With our present dog, I do a few different loops, but they always involve going through a park that is about four blocks away.

Unfortunately, this dog, a rescue pass-a-long from our older DD, is a difficult aggressive dog. As we say, "We love him but we don't like him." There is no one to pinch hit if we want to go for a long day out. It is what it is.

He has to be boarded when we go on vacation. Sometimes one of our DD's can babysit. But, they don't live close by so it takes arranging.

When we had our golden, it was a different story. I had three neighborhood friends and we watched each others dogs for last minute needs as well as vacation needs. It was wonderful. Casey got to stay in the neighborhood, in a similar home, and walked where she was used to. Win/win.

My little four pound dog refuses to walk if a leash is put on her. Just sits down and will not budge. Therefore, she does her walking and running in the backyard several times a day; sometimes for short periods of time, sometimes for longer periods of time. We will also go with her and throw balls for her; she loves tennis balls and golf balls. She lets us know when she wants in.

Gracie travels with us. She is a great traveler. The only problem is stopping for a potty break, we have to watch her like hawks, because she refuses to move with a leas on her. That is the only time it is a bit scary for us. She thinks the whole area is hers, just like the backyard.

No longer walk my dog - I have a very nice, securely fenced back garden and an Invisible Fence for the front. I prefer to hire a live-in pet sitter if I'm going for longer than a long weekend. For that, I often just board at my vet's office.

We travel with our small dog. He's been to 29 states and 3 Canadian provinces so far. I have some friends that use a house sitter but we never found anyone we felt comfortable enough to ask them to do this for us.

Our lab loves her walks and is very quick to tell you if you're late with one. We live in a very small town and walk various routes that frequently include some part of the school complex. She has many "friends" along the routes that are quick with a pet or a dog biscuit any time they see her.

When we need to be gone for my various medical appointments or a vacation, she goes to our DS home. He has a dog and a youngster, both of whom she likes, so its okay with her. Before he had a place that allowed dogs, she went to a kennel. She loved that too and used to get so excited when she recognized where we were going.

My little dog loves his walks. We have several routes we take. Around here, we usually do 1-2 miles at a time. He has hiked fives at a time in Colorado with us and was still good to go. He mainly travels with us unless we are gone for just the day or are flying someplace. I usually ask my neighbors to watch him. He hates being boarded at the vet, but does well staying at someone else's house. I have one neighbor who is really good with him. She's retired and he's an easy dog to walk. She is usually happy for a little extra spending money.

I only walk one of my dogs, the dog that stays in the house. I walk her down the driveway, which is long, and to the roadside and sometimes across the road where there is an old road from 100 years ago, that goes through the woods....but is also my property. I have too many animals to ever go anywhere. If I go away for a day or so, my husband would take care of them for me. But, I no longer travel. If we go somewhere for all day....like when we went to Louisiana to pick up a horse, we take that dog with us. when we stopped to eat, we put her in the horse trailer.

Since I have six pets, all with their own routines, I don't go over night. Five days a week I walk one of them three miles thru my town. On the weekends, we take both dogs to either the doggie park and walk there in the woods or go to a nature preserve. I could walk both 25-pound dogs but prefer the dachshund. Husband walks the other one. The doxie lives for his daily walk and trots the whole time. I wouldn't have a house sitter and if I needed to go away, I have two kids close by and I would thrust my dogs on one of them. Cats would stay home with visits.

We live on a larger lot that lines a busy road. Our dog will only go down the drive to a certain point and then she sits to wait for us while we check mail or retrieve the cans. Once we start our return to the house, she's off and running to her favorite spot, the back yard to get her ball. Instead of walking her, as weather allows, we play chuck it for a bit after she potties. She loves it.

We also take her to doggie day care a couple times a week. She's been going there for years and they board. We don't travel often, but it's like a second home for her there. If we can't take her with us, that's where she goes. They also have camera's, it's fun to watch and see how she's doing.

We currently have two medium sized dogs and live in a very walk-able town. We go just about every day. Most days, take various routes through the neighborhood for a mile or two. For variety, we'll go through a park. For a treat for them, we'll drive to a walk. For a treat for us, we'll walk to a brewery (we have 3, soon to be 4, within 1.5 miles of our house). We are blessed to live between a national park, and a national forest, so we have tons of hikes to chose from. It's a great life!

We have a large fenced in back yard and our Rottie entertains herself out there quite well. She is an indoor dog with access to the back via doggie door.

I sometimes take her for walks around the neighborhood but what she really loves most are her excursions to indoor areas where dogs are welcomed. Petsmart, Home Depot, Lowes, hardware stores, the small non food related businesses and out door dining are places visited on a regular basis. She generally goes with me on daily errands except for food shopping.

Once she is spayed when she turns 2, we will probably get her a permanent male playmate. Until now we always had 2 or 3 dogs. Having an only is something different for us. My friend dog sits for us when I need to be away for more than a few hours.

We have a large deck and a yard that backs up to woods, so they love going out back. Our neighborhood is all cul-de-sacs and has sidewalks, so it's wonderful for doggy walks. There are some hills, too, which is a good workout.

We have a wonderful boarding facility that we use for any trips over 2 nights, and we use our doggy day care for short trips.

We also board at our vet and even use them for daycare.

I really need to hire someone to do walks and overnights here at home so we have more flexibility to stay out for long periods of time.

We're always limited by the dogs for day trips and fun.

We no longer have dogs, but when we did they used to walk with me out in the woods. Our property borders 1000's of acres of timber land so there is no shortage of places to let a dog run.

When we traveled, they went to the local boarding place. They do a great job there and I always felt they were in good hands and no need for me to worry about them. Plus, they loved going there and playing with the other dogs who were in residence.

We live in a very rural area, it is all farm land. We have 2 dogs one is a 120lb. great pyrenees who hates a collar of any kind, the other is a mutt that is 65lbs. We have 22 acres & all around us is pastures so the dogs walk them self or should I say run after one another in the fields. After about 15 min. they are back home & want to come in. We don't travel & when one of us has to go to the hospital we have a few friends who will come to let them out. This works for us.

Sounds wonderful, Mary.

I've got acreage and my dog runs/walks with me off lead. In the little over a year I've had him he's learned the boundaries and rarely crosses them. When I go out he goes out, he won't stay out by himself. When I come in he comes in. He's pretty much a Velcro dog.

I rarely go anywhere that I can't take Ryan. I don't have anyone I can count on to take care of him. The one time I went away for a long weekend I boarded him at my vet's. They took good care of him but he was sure happy to see me when I came to pick him up.

No dogs yet, but good to hear the different options I can consider when I do move to the farm. I plan to have one or two dogs, no more than that. I do know that I will sometimes be travelling to places I cannot take them (the people I visit may not be dog-ready, or may have dogs of their own that don't want to meet other dogs - it DOES happen, as my sister in law found out!) Since I'll also have to have someone come by and watch the chickens once a day (other people have livestock; we can trade off duties), this will all have to be worked out. Boarding would be an option (for the dog). I plan to socialize any dog or dogs as much as possible!

I have four cats - one doesn't get along with the other three. She gets boarded if it is longer than a day or two, the other three stay put here. One of my cats may as well be feral and he'd have a hard time being boarded... it's already a major production when I take him in for his vet exams! (I am so not looking forward to moving him to his new home in a few months!)