2024’s Best Cities to Walk Your Dog

Where can you find awesome trails and safe dog walking conditions?

To commemorate National Walk Your Dog Day on February 22, LawnStarter ranked the best cities to walk your dog in 2024.

We compared nearly 480 of the largest US cities based on 4 categories. We analyzed access to dog-friendly trails and off-leash parks with ratings for paw care, dog walking services, and safety, among 17 metrics in total.

Strap yourself in and scroll through our rankings below. To find out how we rank cities, see our methodology.

Content

Classifications

See how each city fared in our ranking:

Top 5 up close

Check out the slideshow below to see highlights from each of our top 5 cities.

The result

western cities climbed to the top of our ranking, thanks to their examinees pup-friendly trails. cities like Colorado Springs, Colorado (No. 1), San Francisco (No. 2), and Phoenix (No. 3) offer numerous trails to take Buddy for a walk.

texas suburbs — flower mound (no. 13), georgetown (No. 16), and mansfield (No. 19) — surpassed their bustling neighbors Austin (no. 21), dallas (No. 126), and Fort Worth (No. 172) despite having fewer parks and dog trails. These suburbs bark safer walking conditions for pedestrians and their dogs, as well as best rated routes.

You might have a bad time walking the dogs. Kansas City (Kansas) (no. 469), Montgomery, Alabama (No. 470), and Memphis, Tennessee (No. 475), however. These cities placed at the bottom of our rankings with poorly rated trails and high rates of pedestrian deaths.

Unlock more interesting insights below.

Talking by example: expert opinions

Unless you’re a famous dog whisperer Cesar Millan or a very experienced dog owner, you may not know the right and wrong ways to walk your furry friend.

To help maximize fun time and safety, we turned to a group of canine experts for tips and ideas. See what they said below.

1. What are the three biggest benefits of dog walking for parents and puppy?
2. What are the three most common mistakes pet owners make when walking their dogs and how can you avoid those mistakes?
   
3. What are the three best ways to ensure safety during a dog walk?
   
4. What is your number one tip for making dog walking the best possible experience for both pup and owner?

Dr. Allison Willoughby, DVM

Radiology, Clinical communication skills.

Utah State University, College of Veterinary Medicine

Angela Taibo

Instructor

Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology

Gillian Angliss, DVM

Clinical Assistant Professor

Western University of Health Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine

Vicente Centonze, DVM

Director of Veterinary Technology

Hillsborough Community College, Plant City Campus

Marc Bekoff

Emeritus Professor of Ecology and Evolution

University of Colorado, Boulder

Wendy K. Kuceyeski, DVM

Program Director and Assistant Professor of Veterinary Science Technology

SUNY Canton

Stacey Wanous

Veterinary instructor

Carrington University

Behind the ranking

First, we determine the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to ranking the best cities to walk your dog. We then assign a weight to each factor according to its importance and group them into 4 categories: access, quality, professional walk and security. The categories, factors and their weights are listed in the following table.

For each of the 500 largest US cities, we collected data on each factor from the sources listed below the table. We eliminated 23 cities that lacked sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 477 cities.

Finally, we calculate scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its ranking in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s overall score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest overall score was classified as “Best” (No. 1) and the lowest as “Worst” (No. 477).

Note: The “worst” among the individual factors may not be number 477 due to ties.

Sources: AllTrails, BringFido, Canine Journal, Care.com, NeighborhoodScout, PetSitter.com, Trust for Public Land, US Department of Transportation and Walk Score

Walking the path: healthy and happy dogs

Walking your dog can be a pleasure for both of you, but it’s not always a walk in the park.

TO fatal respiratory disease that affects canines has spread to 16 statesmaking it even more imperative that owners be alert and cautious when socializing their pup with other dogs.

Keep your furry child up to date on vaccinations and prevent them from approaching unfamiliar dogs, especially those that cough or sneeze. Avoid the dog park altogether if cases appear in your neighborhood.

Keep your furry best friend (furry best friend) safe and happy on the road with our other tips below.

See where your city ranks in our other rankings, Best Cities for Dog Lovers and Best Cities with Dog Parks.
Hire a Local LawnStarter Team to keep your lawn clean and trimmed so Fido can run and play safely.

Media resources

Main photo credit: lucky business / Canva Pro / Canva License

sav maive

Sav Maive is a writer and director living in San Antonio. Sav graduated from the University of Virginia and is a cat and plant lover.