DogPoliciesVerified dog rules · California and Nevada

How we verify

A dog rule is only useful if it is right today. Every fact on DogPolicies carries its source, the date we read it, and a date it is due to be checked again.

Where facts come from

We record a fact only from a source with authority over the rule, in this order of preference:

  1. Government agencies that set the rule: State Parks, cities, counties and park districts.
  2. The business's own published policy, such as a hotel's pet policy page.
  3. Direct confirmation from the property by phone or email, logged with the date and who confirmed.
  4. Owner submissions, which are published only after we check them against one of the above.

We do not copy facts from other directories, review sites or booking sites. They are often out of date, and a fact is only as good as its source.

What every fact carries

  • The source's name, link and type (agency, official site, phone, email).
  • The date we read it, and a short quote of the rule where the source allows it.
  • Its own verified date and a re-check interval: 30 days for government sources, 90 days for hotel and business policies, 180 days for a business's own confirmation. Each fact shows a freshness word: fresh (inside the interval), due (past it), stale (past twice it: confirm before you go) or unreadable (the last check could not read the source).
  • A confidence: stated by the place's own source; inferred from an agency-wide rule; or inherited from a hotel chain's policy the hotel has not confirmed.
  • A verification history: every check, by whom (an editor, the re-check script, the business or the agency), how, and what it found. The accuracy page publishes the totals.

Brand policies and individual properties

Hotel chains publish brand-wide pet policies, but franchised properties can differ. When a property page shows a fact taken from the brand policy, it is labeled as such. A property-level confirmation always replaces the brand policy for that property.

Chain hotels from open data

To cover every chain hotel in California and Nevada, we take hotel names and locations from OpenStreetMap and attach the brand's verified policy. OpenStreetMap is used for location only, never for a rule. These pages say “Not yet confirmed with this hotel” until the property confirms its own policy, and a hotel whose OpenStreetMap name does not include its brand is left out, since it may have changed flags.

Road trips and rest areas

Rest areas come from Caltrans's Safety Roadside Rest Areas data; we list the ones Caltrans marks as having a pet area. On road-trip guides, each stop is placed by its mile on the route, using the Caltrans odometer, and by its distance off the freeway. That distance is a straight line, so a place across San Francisco Bay from the road, on the far shore or on an island, is left off that road's guide: the drive goes around the bay or over a long bridge. Where a route shares the road with another highway, as Highway 1 does with US-101 through Santa Barbara, the shared stretch is measured on the other highway and its stops are included. Rest areas on divided freeways serve one direction of travel, and guides say which.

In Nevada, route lines and rest areas come from the Nevada Department of Transportation, and miles are Nevada mileposts counted from the California line, which match the interstate exit numbers. NDOT's rest area data names no pet areas, so each Nevada rest area carries the state rule (NAC 408.600): a dog outside the car must be on a leash and stay in the area set aside for animals.

Restaurants and roadside stops

A roadside business is marked dog-friendly only when its own page says so, such as a travel center that lists a dog park. When a restaurant publishes no dog policy, we do not guess. California's Retail Food Code (Health and Safety Code 114259.5) keeps pet dogs out of food facilities and lets an owner allow them in an outdoor dining area, so we say that, show what the restaurant lists, and point to the nearest dog stop.

Locations

Coordinates come from the U.S. Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System, the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder and TIGER/Line landmarks, the California Coastal Commission's public access points, the National Park Service, county and city GIS data, an agency's or business's own site, or, for chain hotels, OpenStreetMap. A place without a precise location is left without one rather than pinned to a town center.

Tracking changes

Official agency data is re-imported on a schedule and compared with the previous version. Every addition, removal or change in wording is logged on the rule changes page with its date.

Independence

Verification is never for sale. No business can pay to be listed as dog-friendly, to change a fact, or to remove one. If we ever offer paid features to businesses, such as photos or booking links, they will be clearly labeled, links will carry rel="sponsored", and they will never affect a verified fact.

Service animals

Rules on this site describe pets. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, trained service animals are allowed in public areas even where pets are not. Misrepresenting a pet as a service animal is a misdemeanor in California (Penal Code 365.7).

Corrections

If what you find on site differs from what we show, the official source is the final word, and we want to know. Each page has a correction link once reporting opens at launch.