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The Ribble Run Tuesdays and Thursdays · from Settle

You’re not just booking your dog a walk. You’re sending them on an adventure with their friends.

Collected from home. Around two hours in a private, fully fenced field. Home tired and happy.

Start with a meet-and-greet

£26 per dog per adventure. First adventure £23.40. The meet-and-greet is free and takes twenty minutes.

See what happens on a bus day

The Ribble Run
The field
A closed metal field gate in a stone wall, with sheep pasture rising beyond it
A gate, shut behind you. We name our field on your ticket the day the agreement is signed, and not before.
Next bus
Thu 3 Sep
Pick-ups from 08:35 · £26 a dog

Postcode check

Are we coming to you?

The first half is enough, like BB7. We do not keep it unless you register.

What this can and cannot tell you

It is indicative and it is meant to be: a postcode district covers plenty of lanes a bus is not going up. The operational answer is your address, which a person looks at before your dog’s first adventure. We would rather be generous here and precise there.

A bus day

What actually happens between breakfast and teatime

The same order every week, so your dog learns the routine and you learn roughly when the bus reaches your street. Times here are planned; your ticket carries your own window.

  1. 18:00 the evening before Your ticket, narrowed We text and email a twenty-minute window, and tell you who is driving.
  2. 08:35 – 10:20 Collected from your door Or from an agreed K9 Bus stop. Two minutes at the door, a call and a text if nobody answers.
  3. 10:35 – 12:20 Two hours in the field Settle, play, rest in the shade, play again, then a paw check and a towel before boarding.
  4. 12:45 – 14:30 Home, in the order collected So no dog is away two hours longer than its neighbour for the same fare.
  5. By teatime The day report The album from the day and an honest line about how your dog got on. Always by noon the next day at the very latest.

The whole day, stop by stop

Photos and video, all day

You get to watch the whole thing

Photographs and short clips through the day, in an album that lands with the day report. Nothing goes any further than you unless you tick the box that says it can.

Whalley
Rooftops and church tower of Whalley village seen from the fields above, with wooded hills behind
Whalley: one of the six stops on the live run. Peter McDermott, CC BY-SA 2.0
The country
Small green fields divided by drystone walls running up a Dales hillside, with stone field barns
Walled fields, the shape of the ground the bus drives through. Kreuzschnabel, CC BY-SA 3.0
Your dog here The window seat is the picture everybody wants.
Clitheroe
Clitheroe Castle keep on its limestone knoll above the town, with trees and grass in front
Clitheroe, the biggest cluster on the run. Phil Platt, CC BY-SA 2.0

See the gallery

The fare

One price. One ticket. Everything on it.

The Ribble Run

One adventure, one dog

£26

  • Collection from your door and home again
  • Around two hours in a private, fully fenced field
  • Up to 12 dogs, two trained people, never more than six each
  • Water, a treat if you allow it, a paw check and a towel-dry
  • The album and a note about your dog, by teatime
First adventure £23.40Ten per cent off each dog's first day out.
Register your dog
One adventure, one dog
£26
Door to field and home again, whatever the weather and whatever the traffic. Around four to five hours out, about two of them in the field.
Your dog’s first adventure
£23.40
10 per cent off, applied for you at checkout. Every dog in the household gets it once, because the first day out is the one where you find out whether this is for you.
Every week, the same seat
£26 a week
No membership, no minimum and nothing to expire. Skip a week, pause for a holiday or stop altogether, all from your account.

Change of plan? Cancel more than 48 hours ahead for a full refund, and move a day free right up to 18:00 the evening before. The whole policy, in a table.

Straight answers

Ten to fifteen dogs a day, looked after properly

We would rather give you the numbers than the adjectives. These are the ones the software enforces, not the ones the marketing would like.

12 dogs at most on a bus A busload, and we would rather say so than dress the number up.

2 trained people on every single run Never one. Nobody can walk to a door and watch the bus at the same time.

6 dogs per person, never more The insurer's limit, not our preference. It is what sets the capacity.

2 hrs in the field, off lead Private and fully fenced, with the gate shut behind us.

30 min published pick-up window Narrowed to about twenty the evening before, with a text if we run late.

1 new dog per handler per run A first day is never a bus full of strangers arriving at once.

About your door key

Most of our customers are out at work, so this comes up on day one. We agree a key safe, a held key or a K9 Bus stop with you in writing before your dog's first adventure, and we never hold a key without one. Keys are tagged with a code and never with an address, and they never stay on the bus overnight.

