Have a City Dog? Here’s How to Help Your Pup Thrive in an Urban Environment

Anyone who has moved from a small town to a big city can tell you: It takes grit to thrive in all the hustle and bustle. The bright lights, the loud noises, the swarming crowds — all the activity can be a lot to take in. For dogs, who have powerful ears, strong noses, and experience life close to the ground, it can be even more stressful. But this doesn’t mean pets can’t thrive as city pups. Here's everything you need to know if you have a pet living in an urban area.  

Luisa Ruge, the creator of Pomodogo, a Substack “where mindfulness meets canine science,” is an expert in animal-centered design — a field that uses knowledge of how animals view the world to create environments and tools that cater to their experiences. Her creations include a button interface for service dogs and a veterinary center that puts dogs’ sensory needs at the forefront. “When you are designing for another species, you think about their physical and sensory characteristics and capabilities, and what sense dominates their experience,” she explains to Kinship. “You think about their cognitive abilities, how they learn, and how they solve problems.”

Her experiences designing for pets has shown her that many people view the world solely from a human perspective without considering how their pets see things. She explains that if you live in a city, adjusting this mindset will help make urban living easier on your dog. Empathy and mindfulness are key. 

How humans and dogs experience cities differently 

In order to help our dogs thrive, we have to understand that we experience the trials of urban spaces differently — and that ultimately, cities are shaped with humans in mind, not pups. “When you think of the urban environment, you start from the fact that cities are human inventions,” Ruge says. “The shapes, the materials used, they’re all human centric.”

Sight 

For one, humans are visual creatures. “Where dogs smell and hear the world, we see it,” Ruge says. One look at a cityscape will reveal that sight is a design focus: signage explains what things are and how to get from place to place. 

Sound 

A dog’s strong ears can lead them to be easily overstimulated. If we think traffic is loud, they definitely do. “They can hear rodents and electronics,” Ruge says. “So what looks like a simple sidewalk to a human can be really overwhelming for dogs.”

Temperature 

The asphalt gets plenty hot and cold for us humans — so imagine being much closer to the ground (and potentially shoeless).

Socialization 

When humans greet each other, we do so head-on, and our sidewalks are designed to give us little space for any wandering. Dogs, on the other hand, like to circle each other and sniff. “If you have cars, a building, a really narrow sidewalk, two people with dogs on a leash coming straight at each other, that might be a point of tension,” Ruge says. 

Try to think like a dog

Luisa stresses that none of us will really be able to understand how a dog experiences the world, but that shouldn’t stop us from using our imaginations and extending empathy. It’s on us to consider their perspective as we’re navigating our daily lives. 

This might mean paying closer attention to the senses we encounter on our routes. “As you're walking and you pass, you know, the pizza place, the laundromat, the gas station, those are all pretty important smells for them,” Ruge says. “We can walk from A to B and not even notice any smell at all.” 

Exercising this empathy might come down to some physical experimentation; even if you feel silly, it could help your understanding to literally put yourself in your pup’s position. “You can do practical exercises,” Ruge says. “You could even lower yourself to their height and kind of understand what their field of vision looks like.”

Once you’re exercising empathy, everyday solutions will start to become apparent. You might consider adjusting your daily walk route to be somewhere as calm as possible, away from the busiest streets. Maybe you need to buy your pup a pair of booties for the summer and winter. If your dog seems stressed by a face-to-face interaction with another leashed pup, it may be worth crossing the street. You can set your dog up for an easier time with early socialization and lots of training, but at the end of the day, your dog is a dog; they experience the world differently than we do, and their comfort is important. 

Ruge adds that slowing down makes a huge difference. Giving your dog time to sniff and explore on their walks makes the situation much more relaxed for them. If they seem high-energy when leaving the house, sitting down with them for a few minutes of calming pets might be useful. 

“Sometimes I think, if I wasn’t in an urban environment, but I was in a jungle and I have a guide that’s taking me through the jungle, I’m going to be like, Oh my God. But if my guide knows that I am overwhelmed, my walk through the jungle or whatever environment I’m not used to is going to be better for me,” Ruge says. “That’s where you start weaving in the sense of mindfulness. It’s a way for you to be present and understand you have this other species with you, and put your humanness in check.”

Have plenty of patience

Ruge stresses that what people see as behavioral issues in dogs are often understandable reactions to their environment. Like humans, when dogs are stressed, they tend to act out. “They can be aroused, and a lot of times we think of that as problem behaviors,” Ruge explains. “They might be leash reactive or hypervigilant, but that’s because they’re overwhelmed.” 

The worst thing we can do is add to their stress levels by becoming frustrated; scolding and yelling are incredibly counterproductive. “It can be a vicious cycle,” Ruge says. “If you start getting frustrated and your dog isn’t doing what you want them to do, that just kind of spirals.”

The key is realizing that the root of the problem is an “environmental mismatch,” Ruge adds. Even if you can’t understand exactly why your dog is behaving in a confusing way, you can take steps to calm them — and yourself — down. Instead of being angry, ask why. And trust that your dog isn’t trying to be disobedient; they just need your support.