates the public on how dogs can pass on disease and pests through faeces, and are urged to clean up and take it away.
'Switched on'
Alison Ruyter, warden at Kent Wildlife Trust and dog owner herself, related her own experience.
"There are no breed specifics. There are no sizes or ages more likely to do it than others. And every dog is capable," she said.
"My old dog spent her life pottering round our fields with the sheep. Never looked twice at them. Not a breed disposed to be interested in the slightest in sheep."
"Then one day we went to the lambing sheds on our friend’s farm. Luckily she was on a lead, because all of a sudden, she ‘switched on’.
"She caught a smell and she was fixated. At the grand age of 16! Having never had a reaction ever before, that taught me a valuable lesson, that a dog is never sheep proof, no matter what’s happened before."
'Growing problem'
NFU South East spokeswoman Isobel Bretherton said livestock worrying is a "growing problem" for local farmers, and more needs to be done to tackle it.
"Of course, owners want to walk their dogs in the countryside, but they must be responsible and understand that farmers need to protect their animals and their livelihoods."
Attacks by dogs on sheep, cattle, poultry or horses have doubled in the past five years.
Many more are injured or abort their lambs. New figures from rural insurer NFU Mutual reveal dog attacks on livestock cost £1.6m in 2017.
Under the Animals Act 1971, a person acting to protect livestock may be able to kill or injure a dog that he/she reasonably believes is `worrying’ without incurring any criminal or civil liability.
