Do You Live in Your Dog's Favorite City?

Have you ever stopped to wonder if your dog likes the town you live in? Is it the best place for them? Not every city is equally fit for your four-(or three)-legged friend. A recent study that analyzed 174 large cities has released the best and worst cities for walking your dog.

There were four aspects that they considered to create this list. Walkability, environment, services and safety. For safety, they looked at the statistics of pedestrian fatalities. They analyzed services by looking at the number of dog walkers available and their average rates. The environment category looked at dog-friendly trails and the availability of dog parks in the area. Walkability refers to how many errands you can get done by walking instead of using a car.

Since there are four categories that these cities were being judged on, there isn’t an overall best and worst in every category. There is some variability. New York City for example has excellent walkability, but low access to inexpensive services. New York ultimately landed in 7th place.

The top three cities for walking your dog are 1) Portland, Oregon, 2) San Francisco and 3) Oakland, California. The cities that landed in the bottom three are 1) Port St. Lucie in Florida, 2) Wichita, Kansas and 3) Jackson, Mississippi. Originally reported by The New York Times.