The short version
The Upper East Side is an easy place to bring a dog. It's residential, the side streets are wide and shaded, half the buildings on our block have a dog living in them, and Central Park's Fifth Avenue entrance at 60th Street is about eight minutes from our front door. We take up to two dogs per reservation at $100 per pet.
This isn't a neighbourhood where a dog is an inconvenience. It's a neighbourhood built around them. Go out at 7:30am and it's dog walkers with five leashes in each hand all the way down Third.
The morning walk we'd do
Head west on 62nd and into Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 60th. That's the closest entrance to us and about eight minutes on foot along the quiet blocks. Once you're in, the paths around the Pond and up toward the Mall are flat, wide, and shaded enough for a July morning, and you can loop back down and be home inside an hour.
One thing to check before you unclip: Central Park has designated off-leash hours and designated areas, and the rules are posted at the entrances. Read the sign at the gate rather than copying whoever else is doing it. Outside those hours and areas, leashes are the rule and it's enforced.
If your dog is older or you've got a long day ahead, the perimeter walk on the Fifth Avenue side is a fine substitute. Flat pavement, plenty of shade from the park trees, and you can turn around whenever you like.
The other walk: down to the river
When the park is packed, we go east instead. Walk down to Sutton Place and pick up the East River esplanade. It's flat, it's quiet, there's a breeze off the water most days, and you get the Queensboro Bridge overhead with the Roosevelt Island Tram sliding across it. On a Sunday morning you'll have long stretches of it more or less to yourself, which is a rare thing in Manhattan and a good thing with a reactive dog.
Go at golden hour if you can. It empties out and gets dark after sunset, so we'd turn around before then.
Living here for a few days with a dog
The practical stuff is where an apartment beats a hotel room with a dog in it. You've got a kitchen, so there's a fridge for whatever your dog eats and a proper sink for washing bowls. There's no lobby and no key card, so nobody's walking a soaked terrier through a marble reception at 8am in the rain. Your door code arrives before you get here and you come and go as you please, which matters more than you'd think when your dog needs out at 6:15.
Supermarkets are within a few blocks in almost every direction, and the avenues have the usual pet shops and vets, so if you forget the food or the poop bags you're fine.
Weather, pavement and the small realities
July and August pavement gets hot enough to matter. We walk early and late in summer and stick to the shaded side streets in between, and the park paths are cooler than the avenues by a noticeable margin. In winter the sidewalks get salted, so most of the dogs on this block are in booties or getting their paws wiped at the door by February.
One more thing worth planning for: most restaurants here will seat you outside with a dog in warm months and none of them will seat you inside. Museums are a no. So build the day around one of you sitting outside with a coffee while the other goes in, or do the museum on a day the dog's had a long morning and is happy to sleep it off at home.
Our pet policy, plainly
Up to two pets per reservation, $100 per pet. Tell us when you book so we know who's coming, and let us know if you need anything specific for them. We're on text and we're real people at the other end of it.