Dog Walks in Scotland. Lochwinnoch, Castle Semple to RSPB

Ratings for this walk

Accessibility              ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐             All on paths, fairly flat
Parking                      ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐             Two carparks, Castle Semple and RSPB
Amenities                  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐             Bins, Cafe, Cycle hire, shop, watersports
Length                       ⭐⭐⭐                        Around 3 miles
Solitude                     ⭐⭐⭐                        Popular around carparks but quieter further along
Livestock                   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐             None
Offlead                      ⭐⭐                              A section beside road
Views                        ⭐⭐⭐                        Stunning views over the water - no different views


On a very sunny Feb 14th I took a walk in Lochwinnoch, Here is a little film of the stunning walk

Obviously I took the dogs with me, and the winter sunshine really showed off their coats lovely :)

Mia loved the walk, no dogs to bother her, lots of kids which she loves :)

And Ben found so many things to roll in :D

I parked up in the Castle Semple visitor center. There is a wee tea room there (but I was good and didnt indulge - although the gingerbread is AMAZING)  That is the star by Lochwinnoch on the map, and then walked anticlockwise onto the road and then up to the RSPB center up along the other side of the Loch

This is a very flat paved walk suitable for any age and ability and although part of it is on the road there are lovely vews the whole way. My walk was just over 3 miles. If you want a shorter walk you can park at the RSPB center and just walk up the side of the loch, that would be just over a mile.

The Castle Semple carpark is fantastic for bird watching

The birds are rather friendly - infact when photographing I often get a swan sneaking up beside me! 

At the RSPB center there are lots of fun things for children to discover and some hides for birdwatching

The paths are good and flat and even in the winter they are pretty with all the moss and the light filtering through the trees

So although it is not the most challenging dog walk there is plenty of pretty things to keep you interested

Even beside the road the views can be pretty

Around every corner there can be a stunning or cute view




I hope you all enjoyed coming on my walk with me

The camera I used for all of this walk was my trusty Nikon Coolpix L820. Click on the image below to see it on Amazon

October sunshine

The weather the past few days has been almost better than our summer! I have taken advantage of that with the dogs - here are a few snaps of the fuzzies in the sunshine

Do you like butter?

 Jumped the fence into a tempting field of buttercups on a lovely sunny day.
The dogs loved zooming around in the long grass

It reminded me of when we were kids and we would say 'do you like butter?' and hold a buttercup under someones chin and if their chin went yellow then they did.
No idea where the origon of that one came from but the memory made me smile

No you be the leader

All too often nowadays people are obsessed with becoming the 'pack leader'
Always suppressing our dogs and seeing a challenge to their status in every little thing the dog does.
This is all unfortunately because of flawed research done years ago in wolf packs.
The researchers thought they saw packs of wolves with an alpha pair who were the bosses leading with paws of iron





and the rest of the pack was made up of lower ranking wolves all trying to climb the social ladder to be the alpha dogs.
The alpha wolves were the only ones to mate.
People assumed this meant that only the strongest in a pack ever got to mate and submissive animals never got the chance to pass on their genes.

More recently researchers have realised that view was wrong.
A pack is not a group of individuals fighting to get to the top


A pack is a family. The alpha pair are the parents.
Wolves do not become sexually active till they are at least 2 so the other wolves in the pack are older cubs of the alpha pair.
There is no point in the younger animals striving to reach the top - that would mean them breeding with their parents.
When wolves become mature they go off and find their own mate and create their own pack - even the submissive ones.




So rather than the pack leader we should think of ourselves more as a 'parent' role.
Yes dogs need rules, guidelines and training.
But letting your dog on the sofa will not mean he will chase to postman.
Making them wait to eat after you will not make her recall when called

If you have a training problem address the actual problem rather than making up rules that make no sense for the dog



So for today's walk I let Mia be the leader. She found us a wee path to walk along - it seemed like a wee deer path - but I gave it a go.
Then it opened into the most lovely park and then a forest walk

and even me letting her 'lead' she still stayed when I asked for a photoshoot and she recalled when I called.

So I guess all this power hasn't gone to her head and she isn't going to steal my credit card just yet

When you dont have a camera

Lovely day today, I forgot the camera but headed off down Erskine Beach.

and of course todays the day when BOTH Mia and Ben SWIM!!! That will help their fitness

I was chucking sticks for them (no sharp branches or anything that could hurt them) and I thought I would toss it in the water.

Both dogs ran in to get it, Mia is by far the stronger swimmer but they were both swimming.

Also on the walk we met quite a few dogs and Mia was no problem. When I was putting her back on the lead a couple apeared with 2 GSD's but thankfully I had a big pocket of treats (been working on recals) and so I played a little 'look at that dog' game, when Mia got a little over threashold I walked away a couple of steps and played my own new game 'lots of treats fall from the sky' she was munching. aware of the GSD but pretty calm, YEAH Mia!