Dog Friendly City Guide: Nashville, USA

Nashville is a city that lives outdoors as soon as the weather allows, and a dog fits straight into that. The brewery taprooms spill onto patios, an East Nashville arcade bar puts its patio on the roof, and there is even a dog park in The Nations where the bar is part of the point. Green space is never far away either: a riverside park two miles from downtown, a hill of fenced runs in the park that holds the city's full scale Parthenon, and the wooded Warner Parks on the south western edge, where the trails loop through the trees. Spring and autumn are the best seasons to visit with a dog, with mild mornings for the long walks and warm evenings for the patios.

Getting There With a Dog

Arriving from abroad, your dog has to meet the rules of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they turn on where it has been in the six months before it lands. A dog that has been only in dog rabies-free or low-risk countries needs a receipt for the CDC Dog Import Form, completed online before travel, and must be microchipped and at least six months old. A dog that has spent any of that time in a high-risk country for dog rabies faces stricter requirements, so start with the CDC's dog importation pages well before you book.

Nashville International Airport is unusually well set up for dogs. Its pet amenities page lists an indoor relief area after security in Concourse D near Gate D2, with a hydration station, a waste station and a sink, and outdoor relief areas on the secure side of Concourses B and C, which a gate agent will let you into. Before security there are relief areas on the north and south sides of the departures curb, and a dog park on the pedestrian plaza of Terminal Garage 1, on Level P5. From the airport, a car is the easiest way to reach the parks on the edge of the city.

Where to Stay

Four hotels in the city are inspected and ranked, and you can compare them side by side on our ranked dog friendly hotels in Nashville.

Two hold a B, and both are good choices. The Hermitage Hotel is a five star house of 122 rooms on Sixth Avenue North, in the heart of downtown. There is no weight limit, so a big dog is as welcome as a small one, and a dog bed and bowls are provided. Staff will point you to good walking routes and can arrange a dog walker, there are parks close by, and the hotel keeps an emergency vet on call. Not every room takes dogs, so ask for one when you book. The fee is $150 per pet.

Hutton Hotel sits on West End Avenue in Midtown, a four star hotel with an art collection layered through its rooms, live music in the building and penthouses that look out over the skyline. Most of its 250 rooms take dogs, again with no weight limit, and your dog can join you in the lounge. A bed, a bowl and a guitar toy are waiting, and a settled dog may be left in the room while you go out, with the Do Not Disturb button keeping housekeeping away. Centennial Park is about a fifteen minute walk. The fee is $70, with a $100 damage deposit.

The Grand Hyatt Nashville, ranked D, stands on Broadway. Most rooms take up to two dogs of up to 50 pounds, the lounge welcomes them, and bowls and free treats are provided, with staff ready to suggest walks and green space close by. The fee is $100, with no deposit. Noelle Nashville, ranked F, takes up to two dogs of up to 100 pounds in most rooms, for a fee of $100 and a refundable deposit of $200 per day.

Eat and Drink

Nashville's breweries are the easiest places to sit down with a dog. TailGate Brewery runs taprooms all over the city, and its West Nashville home on Charlotte Pike is a seven acre brewery campus with a spacious taproom, a covered barn, an outdoor bar and a patio the brewery describes as dog friendly and kid friendly. Closer to the centre, TailGate Music Row on Demonbreun Street serves pizza, salads and its own beer, and says plainly that dogs are welcome on the patio. There is trivia on Thursday nights.

Across the river, East Nashville Beer Works on Trinity Lane calls itself Tennessee's most family and dog friendly brewery, and pairs its beer with pizza. In the same part of town, on Woodland Street, Up-Down is an arcade bar with Nintendo 64 consoles, life-size Jenga and a large rooftop patio that welcomes pets, a fun place to spend an evening with a dog at your feet.

In Midtown, Happy Does on Division Street keeps a dog friendly patio for sunny afternoons alongside the party indoors. And for something only Nashville seems to do, Urban Dog Bar in The Nations is an off leash dog park and bar in one. Every dog needs a daily, monthly or annual pass, people get in free, and the house rules are strict: vaccination records for rabies, distemper and parvo, and Bordetella uploaded through its app before you arrive, dogs over a year spayed or neutered, no prong, pinch or choke collars, and no more than three dogs per person. The park opens at 11am on weekdays and 9am at weekends, and closes at 9pm.

Walks and Parks

Shelby Park is the walk most visitors should start with. It runs for some 300 acres along the Cumberland River two miles from downtown, and with the Shelby Bottom Natural Area beside it the green space grows to more than 1,200 acres of river views, greenway and woodland, with Sevier Lake for casual fishing. The park has its own fenced off leash dog park, at Shelby Avenue and South 20th Street behind the community centre, two acres of natural grass with benches.

Centennial Park on West End Avenue is the city's showpiece, home to Lake Watauga and the Parthenon, and Centennial Dog Park sits on Flag Pole Hill within it. There are two fenced runs, a large one of two and a half acres and a small one of under half an acre for little dogs, both on natural grass and open from dawn to dusk. Like every Metro dog park, it has water fountains and bags.

For a proper hike, head south west to the Warner Parks. In Edwin Warner Park, the Harpeth Woods Trail is a two and a half mile loop through woodland, starting near the nature centre, and the trail system is open from sunrise to 11pm every day. Dogs are welcome on a leash of no more than six feet, and Metro Parks asks you to pick up after them to protect the water. On Vaughn Road, across from the sports complex, the Warner Dog Park gives two fenced acres for a run before or after the trail.

A Day Out

Start early at Shelby Park, walking the river side paths while the air is cool, and let your dog off for a run in the fenced park. Have lunch on the patio at TailGate Music Row, then spend the afternoon at Centennial Park, circling Lake Watauga and stopping at the dog park on Flag Pole Hill. As the evening comes in, cross the river for a beer at East Nashville Beer Works or head up to the roof at Up-Down. On a second day, give the morning to the Harpeth Woods Trail and the afternoon to Urban Dog Bar, where your dog can play off leash while you sit with a drink.

Good to Know

Away from the fenced dog parks, a dog in any Metro park must be on a leash, and on the Warner Parks trails that leash may be no longer than six feet. In the city's dog parks the Metro rules apply: dogs must wear current rabies and identification tags, go on the lead entering and leaving the fenced area, and you must carry a lead for each dog at all times. No more than two dogs per handler, no puppies under four months, no female dogs in heat, no spiked collars and no food or glass inside the fence, and children under ten may not go in. Summers are hot and humid, so plan the long walks for early morning and evening and carry water for the dog. When you eat out, expect your dog to join you on the patio rather than indoors.