New Report Says These 10 U.S. Cities Have the Best Dog Parks

Devan McGuinness
Shutterstock

A new report looked at all the states across the country, ranked them in order of which main cities have the best dog parks, and shared the results.

As pet parents, we want to make sure our home has everything we need to give our dogs the best life. This includes lots of space to run around and play, but not all states are equal. Take a look.

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LawnStarter wanted to find out which of the biggest cities in the United States is the best for dog families who want to have the best dog park nearby.

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To find and rank the best cities, LawnStarter first defined what makes a good dog park. They then divided those factors into three categories: climate, access, and quality.

The site explains, "We then gathered data on each factor for each of the 200 biggest U.S. cities. We eliminated 99 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 101 cities."

From there, they calculated scores, with 100 being a perfect score, for each city, and that's how they ranked each city. A city’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories," LawnStarter explained.

These Are the 10 'Best' Dog Park Cities

  1. Boise, Idaho

  2. San Francisco, California

  3. Portland, Oregon

  4. Henderson, Nevada

  5. Tampa, Florida

  6. Arlington, Vermont

  7. Albuquerque, New Mexico

  8. New York, New York

  9. Las Vegas, Nevada

  10. Sacramento, California

According to the data collected and analyzed by LawnStarter, Boise, Idaho, is the best city in the U.S. for dog parks, scoring 71.09 out of 100 overall.

It ranked highest for having the most dog parks per 100,000 residents and ranked in the top 10 for the number of dogs, with a rating of 4.5+. Its lowest rank came from the average number of very hot days, landing in the 59th spot. But that didn't seem to sway them out of the top spot.

In the second-best city, San Francisco, California, ranked first for the average number of very hot days, tied for second for the number of top-rated dog parks with a rank of 4.5+, and fifth for the number of dog parks for 100,000 residents.

And in third, Portland, Oregon, it received second spot for dog parks per 100,000 residents, tied for second for the number of top-rated dog parks.

These Are the 10 'Worst' Dog Park Cities

  1. Newark, New Jersey

  2. Garland, Texas

  3. Cleveland, Ohio

  4. Santa Ana, California

  5. North Last Vegas, Nevada

  6. Durham, North Carolina

  7. Santa Clarita, California

  8. New Orleans, Louisiana

  9. Kansas City, Missouri

  10. Laredo, Texas

The city ranked last overall was Newark, New Jersey, which came in last for access, nearly last for quality, and ranked 85 for climate, scoring 12.36 out of 100 overall.

The U.S. city ranked second last is Garland, Texas, with nearly the worst score for access and quality, and landing in the middle for climate rank. The third worst dog park city was Cleveland, Ohio, which ranked 93 for access and quality and 97th for climate.

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