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John Bull Inn, Thorne, South Yorkshire, Image 1
John Bull Inn, Thorne, South Yorkshire

Walks

Motorway Walks Dog Walks Beaches Pubs Accommodation Dog Services Campsites

Latest News

Walk, or Walkies? What's the difference?

11:14am - 25th Feb 10 by Lezli

Funny videos of dogs driving a car

2:59pm - 21st Feb 10 by Lezli

Walking holidays with your dog

2:20pm - 21st Feb 10 by Lezli

Dogs welcome, pubs

9:03pm - 21st Oct 09 by Lezli

Peak District pubs and walks with dogs

10:14am - 12th Aug 09 by Lezli

Blood Bank for Pets

10:08am - 12th Aug 09 by Lezli

Book updates

5:24pm - 4th Aug 09 by Lezli

Shakespeare's Pubs for Dogs

11:23am - 15th May 09 by Lezli

A scoop on the poop

1:09pm - 12th Feb 09 by Lezli

About Driving with Dogs

The idea for Driving with Dogs came in 2005 when we (Lezli and David) sat on the M40 in a traffic jam for over an hour in the blazing sunshine.

Jem, our Border Collie, was just a few months old at the time and he was panting and pacing in the back of the car, clearly desperate to cool down and have a leg stretch. We could see fields with footpaths from the motorway, but there was no way to get at them.

Later, we searched bookshops for a handy reference book with lots of short walks near motorways so that we didn't get caught out again. To our huge surprise, we couldn't find anything suitable - or that was up-to-date enough to rely on.

So we decided to make a small set of walk places and pubs with good food for our regular trips from the Midlands to London on the M40, and to friends in Manchester and Carlisle. We used these six or seven pubs and walks to meet up with friends along the way, and the friends wanted photocopies so they could use them too. The number of walks grew to about a dozen, and we put them online to share with the friends of the friends ...

By 2007 we'd begun to notice country parks and brilliant dog-friendly pubs all over the place, and decided to have a go at sharing them on a website. And in 2008 we were completely taken over by the project, using every opportunity to explore different parts of the country - and fortunately Richard joined the team with the technical skills to build a website that did what we wanted.

There were some amazing e-mails from complete strangers, telling us how much they enjoyed the site. And the e-mails from disabled people with assistance dogs were incredibly humbling, motivating us to carry on walking and do something really useful for people who travel with dogs in the car.

By the beginning of 2009, we'd walked well over 1,000 miles and written walks for just about every motorway junction that it's possible to leave a motorway at. That's over 400 walks!

Motorway Walks - a handy book with about 200 walks up and down the motorway network - came out in September 2009. And it's great that we can keep the book information up-to-date on the website, especially since pubs are changing landlords or closing down so quickly. The book's now available online from amazon.co.uk, Waterstones and Tesco.

It's been an amazing journey so far, and we've still got our walking boots on ...

MOTORWAY WALKS - The Book

With nearly 200 walks from the Driving with Dogs website, this handy little book is an ideal guide to the best dog-friendly pubs and dog walks within 5 miles of UK motorway exits. Like the website walks, you'll also find information about campervan access, disabled facilities, kids' activities, safe parking places, sat-nav codes and written route directions too.

Driving with Dogs is working with the Border Collie Trust GB to bring you the Motorway Walks book at £9.99 (plus p&p). Every book sold will include a donation to the work of the Trust. Jem, the collie who has tested all the motorway walks, is a Border Collie Trust rescue and we're delighted that donations from the book he inspired will go back to helping the Trust with their work.

Click here to go to the Border Collie Trust website and Collie Shop - http://www.bordercollietrustgb.org.uk

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