Dog Walkers in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

There is one statistic that explains nearly everything worth knowing about walking a dog in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: the gap between the January average and the August average is about six degrees. There is no bad season. There are no months when exercise has to be given up, no hours forbidden by heat, and within the cities of this country that is simply exceptional.

The practical consequence is that walking here is organised by habit, not by survival. Las Canteras, with its three kilometres of sand sheltered by the natural stone bar, has a continuous pedestrian promenade that turns into a dog parade at first light; La Isleta and Guanarteme live turned towards it. To the south, Vegueta and Triana offer the historic quarter, whose narrow, permanently shaded streets work well even at midday.

The topography is the real challenge. The city climbs the hillside, and neighbourhoods like Schamann or Escaleritas sit several hundred metres above the sea, connected by hard slopes and stairways. For a young dog it is a gym; for an older one or one with joint trouble, a serious obstacle a sitter has to read correctly when planning the route.

That leaves the calima. When Saharan air arrives loaded with dust, air quality collapses for days, visibility falls and the authorities recommend cutting outdoor activity. It is the only phenomenon here that forces walks to be cancelled, and it hits flat-faced breeds and animals with respiratory problems hardest. A local sitter watches for it the way a mainland one watches for a heatwave.