Moving from country to city - how to make it work for dogs?

[nothingeverhappensinstmarymead]

As the title says, I'm about to move from a very very dog friendly house to a much less dog friendly location. In my current house, there is a massive garden that has lots of doggy interesting things to sniff etc, and dog walks from the door along country tracks where we never see another dog or person. We are about to move to a house on a cul-de-sac, neighbours very nearby, and about 10-15 minutes walk from green space (though when we reach it there is masses of walking potential with a variety of route options). There is a garden but it's small and at the moment just has flat grass, no variety of plants or places to dig!

How can I make this move work for my dogs and neighbours? I have two dogs. One is now 10 and doesn't like too much walking. She might even prefer the new house in some ways. The other is 8, a very very active working cocker spaniel who likes a lot of running round the garden, throwing balls in the field etc, as well as walks. He isn't too keen on other dogs (growling, not biting) which makes urban dog walking a bit stressful.

Any thoughts on keeping them happy in a less dog-friendly setting? I will of course still take them up to the country at weekends where possible!

You have a number of options.
In your shoes, I'd quite often drive to the green space and walk from there - that way 30 minutes of tedious pavement walking would be condensed down to 5 minutes in the car.
If there is a closer but smaller green space (to small for a 'proper' walk) without too many dogs (for your cocker), use it for regular training sessions - off-lead heel, retrieving, long down-stays, hiding balls for them to find. If your dogs don't do this sort of thing already, they're never too old to learn.
You could also work on desensitising your cocker to other dogs. We walk often without seeing anyone, so I deliberately sometimes take my dogs to playing fields where I know there will be other dogs, just so they remain social.

I'll be in your shoes one day - moving from loads of country walks into a small town with a small garden, with working-line 'country' dogs, so I feel your pain.

thanks @EdithStourton I am definitely worried about the adjustment though hoping the dogs will find it easier than I do.... But being in the town/city is necessary for other reasons so I need to make it work.

You could start now by simply taking them to busier places in the car.
Scale down the ball throwing in the garden - You could switch to hide & seek instead. That usually works in all types of places including inside.

I'd also take the Spaniel out alone to palaces where there are dogs and maybe even children and practice walking by your side... maybe do a little bit of obedience, walk sit , down a little stay, ... just to stop his mind from wandering.

Build up time if he's overwhelmed to start with 5-10 minutes gradually increasing to 30.