Dogs and Spain

I can’t help you with walking areas but from what I understand dogs don’t cope with the hot pavements, their paws get sore and can burn. I don’t think many people walk their pets during the heat of the day, where we ar3 I see them out around 6 am and again in the early evening.

Hi therussons,

If in any doubt, kick off your flip-flops and stand on the pavement - if it's too hot for you, it's too hot for your woofs; tarmac's even worse.  During July and August, we don't take our dog out after 11am and, as the heat of the day builds, it usually gets hotter into late afternoon, so wait until mid evening for later walks.    Cooler mats are a good idea - we got a reusable one from El Corte Ingles and the pet shops sell them too.  You´ll know when your woofs need one - because they´ll start lying on the floor tiles instead of your floor rugs!  :o)

There´s some undeveloped, rough land on the lower side of the residential area at La Finca, where you could walk your dogs (in the Spring, it´s worth keeping an eye on them for ticks whenever you´ve walked near or through long grass).  For longer, local walks, the country lanes that run near the Segura river are a great option.  Spain is very good for creating dedicated spaces for dogs and their owners; we´ve used the enclosed dog parks at Los Balcones (Torrevieja) and Guardamar, where you can let them safely of their leads; they have agility kit and are free of charge, although you may want to look for one closer to you.  From Algorfa, if you cross the AP7 into Ciudad Quesada, there´s El Recorral park, which is a lovely, natural park where you can also take woofs.  Unfortunately, we´re short of dedicated beaches where you can take your dogs out of season, the nearest being Torrevieja or Santa Pola.

If you haven´t already done so, it´s worth speaking to your vet about vaccination against Leishmaniasis, which is endemic in the Mediterranean basin.  It´s not 100% effective, but combined with a collar, such as "Seresto", it should prevent infection should your woofs be bitten by an infected Sandfly Mosquito.

Kind regards,

Kim

We live on La Finca, many with dogs simply walk around the complex. In summer months we normally go out early around 07:30 as it's warm. This time of year we go out between 09:00 or 10:00 if the dogs lucky maybe again in the early evening. You can also walk along a pretty quiet road from La Finca to Algorfa nice and flat.

There is a hill walk up at the back of La Finca and on that we let our dog off of the lead but it's quite steep, attached image - blue line shows the path. You can park close to the entrance.

There's also a rambler trail near Benejuzar, which is about a 10 minute drive, you can park by the church and pick up a trail. Again you need to be relatively fit to walk there https://goo.gl/maps/5xjtAqbZ6kFqNE158

There's also a new dog beach opened up recently, officially, and it can be found here https://goo.gl/maps/F9TQr25LytL8d66K9 we've been a couple of times over the past few weeks and taken the ball to give her a run. It's about 30 mins from La Finca.

We have a chocolate Lab - she feels the heat but is comfortable here as long as we are sensible about when we take her out and how hard we exercise her.

There are a few pine trees about so be careful of processionary caterpillars - you can google them and they are nasty little critters especially harmful to dogs. There is a season for them.

Thanks very much for the replies, very useful info.