Best Times of Day to Walk Your Dog

Basically, if the weather is too hot or too cold for you to walk in, it's likely too hot or too cold for your dog to walk in as well. However, other factors go into when is the best time to walk your dog, such as when people and traffic are least likely to be out and about, comfort, and basic availability for walking for you and your dog where you are least likely to be bothered by other dogs. Here are the best times of day to walk your dog.

Early morning, but not too early, is a great time of day to walk your dog, particularly on weekends but not really Sundays (see later paragraph). Often, people go jogging before work, so they are usually out between 5-7 AM. This is fine if you have a friendly dog that won't bother people, but if you want an early morning walk with time to yourself, walk your dog between 7-11 AM. Anytime after 11 AM and you get the mid-day traffic and lunch chaos going on. Weekends, however, the earlier you walk your dog, the better, as the weekday joggers and walkers are more likely to rise and get moving after 7-8 AM.

For an older dog in particular or a smaller dog who doesn't handle heat well, try not to walk your dog between 12-4 PM, which is when the day is usually hottest. This is also when kids walk home from school either at the end of the day or for lunch, so you will have a lot of kid traffic around you. If you don't have time to walk your dog in the morning, go for an evening walk, after 6 PM (watch out for after work commuters though) but before 9 PM. You want to walk your dog when there is still some daylight left so other people can see you.

Don't walk your dog at night, mainly because a lot of people let their dogs loose at night, and I never walk my dog on Sundays. The dog catcher doesn't work on the weekends, so people around here just let their dogs loose and they can wreak havoc on you or your dog (or both). If you walk your dog at night, always walk them on a leash, so you can have better control of them should you come into contact with strays. On the weekends, early morning is best, and skip Sunday if you can- for some reason, no matter where I live, Sunday is a doggy free-for-all.

In general, an early morning walk is best in the warmer months, and an afternoon walk is best in the winter months, anytime after 4 PM usually. But watch out for afterwork commuters, who are likely on their way home from work and not watching out for you and your dog, so in the winter, try to take a walk between 4 PM and 6 PM so you beat the after work commuters but walk after the kids get home from school.

Source:

personal experience walking my own dog