The personal finance company SmartAsset recently released its latest list of the most dog-friendly cities in the U.S. They analyzed data on a number of factors, including:

• Number of dog parks
• Number of dog-friendly shopping areas
• Number of dog-friendly restaurants
• Walkability
• Weather
• Housing costs

The first 3 factors were given the most weight in the analysis.

What are some of the key findings before we get to the big reveal?

• 7 of the top 10 dog-friendliest cities are in the Western U.S.
• The Southern states scored lowest on the metrics used in the study.
• 3 of the top 10 cities are located right here in California.

And the winners are….

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Las Vegas, NV
3. Denver, CO
4. San Diego, CA (we’re #1 for dog-friendly restaurants—woop woop!)
5. Albuquerque, NM
6. Sacramento, CA
7. Chicago, IL
8. Minneapolis, MN
9. Tucson, AZ
10. New York, NY