In one of the previous posts I wrote why didn’t we find the UK the most friendly place (specially big cities) for owning a dog. I also mentioned that as soon as we moved to Amsterdam we didn’t think long about adopting one. We were taken aback by the city itself (it may look like a big place but in fact it’s very compact with plenty of green places), by the people’s approach towards animals and dogs in particular, by the dogs (most of them running free in the public parks and being mostly easy going towards each other) and by the general acceptance of them in the most unpredictable places. Having a very different background, we fell in love immediately with the idea of being able to take your dog almost everywhere.
As soon as Bosfor became a part of our family, I decided to taste this myself. As we were pretty new in the city, there were many things to arrange. I took Bosfor to the place were I saw dogs before and some others, which was also a great way for him to socialize and getting custom with all the new things that surrounded him. I was never told I should leave my dogs outside (and as you could see on the picture, he’s not the pocket-size dog). We went together to the bank to open the account; we were together at the post office, local market and even the supermarket. We went to shop for the second-hand furniture, made many trips by public transport together (where you don’t need to buy a ticket for a dog and no one never asked me to muzzle him, what was a norm in my home country and only for that purpose I bought him a muzzle which we never used). We visited many pubs, local restaurants and even royal gardens Keukenhof together. Not even that I was not asked to leave but many time was approached by the member of staff asking if they should provide water for the dog …
Of course, you need to have some common sense and do not push your luck (like walking into the most posh restaurant in the city or into the playgrounds full of kids, where are clear signs ‘dogs not allowed’). But as long as you’re reasonable and your dog is under control there is no problem to have him with you.
As mentioned above there are many green places in the Amsterdam, roughly about 30 parks, which makes it even hard to visit them all. Apart from that there are 4 beaches in the city from which 2 are artificial and not very dog oriented but the other two allow you furry friend to have a nice run and long swim after. There are also plenty of spaces outside the Amsterdam, like the dog-friendly beaches where there are literally hundreds of dogs on the sunny weekend, making it pretty spectacular experience, reservoirs and forests.
City has also a wide network of veterinary help. We personally are very impressed with the clinic we’ve chosen as we even get follow up phone calls to see how are dogs doing in case of some troubles (recently Ares got some food poisoning and after a very good treatment he received we got a phone call 2 days later just to check on him).
The thing we love the most (and I believe our dogs as well) about Amsterdam are the biking roads. There is no better way to make them tired (following the believe tired dog is a happy dog) than bike with them. They enjoy it greatly, it allows as to take them into other parts of the city and spend together all days out when the weather allows. For the longer trips and specially now for Bosfor, who got older during all these years, we have a special trailer attached to the bike. He loves it and he immediately knew what is it for – after arun, when he got tired, he instinctively jumped into it and let be driven.
So if you are planning to come to live in Amsterdam and are wondering what to do with your four-legged friend, fear no more, he would love it here.