Dogs can be walked on leads only at the bottom of the valley and, from the 15 of July to the 15 of September, along some of the paths, in compliance with the Park's Regulation.
By clicking on the sections of the map below it's possible to download maps and routes of the areas accessible the whole year, as well as summer itineraries authorized by derogating the Regulation, in effect from 15/07 to 15/09 (PDF format). We underline that in all of the other areas you cannot bring your dog.
The numbered rectangles are the maps sections that contain areas and accessible routes, those areas without coverage of clickable sections do not have routes accessible to dogs.
Why am I not able to bring my dog to the Park?
Dogs cannot circulate freely in the Park because they could run into the wildlife that can undergo a lot of stress directly if directly attacked by the animal or indirectly.
The main reason for this limitation is that our dogs are carriers of many diseases dangerous for wildlife, some of these are zoonoses, animals' diseases that can infect humans.
The weakest target of these diseases, mostly infectious-viral origin, are wild carnivores, from mustelids to canines. This means that a domestic dog, even raised in an apartment, can be a vehicle of infections potentially causing mortality in badgers, ermines, martens, foxes and wolves. And this happens even if the dogs are vaccinated, since some recent scientific studies have shown the passage of vaccine viruses, alive even if attenuated, from the domestic animal to the small mustelids.
The most dangerous of these diseases, the canine distemper, widespread in our dogs, even causes of local extinction of some protected carnivores species in many parts of the world, including felids, like lynxes and leopards, as well as wolves.
These are the reasons, related to the health of many, large and small, inhabitants of the mountain that draw huge benefits not only from protection but also from the implementation and respect of these simple prohibitions.
Why is allowed from the 15 of July to the 15 of September?
Because in this period, in the paths in compliance with the Park's Regulation, a lower possibility of direct interaction (sighting and contact) and indirect interaction (risk of infection) with wildlife was assessed and verified, the delicate seasonal reproductive period for most species (eg marmots, whose young in the previous period are not yet able to escape in case they are attacked or chased by a dog) is concluded and ibex and chamois have a general higher displacement.
Why then Rangers walk their dog along the paths?
When we walk along the Park paths and run into a Ranger with its “fortunate” dog it should be noted that these are all trained, or disturbance to wildlife and dangers to people, so then to assist the Surveillance staff in their tasks.
They're moreover controlled, from a health point of view, to avoid the transmission of the disease, potentially lethal, for the Park fauna. Several Rangers moreover, with their dogs, have obtained patents in activities such as surface's research and in case of an avalanche, obedience trial and finding injured fauna.
Photo: Dario De Siena