Dog Friendly City Guide: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Before your dog runs free anywhere in Minneapolis, you buy it a ticket. The city's Park Board keeps nine off-leash dog parks, and every one of them asks for a permit bought before you arrive. A visitor pays $5 a dog for the day, and one permit opens all nine gates. It is a small piece of admin in a city that otherwise makes room for dogs everywhere, around its lakes, down its river gorge and on the heated patio of a bar that puts a three-course menu in front of them.

Minneapolis is a Minnesota city on the Mississippi, with St. Anthony Falls at the edge of downtown and a chain of lakes and parkland to the southwest. For anyone travelling with a dog, the walking is the thing.

Arriving From Abroad

Flights land at Minneapolis-St. Paul International, and a dog arriving from another country has to clear the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rules on the way in. Everything turns on where the dog has spent the last six months. If it has stayed in countries the CDC treats as rabies free or low risk, the list is short: it must be six months or older, look healthy and be microchipped with a chip any universal scanner will pick up. Fill in a separate CDC Dog Import Form for every dog, and keep the receipt to hand, on paper or on screen.

If the dog has been somewhere the CDC lists as high risk, the paperwork grows considerably, and an unvaccinated dog arriving from such a place is refused entry.

Where to Stay

The W Minneapolis The Foshay at 821 Marquette Avenue lives inside the Foshay Tower, a downtown landmark. Wilbur Foshay is said to have come home from a visit to the Washington Monument wanting one of his own, and the Art Deco tower he built between 1927 and 1929 tapers 400 feet above downtown. Today it holds 230 rooms, the Prohibition Bar in Foshay's old study with its wood-panelled bookshelves and fireplace, and an open-air observation deck reached by the lift and then two flights of stairs.

A dog of any size checks in to a bed of its own and a few treats, comes down to the lounge with you, and can be left in the room once it has settled while you go up to see the view. The dog fee is $125 a stay, with no deposit. Pack your own bowls. Read the W Minneapolis The Foshay review.

If you are flying in, the InterContinental Minneapolis St. Paul Airport at 5005 Glumack Drive is joined to Terminal 1 by a skyway, so a dog that has just spent hours in a crate reaches its room without a taxi ride. There are 291 rooms and a French brasserie among the places to eat.

The hotel keeps a space set aside for dogs, puts out bowls, keeps an emergency vet number on hand, and has staff who can point you to a walk. Up to two dogs share a room, there is no weight limit, and a calm dog can stay behind in the room. The fee is $50 a pet, with nothing held as a deposit. See the InterContinental Minneapolis review.

Around the Lakes

The lakes in the southwest of the city are where Minneapolis takes its dog out. Lake of the Isles has 2.63 miles of walking path around water that once held four islands. Two were filled in as the shore was shaped, and the Park Board bought the other two in 1887 for $35,000; Mike's and Raspberry Islands are now wildlife refuges, best admired from the path.

A lagoon joins it to Bde Maka Ska, with 3.1 miles of walking path around it. The name, restored in 2018 in place of Lake Calhoun, means White Earth Lake in the Dakota language. Further south, Lake Harriet gives you 2.75 miles of path and the bandshell where the summer concerts are held, and paved trails around the water with views all year long.

The River

The Mississippi runs through the middle of the city, and the Stone Arch Bridge is the walk that shows it best. It once carried James J. Hill's trains of flour east to market and now carries people, with views of the water rushing over St. Anthony Falls and a gazebo at the east end in Father Hennepin Bluff Park.

Downstream, the river cuts the Mississippi Gorge, which the Park Board calls the only true gorge along the whole length of the Mississippi. The Winchell Trail follows its west bank between Franklin Avenue and 44th Street, about five miles there and back, for walkers only. Unpaved paths drop away from it down to the water and into the woods. Some sections are rough and turn to mud after a storm, so it is a walk for a dog that likes to get dirty.

At its southern end lies Minnehaha Regional Park, bought by the state in 1889 and among the first state parks anywhere in America. Easy paved paths run around the rim above the falls, and stone staircases lead down to the trails beside Minnehaha Creek in the glen below.

Off the Lead

The nine off-leash dog parks are Dinky, Franklin Terrace, Gateway, Lake of the Isles, Loring Park, Lyndale Farmstead, Minnehaha, St. Anthony Parkway and Victory Prairie. A visitor's permit costs $5 for each dog for the day. Staying longer, an annual permit for someone who lives outside the city is $66 for the first dog and $38 for each one after. You can buy online or by phone, and the dog must have had its rabies jab first. Residents need a City of Minneapolis pet licence before they apply.

Two of the nine are changing. The Park Board says the off-leash area at Minnehaha is in the process of being decommissioned, which several older guides have not caught up with, and the east entrance to the St. Anthony Parkway park is closed until December 31, though the west gate stays open.

Patios and Taprooms

Stanley's Northeast Bar Room, at 2500 University Avenue NE, goes furthest for a dog. Its Paw-tio has a three-course dog menu of its own, and through the winter months the patio is tented and heated, so a November visit is no hardship. It asks for one dog per human.

In south Minneapolis, Our Kitchen at 813 West 36th Street is a breakfast and lunch spot with a dog patio laid out with mats, water and treats. It takes no reservations, and it closes in the middle of the afternoon.

Closer to downtown, Sisyphus Brewing at 712 Ontario Avenue West lets leashed, well-behaved dogs into the taproom as well as onto its small seasonal patio, which matters in a Minnesota winter. It runs a 100-seat comedy theatre inside the brewery, with a free open mic every Thursday at 8pm, and as there is no kitchen you are welcome to bring your own takeaway.

Also in Northeast, 56 Brewing at 3055 Columbia Avenue NE answers the dog question on its own page: dogs and children are both allowed, "as long as they are well behaved, of course!" In the North Loop, two blocks from Target Field, Fulton Brewing's taproom at 414 6th Avenue North seats dogs on the patio in season, because its kitchen keeps them out of the room.

Good to Know

Outside the fenced dog parks every dog stays on the lead, the first rule the Park Board sets. Inside them, one person may bring no more than three dogs, a dog in heat stays out, and a dog showing any sign of aggression goes back on the lead. Carry the permit, the licence and the vaccination record together, and pick up after the dog.

At the Foshay the lounge is the shared space open to dogs, and a number of rooms rather than all of them take dogs. The InterContinental keeps dogs out of its bar, restaurant and terrace, and only some rooms take them, so ask for one when you book.

The Winchell Trail is for walkers only, so leave the bike behind, and Minnehaha charges for parking even though the park itself is free. Sisyphus is closed on Mondays.

On a clear autumn afternoon, with the dog beside you on the rim at Minnehaha and the creek falling away below, this is a city that has kept its best places open to both of you.