Doggin' Cleveland:
The 50 Best Places To Hike With Your Dog
In Northeast Ohio
By Doug Gelbert

This book, Doggin' Cleveland: The 50 Best Places To Hike With Your Dog In Northeast Ohio, is one of a series that shows you the best places to take your dog in various cities. It truly is a Northeast Ohio book because it covers hikes in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit Counties.

The book begins with a brief primer about Hiking with Your Dog that asks you to consider your dog's breed, health, conditioning and the weather before attempting a new hike. There are trail hazards, ticks and other dangers to be aware of too.

The author talks about what to take (collar, leash, water, etc) and describes how your dog can carry a pack for you and what should be in it.

There's a page listing places that you may want to take your dog that don't allow dogs, such as Forest Hill's Park and the beach at Mentor Headlands (drat).

There is a listing called The Best of the Best where the author identifies various "Best" hikes such as Best hike to meet other dogs (Sand Run Metro Park), Best Doggie Swimming Hole (Grand River/Paine Creek - Indian Point Park) and Prettiest Hike with your Dog (Holden Arboretum).

Then each of the 50 (actually the first 40) hikes gets two pages of explanation. This includes directions, website, admission fee (if any) park hours and a description of the grounds and the hike you can expect. Each description includes a rating of the Dog Friendliness, Traffic, Canine Swimming and Trail Time opportunity.

The areas that I am familiar with were accurately described and I discovered several new places to try. With a black lab, we are always looking for places he can get wet.

If it helps us find just one new favorite place to walk with our dog, it will be worth the price of the book and reading time. If you are taking your dog on a trip with you, check out the Doggin' books for other cities.

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