Every dog is met before it travels

A full profile, a fifteen-minute call with Ian, then a free twenty-minute meet-and-greet with a stationary boarding test — on the bus, engine off, doors open. It is short, it is free, and it is the step that catches the problems. It is also, for most people, the moment they decide they trust us.

What we can and cannot claim yet

Where the bus goes

One area running now. Five more as soon as there are enough dogs.

We open an area when there are enough dogs on it to run a full, sensible day, and when the field, the insurance and the licensing position for it are settled. Everywhere else has a list, and the list genuinely decides the order.

The K9 Bus areas, drawn as bus routes from Settle Settle is the home base. Each line is one area, with its towns in pickup order. The same information is listed below the diagram. Earby Earby Barnoldswick Barnoldswick Kelbrook Kelbrook Foulridge Foulridge Colne Colne Barrowford Barrowford The Pendle Hill Run Steeton Steeton Silsden Silsden Cross Hills Cross Hills Cononley Cononley Skipton Skipton Gargrave Gargrave The Aire Valley Run Ingleton Ingleton Clapham Clapham Austwick Austwick Giggleswick Giggleswick Settle Settle Long Preston Long Preston The Dales Run Ribchester Ribchester Longridge Longridge Grimsargh Grimsargh Goosnargh Goosnargh Broughton Broughton Woodplumpton Woodplumpton The Bowland Run Hampsthwaite Hampsthwaite Killinghall Killinghall Harrogate Harrogate Knaresborough Knaresborough Pannal Pannal Beckwithshaw Beckwithshaw The Nidderdale Run Langho Langho Billington Billington Whalley Whalley Barrow Barrow Clitheroe Clitheroe Waddington Waddington the field The Ribble Run K9 Settle · home base Not to scale

Yellow line: running now. Dashed: coming soon. Green square: the field. Settle is where the bus lives.

  • The Ribble Run Live

    Tue · Thu

    Langho · Billington · Whalley · Barrow · Clitheroe · Waddington

    See this route
  • The Pendle Hill Run Coming soon

    Earby · Barnoldswick · Kelbrook · Foulridge · Colne · Barrowford

    Register interest
  • The Aire Valley Run Coming soon

    Steeton · Silsden · Cross Hills · Cononley · Skipton · Gargrave

    Register interest
  • The Dales Run Coming soon

    Ingleton · Clapham · Austwick · Giggleswick · Settle · Long Preston · Hellifield

    Register interest
  • The Bowland Run Coming soon

    Ribchester · Longridge · Grimsargh · Goosnargh · Broughton · Woodplumpton

    Register interest
  • The Nidderdale Run Coming soon

    Hampsthwaite · Killinghall · Harrogate · Knaresborough · Pannal · Beckwithshaw

    Register interest
The Aire Valley Run Coming soon

Skipton and South Craven

Steeton · Silsden · Cross Hills · Cononley · Skipton · Gargrave
Next phase: Bingley, Riddlesden, Keighley

MonTueWedThuFri

BD23 · BD20 · BD21 · BD22 · BD16

Not running yet. Register interest
The Dales Run Coming soon

Settle and the Dales

Ingleton · Clapham · Austwick · Giggleswick · Settle · Long Preston · Hellifield

MonTueWedThuFri

BD24 · BD23 4 · LA2 8 · LA6 3

Not running yet. Register interest
The stone frontage of Settle Town Hall on Duke Street, with the market square in front
Settle, North Yorkshire: where the bus lives. Colin Smith CC BY-SA 2.0

Ian and the team

Two lifelong dog owners, a baby, and a bright yellow bus

The K9 Bus started with a thought in a house in Settle: a walk round the block is not a day. Ian Bibby and his partner wanted their dog to have the sort of day they would want themselves — friends, fresh air, somewhere safe to run flat out, and a lift there and back.

Ian spent a decade as a professional road cyclist, which mostly means he is used to early starts, long days outdoors and a routine you can set your watch by. That turns out to be most of the job.

Read our story

Questions

Straight answers

The ones people ask before their dog's first adventure. There are about forty more, and every number in them comes from the same settings the booking system uses.

All the questions Message Ian

Ready when your dog is.

Every dog on the bus has been met first, and that is the whole reason it works. It takes twenty minutes, it costs nothing, and then you can book any Tuesday or Thursday you like.

Start with a meet-and-greet

£26 per dog per adventure · first adventure £23.40 · free to register, and nothing to pay until you book.