Dog Walkers in Zaragoza, Spain

Anyone who has not lived in Zaragoza tends to underestimate the cierzo. It is a north-westerly wind that runs down the Ebro valley, blows hard for days at a stretch and conditions the daily walk far more than rain, which is scarce here. With the cierzo up, a nine-degree afternoon behaves like zero, the open parks of the Actur become uncomfortable, and routes reorganise themselves around the shelter of the Casco Histórico's narrow streets or the tree cover of the Parque Grande.

It is a flat, compact, eminently walkable city, which makes it a comfortable place for professional dog walking: twenty minutes on foot takes you from Delicias to Universidad, and a sitter can cover several neighbourhoods without a car. Delicias, with the highest population density in the city and modestly sized flats, concentrates much of the demand; San José and Las Fuentes work to a similar logic.

The Ebro is the other great reference point. Its banks were restored for the 2008 Expo and today form a continuous green corridor along both shores, with earth tracks linking the Parque del Agua to the centre. For a dog it is the best route in the city: long, level, water in sight and not a single crossing.

The climate is textbook continental and spares you at neither extreme. July hovers around forty degrees with low humidity, which deceives: the dog dehydrates without the air ever feeling suffocating. January brings frosts and stubborn fog in the low ground beside the river. In between, spring and autumn are excellent, and those are the months when the long riverside routes truly pay off.