I asked for your 'dog walks in pictures' - here's the first - Molly and Tiger's gorgeous walk!
Readers' regular dog walks
This woodland and moorland area is five minutes by car from our house, and is very popular with dog owners as it stretches for miles and miles without any traffic or farm animals to worry about. You just let the dogs out of the car and away they go, off lead all the way. A year ago Molly used to chase joggers and cyclists so I had to be much more careful and put her on a long lead in some places, but fortunately she ignores them now (after a lot of training!).
1. The walk starts nearly at the beginning of the West Highland Way, a long-distance footpath (95 miles) from Milngavie to Fort William. Here are a couple of West Highland Way walkers with their rucksacks.
2. We usually branch off the Way and walk up a bracken-covered slope on a lovely grassy path where the turf is nice and springy underfoot. I always throw the ball for Molly here so she waits expectantly for me at the start of the path. She loves to search for the ball in the bracken but unfortunately she has lost a few in the past so I try not to throw them right in the thickest part. Tiger is not bothered about fetching balls unless he thinks he'll get a treat for doing so, so he disappears and does his own thing.
3. At the top of the slope is a bench with a view - nothing spectacular but I like it because I can pick out the tower of a nursing home not far from our house so I can always locate where we live.
4. At the bench we meet up with the West Highland Way again but we leave it again very soon and climb further up the hill on a steep little track through some trees. At the top we walk in the same direction as the Way, but quite a bit higher up. The bracken is so thick that you can hardly find the path at this time of year. The photo shows Molly in front of the path where it enters the bracken.
5. We come out of the woods onto a moor. This area is often boggy but it is dry now because we've had such a dry summer. The moorland grass is so long that you can hardly see the dogs. Tiger found a large stick in the woods and has carried it down here. The rowan trees are covered in bright red berries just now which are glowing in the sunshine.
6. We cross the moor and enter another wood. There is a lovely steep-sided dell here where people sometimes camp or have barbecues. The last group who did so left food scattered around and Tiger kept making a beeline towards this spot every time we went for a walk, to see what was still left for him to hoover up.
