Motherhood Moment: Pet Pointers - Best Cities to Walk Your Dog

To mark National Walk Your Dog Day on Feb. 22, LawnStarter ranked 2024's Best Cities to Walk Your Dog.

We compared nearly 480 of the biggest U.S. cities based on 4 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.

See the 10 best (and 10 worst) cities to walk your dog below, followed by key takeaways. (Don’t see your city below? Check out the full ranking.)

Best Cities to Walk Your Dog
Rank	City
1	Colorado Springs, CO
2	San Francisco, CA
3	Phoenix, AZ
4	Boulder, CO
5	New York, NY
6 7 8 9 10	Portland, OR Boise, ID Oakland, CA Las Vegas, NV Burbank, CA

Worst Cities to Walk Your Dog
Rank	City
1	Pompano Beach, FL
2	Avondale, AZ
3	Memphis, TN
4	Warner Robins, GA
5	Macon, GA
6 7 8 9 10	Evansville, IN Rockford, IL Montgomery, AL Kansas City, KS Davenport, IA

Key Insights:

Western cities trotted to the top of our ranking, thanks to their vetted pup-friendly trails.
Cities like Colorado Springs, Colorado (No. 1), San Francisco (No. 2), and Phoenix (No. 3) offer plentiful paths for taking Buddy on a stroll.
Texas suburbs — Flower Mound (No. 13), Georgetown (No. 16), and Mansfield (No. 19) — outwagged their bustling neighbors Austin (No. 21), Dallas (No. 126), and Fort Worth (No. 172) despite having fewer dog parks and trails. These suburbs bark up safer walking conditions in addition to better-rated routes.
You might have a ruff time walking the dogs in Kansas City, Kansas (No. 469), Montgomery, Alabama (No. 470), and Memphis, Tennessee (No. 475), though. These cities heeled at the tail end of our ranking with poorly rated trails and high rates of pedestrian fatalities.