Dogs in Spain

This blog post is dedicated to my middle son who (finally) got married this weekend to his girlfriend of 9 years. They met his freshman year in college and have been inseparable ever since. They are both wonderful people—compassionate, kind, sensitive, intelligent, athletic and hard-working. Wishing them a wonderful life, filled with continuing good health, passion, joy, enough money and a friendship that, as it has all these years, just keeps getting stronger!

Also, I’m so grateful to live at a time when physical distances of thousands of miles can be bridged with technology to such an extent as to be able to meaningfully take part in a ceremony on the other side of the planet.

Full disclosure: I’m a dog-person. But prejudices aside, dogs in Spain are adorable!

Take this little guy, waiting patiently outside a grocery store for his owner to return. He didn’t even give me a second look once he quickly established I was not the human he was waiting for. As you can see he’s anchored to an iron ring built into the wall. This is called a tie ring. Just over a hundred years ago, which is to say “recently” in terms of Spanish architecture, these tie rings were where you’d tie your horse when you arrived to that building. Many old buildings here still sport them, and now they’ve got a use again as a handy place to park your pooch.

Speaking of parks and pooches, there are also, like in the US, doggie playgrounds, though we’ve seen quite a few that take that concept to the next level, with tunnels, ramps, obstacle courses, doggie teetertotters, etc. And these parks are open and free to the public, often located within large people parks. Here is one we saw in Colmenar Viejo, and Tres Cantos has some as well. You can see that it is so large that I could not get it all in.

Dogs are so well-loved that there is even a huge dog-shaped flower planter in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. This multi-story living monument, that has to be watered and pruned regularly, is called “Puppy.”

Since it’s easy to walk to the grocery store, a place to tether your dog while you shop is handy. However, if you stop for a coffee or a glass of wine at an outdoor bar/café, your dogs can just rest at your feet.

With so many dogs, of course, there are tons of grooming shops (like Mama Dog, near where I live), vets galore and yes, even a place where you can get Mediterranean food for your dog (advertised on the bottom sign)!

And, you might wonder, with so many dogs around, is un-scooped dog poop a problem in Tres Cantos? For the number of dogs that there are, it’s surprisingly pretty much a non-issue. That’s because there are strict laws—the local paper recently carried a full-page reminder that if you get caught not picking up your pet’s pooh, that will cost you €550 (which is over $600!) So, that and plenty of conveniently located pooh bag dispensers help keep the sidewalks clean.

“Does that mean you’re going to be getting a dog soon?” asks my youngest son every time I gush about dogs.

Who can say? But meanwhile I will continue to vicariously enjoy the canines surrounding me. And you? Are you a dog lover? Any pooch-related questions about Spain?

And as always, if you like my writing, please check out (and tell someone about) my novels here.