Fiona - you sound just like me!! LOL. When I lived in England (and had no other responsibilities other than work and my dogs) we would go all over the place and do different walks or routes just about every day. I lived on the borders of North Yorkshire, North Lancashire and the Lake District, so there were loads of different walks just a short car drive away.

Now I live in Scotland and have four dogs (as opposed to the two I had down in England) and I also have more responsibilities (ie a hubby and a 2 year old son) I don't have as much free time and don't have the luxury of just pleasing myself all the time anymore. Like you, I also live out in the sticks and there are a good 5 or 6 walks straight from the door, and I can also get to a number of great wood walks or beaches within a 30 min drive. However, just recently I have tended to do the same 4 or 5 walks up here on the estate two or three times a day, as well as an occasional beach walk when meeting friends and their dogs. I never meet anyone else or any other dogs on the estate, but there are loads of bunnies to track and chase, deer/fox/badger tracks to follow and plenty of game birds to flush out, so I don't think my dogs are any less happy with these walks, than they were when we traipsed all over Northern England for different walks. Like you though, I went through a phase of feeling a bit guilty, and wondering if the dogs were a bit bored of the same scenery. I don't think they are though

Oh that's where I am so grateful I live where I do. I can take my pick of walks. One is on road pretty much the whole way and on lead. The rest he is off lead pretty much the whole way, the only time is when we cross a main road to go up to Fyrish. Once we are on the hill I can take my pick of which track to follow and can end up anywhere miles away

I dont drive, so me and Jake are pretty limited. Day to day, we always go to the park... but Jake has lots of friends there, so he always loves it... and on the walks it is just us, he loves mooching around sniffing everywhere. I do try to take him for walks further afield when i can, and on my days off... which he loves, but he loves his walks wherever he goes. For his onlead night walk, i always mix it up and change the direction we go and go different routes.

I do the forest every day. I never walk the same route2 days running as I'm up there so early in the dark. Lottie never gets bored. Mind you she is a complete TIT so it's safer having her know the area she is in. If she does one she knows where the car is. She does'nt ****** off like she used to now though thank goodness.

We are extremely lucky here as we are surrounded by countryside and limitless places to walk. I change routes constantly.

There is a field directly behind our estate that leads to a nature reserve, the cycle path 5mins away is part of the Coast to Coast walk - 15mins away is a public footpath to Uldale which is stunning and there's a myriad of other walks to go on. St Bees beach is within 5 miles too.

One of the reasons I adore living here so much is the fabulous dog-walks we can go on

Some of you are very lucky, all these lovely walks not far away! I have a couple of options for the short morning walk, and a few others for the later walk. In the winter I'm limited to street walks in the evening unless someone comes with me as I won't go on the canal on my own after dark.
I think altogether we have about half a dozen walks we go on, I do get bored sometimes but Axel doesn't seem to mind, thats the main thing.
Now he can go off-lead in some places, I try and take him there as often as possible on the few light walks he gets a week, he certainly doesn't get bored of those!

Thanks for the replies all! I am glad that lots of other dogs get the same few walks all the time and are fine.

My dogs seem happy, I think it's me that gets a bit bored with the same scenery (as beautiful as it is) but I guess for them there are always new smells etc.

At least I have a safe place to let mine off lead all the time so I shouldn't really complain!

I 'll bring Lottie. She'll see off those sheep guarding dogs. LOL

Through the week Hamish generally goes on the same handful of walks round where we live but at the weekend we will try different places in the car. He also has one day a week where he goes with a dog walker (one day a week mine and hubbys shifts clash) and he loves getting out with all his doggy pals!

Dee

Scout, I saw the photos of where you are and I would kill for the chance to walk Cain there! We live in London and the parks are mostly stupidly over crowded with dogs....not handy when I have a dog reactive dog.

Being in an urban environment, we have limited walks, especially as I can't drive. We have about 5 parks within walking distance however there is only one when Cain can go off lead so I tend to take him there 3/4 times a week so he can get a good run. Other times he gets to go to various parks depending on my plan for the walk e.g. Off lead, training, dog socialising. Sometimes it's a right pain trying to get a quiet enough corner to do training with him, there a ruddy thousands of dogs everywhere! We're lucky enough to have Richmond Park near us which I get him to on weekends, it's a huge royal park full of woodland.

I think where you walk is gorgeous. At least you have more than one dog, if you only had a lone dog then it would be sad but yours can okay with each other. We have a small dog park near me and the same dogs get walked in there at the same time like clockwork, one loop around the small park and home, it must be so boring for them and definately not a long enough walk. I think your dogs have it pretty good