The 15 Best Cities to Walk Your Dog

Editor's Note: This story originally appeared on LawnStarter.

Where can you find impressive trails and safe conditions for dog walking?

To mark National Walk Your Dog Day, LawnStarter ranked 2024’s Best Cities to Walk Your Dog.

We compared nearly 480 of the biggest U.S. cities based on four categories. We looked at access to dog-friendly trails and off-leash parks with paw-sitive ratings, dog walking services, and safety, among 17 total metrics.

Leash up and rove through our ranking. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology at the end.

1. Colorado Springs, CO

• Overall Score: 51.15
• Access Rank: 1
• Quality Rank: 27
• Professional Walking Rank: 97
• Safety Rank: 389

2. San Francisco, CA

• Overall Score: 50.44
• Access Rank: 22
• Quality Rank: 1
• Professional Walking Rank: 326
• Safety Rank: 159

3. Phoenix, AZ

• Overall Score: 50.00
• Access Rank: 2
• Quality Rank: 4
• Professional Walking Rank: 376
• Safety Rank: 461

4. Boulder, CO

• Overall Score: 49.59
• Access Rank: 7
• Quality Rank: 2
• Professional Walking Rank: 88
• Safety Rank: 352

5. New York, NY

• Overall Score: 49.51
• Access Rank: 13
• Quality Rank: 10
• Professional Walking Rank: 464
• Safety Rank: 94

6. Portland, OR

• Overall Score: 48.95
• Access Rank: 3
• Quality Rank: 3
• Professional Walking Rank: 328
• Safety Rank: 435

7. Boise, ID

• Overall Score: 46.38
• Access Rank: 8
• Quality Rank: 16
• Professional Walking Rank: 140
• Safety Rank: 276

8. Oakland, CA

• Overall Score: 46.21
• Access Rank: 15
• Quality Rank: 23
• Professional Walking Rank: 387
• Safety Rank: 144

9. Las Vegas, NV

• Overall Score: 44.53
• Access Rank: 5
• Quality Rank: 63
• Professional Walking Rank: 16
• Safety Rank: 370

10. Burbank, CA

• Overall Score: 43.84
• Access Rank: 159
• Quality Rank: 7
• Professional Walking Rank: 235
• Safety Rank: 50

11. San Diego, CA

• Overall Score: 43.32
• Access Rank: 11
• Quality Rank: 75
• Professional Walking Rank: 324
• Safety Rank: 164

12. Bend, OR

• Overall Score: 43.16
• Access Rank: 9
• Quality Rank: 55
• Professional Walking Rank: 56
• Safety Rank: 319

13. Flower Mound, TX

• Overall Score: 42.99
• Access Rank: 165
• Quality Rank: 54
• Professional Walking Rank: 84
• Safety Rank: 2

14. Indio, CA

• Overall Score: 42.92
• Access Rank: 176
• Quality Rank: 12
• Professional Walking Rank: 156
• Safety Rank: 38

15. Los Angeles, CA

• Overall Score: 42.71
• Access Rank: 18
• Quality Rank: 25
• Professional Walking Rank: 445
• Safety Rank: 190

Behind the Rankings

First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Best Cities to Walk Your Dog. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into four categories: Access, Quality, Professional Walking, and Safety. Here are the factors:

• Number of Dog-Friendly Trails
• Total Miles of Dog-Friendly Trails
• Average Length of Dog-Friendly Trails (in Miles)
• Number of Off-Leash Dog Parks
• Walk Score
• Number of Top-Rated Dog-Friendly Trails
• Share of Top-Rated Dog-Friendly Trails
• Average User Rating (Out of 5 Stars) for All Dog-Friendly Trails
• Average Number of Reviews per Dog-Friendly Trail
• Number of Top-Rated (4.5 Out of 5 Dog Bones) Off-Leash Dog Parks
• Share of Top-Rated (4.5 Out of 5 Dog Bones) Off-Leash Dog Parks
• Average Visitor Rating of Off-Leash Dog Parks
• Dog Walkers per 100,000 Residents
• Average Hourly Dog Walker Rate (as % of Average Hourly Household Income)
• Pedestrian Fatalities per 100,000 Residents
• Crime Index
• Dognappings Criminalized in State

For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table. We eliminated 23 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 477 cities.

Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank 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 ranked “Best” (No. 1).