Dog Run Review: Union Square Park

Home of Adoptapalooza

The Union Square Park Dog Run is located on the southwestern corner of Union Square Park at 15th Street and Union Square West.

Union Square Park is certainly one of the nicest public areas in downtown Manhattan. It’s home to lots of good shopping and restaurants. There’s a large Petco located on the northern side of the park. It’s also where you’ll find the city’s largest Greenmarket, which is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. It’s fun to take your dog to the Greenmarket if he or she can handle crowds.

Union Square is also home to the Mayor’s Alliance for Animals’ annual “Adoptapalooza” event, the group’s signature animal adoption fair.

This year “Adoptapalooza” will be held on Sunday, May 21. Click here for more info.

The park has a nice dog run, even if it’s a bit on the smaller side.

There’s plenty of shade and seating along the periphery. It has a gravel surface, which isn’t my favorite because the dogs get dirty and dusty pretty quickly, but the few times we’ve been there, the park seemed clean and relatively free of bad smells. A quick survey of social media reveals the the park gets generally positive reviews. Some reviewers complain about the size, saying it’s too small. Though others like that it’s small, pointing out that the smallness of the run keeps large, “rambunctious” dogs out. (Bodhi and I certainly take exception to that!) Others say that it can get kind of smelly in the summer. Most people pointed out that the run is conveniently located and that the people who go there are nice.

One of the things I liked most was the water feature.

While Bodhi isn’t crazy about getting wet, the dogs that do like water really seemed to be having a good time.