Dog Walks Prague

Walks around Prague

Every day as I walk my dogs around Prague, I fall in love with the city again and again. There is always a point, no mat-ter the season, no matter the trail I’ve chosen, where we stop - dogs and I - meditate on the priceless beauty around us, and feel infinitely grateful and happy to be present.

I am in no doubt whatsoever that recent research on the health benefits of owning a dog are accurate as I’ve often felt keenly aware of apparent advantages to my health even prior to reading the facts. Published in Scientific Reports in 2017, a study over a twelve year period in Sweden strongly suggests that owning a dog reduces significantly the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and reports that this re-mains true, independent of smoking habits and socio-economic factors. The protective effect of dog owning was shown to be especially prominent for people living on their own. These facts alone did not surprise me as I imagine that the recommended daily exercise quota may be more likely to be met by dog walkers. All will concede that generally, the only other person one meets in a field or forest on a rainy day is a fellow dog-walker! However, more incredibly, scien-tific findings now suggest that dog owners have lower reac-tivity to stress and that following stressful events, they have a faster recovery of blood pressure and other stress-related symptoms. I mused that this may be due to the fact that no matter what is going on in one’s life, dogs offer instant com-fort and that caring for them responsibly requires that one respect their needs, no matter what. One might say that af-ter a stressful day or event it is your dog who takes you for that necessary walk and helps restore the norm. But wait; the most comforting fact has yet to come. Which dog-owner does not regularly open the front door and grimace at the apparent urgency of vacuuming and washing the floor? Well relax! According to a 2018 report in Time Health, dogs also have an effect on their owner’s microbiome, providing im-mune-boosting benefits. Their presence in our homes alters the bacterial flora in house dust which supposedly in turn alters the microbes in our guts that impact our ability to fight infection. There is no need to feel guilty ever again as you change from your work shoes and reach for the dog’s leash instead of the mop.

Personally, I will add to these numerous advantages of owning a dog that mapping out walks, discovering astonish-ing locations by erring down a new path on an old walk and venturing further afield at weekends with my four-legged companions has increased considerably my knowledge of Prague and its surroundings. Dog walks have introduced me to landscapes that inspired Czech painters, they have led me to hidden gems that many locals tell me they’ve never heard of and above all, they remind me daily that I’m fortunate to be living in the most beautiful European capital.

Thus, dog-walkers, on a daily basis, your four-legged best friends offer you longer, healthier living, provide stress re-lief, a remedy to loneliness, boost a more favourable im-mune system, facilitate meeting people and an introduction to Prague’s hidden gems ……I say, those dogs deserve a walk!