Dog Walkers in Valencia, Spain

There is a planning decision from 1957 that still shapes how dogs are walked in Valencia. After the great flood, the Turia river was diverted south and its old bed lay empty through the middle of the city; instead of turning it into a motorway, the city planted it. The result is nine continuous kilometres of garden running west to east, without a single traffic light, with mature trees and several dog areas dotted along its sections.

That changes the scale of what is possible. A dog living in Campanar and one living in Algirós share the same park even though they sit at opposite ends of the map, and a walker can chain three pick-ups and a good hour of route without ever leaving the riverbed. Few Spanish cities give animal owners so much through sheer urban design.

The neighbourhoods add their own character. Russafa concentrates small flats and hospitality-industry hours, with the out-of-schedule care demand that implies. Benimaclet keeps the feel of a swallowed village and a street life in which everyone knows the neighbour's dog. El Cabanyal has the sea around the corner, with all the sand, salt and seawater that has to be rinsed off afterwards.

The climate asks more than its gentle reputation suggests. Coastal humidity makes August heavy even at first light, and on days of poniente wind the air arrives hot and dry from the interior, pushing the temperature up several degrees at a stroke. Autumn brings episodes of intense rain that can leave the lower sections of the riverbed impassable within an hour.

For the summer, Valencia holds an escape few outsiders know: the dog beach at Pinedo, to the south, one of the very few stretches of sand in the metropolitan area where a dog can legally swim in high season.