Waterside Cottages, Cauldon

Waterside Cottages sit on a smallholding at Cauldon, on the Leek road in the Staffordshire Moorlands, with the southern edge of the Peak District and Dovedale within a few minutes' drive. The cottages themselves are traditional and comfortable - log burner, thick walls that guests found stayed cool through a June heatwave - but what makes the place unusual is everything going on around them.

This is a working smallholding with alpacas, goats, geese, sheep, cats and a pig, and the owners will take you round to meet them. For a dog, that is either the point of the trip or the reason to look elsewhere. Guests who have brought dogs report no trouble at all, and the trails start more or less at the gate, but a dog that cannot settle around livestock or ignore a field of geese is in for a busy few days. The geese in particular are audible.

Beyond the animals it is a straightforward, well-run self-catering base for walking. Dovedale, the Manifold Valley and the Roaches are all in range, Ashbourne and Leek are short drives for supplies and pubs, and there are several trails immediately around the cottages for a quick pre-breakfast circuit. Young puppies have stayed here as well as older dogs, and having a whole cottage to yourselves means no corridors or shared spaces to negotiate.

The hosts come up in almost every account of the place, and not in a bland way - they are the sort who walk guests round the animals at feeding time and hire out bikes. If you would rather be left entirely alone, this is not that kind of place.

Best for walkers with a settled, stock-tolerant dog who like the idea of a smallholding rather than merely putting up with it.