• Nearby Adventures Between jumps the game goes... of the water: we discover the most beautiful waterfalls in Madrid
  • From Cotos to Cabezas de Hierro, a route at full throttle

Take a walk with our dog in nature. What seems a priori a simple activity is not so simple... First, because in many natural environments it is forbidden for pets to go loose, as they can cause damage to the ecosystem, and second because it is not so easy for our dogs and us to get used to walking together, accompanying each other without tugging or shouting at the animal to try to get it to obey. Knowledge doesn't take up space, the saying goes: we have to learn to relate to our pets and understand their behavior and their particular language when we go out into the mountains. And an opportunity to go to the dog school is offered by the canine biologist José Martínez and his NUBE Center, with a practical class in the middle of nature in which he teaches owners/guides how to train their dogs at the same time as doing an interpretive route of the environment.

"The problem is that people have no idea how to take a walk with the dog in the mountains, because it is usually carried loose, and that is illegal right now in most natural areas," says José Martínez. "So I proposed to take walks in nature and kill two birds with one stone: on the one hand I am teaching the owners how to handle and understand the dog, applying the knowledge of classical ethology and the sociobiology existing between dogs and humans, and on the other hand I am talking about the characteristics of the natural environment through which we walk. since the environment is amazing: the geology, the species of fauna and flora that we find, a little bit of everything...".

The NUBE Canine Center is located in Valdemanco, a municipality in the Sierra Norte de Madrid located in a small valley between the Sierra de la Cabrera and the Mondalindo peak (1,838 meters). A mountainous landscape that is home to interesting natural spaces that can be explored through numerous routes, many of them the dog routes proposed by José: the section of the GR10 Long Distance Path that connects La Cabrera with Valdemanco, the route to the neighbouring Val le de Navalafuente, the one that leads to visit the Celtiberian fort of Cerro de La Cabeza or the path to the lagoon of El Carrizal, one of Madrid's protected wetlands for its peculiar amphibians, such as the newt or the San Antón frogs.

This is a clear example of why we can't take dogs loose in this place, although for José it is a reason for double respect: "First because you have to respect people who are walking and those who don't like dogs. There are people with dog phobia who panic when a dog comes towards them; and secondly, out of respect for wildlife. As a biologist I know what it costs a mother rabbit to raise her litter of kittens or a wild boar to its wild boars, it is a great energy effort for a loose dog to arrive and kill the calf, and only to kill, because they do not need to feed on that prey... It's beastly damage. All dogs have a hunting instinct, because they are predators, what happens is that they are domesticated but we have not been able to eradicate that instinct. In the case of the lagoon, if a loose dog gets into the water it can cause an ecological disaster, because what for an owner can mean 'how happy my dog is', is annoying many wild species." On top of that, the fines for landlords are hefty (and rightly so).

The author of the report, in the middle of the route. MIKAEL HELSING

With these reasons in mind, we are now going to learn to walk alongside our dogs and not in front of or behind them. But before they set off on the march, dogs need to get to know their hiking companions, and here comes the first lesson: teaching owners canine body language. "There are many people who think that when dogs meet others they are going to hit each other, when all they want when they go towards each other is to smell each other and introduce themselves. Before going out in a group with other dogs, a presentation protocol is first made, that they get to know each other through some guidelines that I give to the owners, especially that there is no tension, because if there is, that is when there are usually fights; The moment they start walking, five minutes are enough for them to bond and form a pack, and they are already like one dog."

During the route, José teaches us different techniques: "Our method is based on mutual understanding between dogs and handlers. It's about achieving an emotional balance so that the team functions as a single member. We do not use aggressive methods such as punishment collars or electric collars that indicate the handler's lack of emotional control over his dog, but neither do we stuff our companion with treats. We simply employ logic and respect. And all based on ethology and sociobiology. A dog walk has to be a mix between leisure and work. What is leisure? Well, give the whole leash to the dog to sniff, because it needs to know the environment through its smell, dogs do not know the environment through their eyes, their memory is olfactory, not visual. Then I teach the handlers to take the dog with them, in case for example a group of cyclists come, they have to be controlled. They are placed next to the guide and when the stimulus passes they are given freedom again with the full leash."

Dog Lessons

And the frequent pulls, I ask Joseph, how are they avoided? "If the dog pulls on the leash it's because he doesn't want to be next to you, that's the way it is, don't fool yourself or say absurd theories. When I tell the owners, they look at me and think, 'What do you say! If your dog goes next to you, it's because he wants to be with you. The dog has to accompany you on the walk. That is, I grab anyone by the neck with a leash and that person follows me wherever I take them, but another thing is that that person wants to accompany me, then there would be no need for a leash. The leash is a safety tool, you have to teach guidelines that serve so that the dog does not hit those pulls, and with them you can hurt the animal in the neck."

A dog's behavior depends on its genetics, the environment where it lives, and the human. "The issue of ethology (the science that studies behavior) in the domestic dog is complicated because it is intertwined with human ethology," explains José. It has been proven by scientific articles that there is co-evolution in dogs and humans."

José is working on a doctoral thesis on the humanization of dogs, the anthropomorphism of the dog that is making us stop seeing the dog as it is. "Talking to them like it's a human, thinking that they feel like a human or that a dog is happy like a human and their happiness is not ours at all. A dog if it has its needs covered – food, water, shelter and social relationships – is happy, and when I talk about social relationships it means that now you have your dog that you love very much and he loves you very much, but you give me the dog and in a month he has forgotten you, because he already has the social needs of an owner covered. They see the environment in a different way, they don't see the past or the future, they live in the present." In that two-hour day we will also discuss this interesting thesis, and if we do not agree, we will surely agree on one point: "Dogs are wonderful beings".