Best places to walk your dog in Leeds

Great Places to Walk Your Dog in Leeds

Leeds is one of the best cities in the North for dog lovers — packed with parks, woodland trails, and scenic routes that are ideal for everything from recall training to relaxed strolls. Whether you’ve got a boisterous puppy or a reactive rescue, there’s a walk here to suit every dog and training need.

As a professional dog trainer working across Leeds, Harrogate, Bradford, and throughout West Yorkshire, I regularly recommend these local walks to help my clients build calm, confident dogs in real-world environments.

🌳 1. Roundhay Park

One of the largest city parks in Europe, Roundhay is perfect for dogs of all ages and energy levels. With wide-open spaces, woodland trails, lakeside paths and plenty of room to train off-lead (in safe areas), it’s a top choice.

Trainer Tip: Use the quieter, wooded trails to practise recall and distraction training without the busyness of the main field.

🐾 2. Meanwood Valley Trail

This lovely green corridor stretches all the way from Woodhouse Ridge out to Golden Acre Park, giving you miles of walking with changing scenery. It’s ideal for reactive or easily distracted dogs — a mix of nature and variety, without the chaos of inner-city traffic.

🌲 3. Golden Acre Park

Set on the outskirts of Leeds, Golden Acre is a dog-friendly haven with formal gardens, wooded trails, and even a dog-friendly café nearby. It’s a great spot for leash work, “place” training, and polite socialisation with other dogs.

🚶 4. Temple Newsam

With 1500 acres of parkland, woodland, and open fields, Temple Newsam offers tons of space to work on structured walking, engagement around distractions, and long-line recall. It’s also got quieter spots for nervous or reactive dogs.

🏞 5. Eccup Reservoir

This scenic route combines calm water views with wide trails and farmland surroundings. Less crowded than central parks, it’s a good spot to work on focus, confidence, and off-lead practice — especially with more sensitive or high-drive breeds.

🐶 Final Thoughts from Jack

Leeds is full of great dog-walking spots — but with the right approach, every walk becomes more than just exercise. It’s a chance to build calmness, focus, and trust in real-world settings.

If you're based in Leeds or the surrounding areas and want help with anything from lead walking to behavioural issues, I’d love to support you.

I’m Jack — your local dog trainer at Northern K9 Company. Whether you're in Headingley, Roundhay, Moortown or Morley, I offer personalised 1-to-1 training to help you and your dog thrive.

Get in touch With Jack

Let me know how me and the team can help with your dog's training and I will personally respond with an email, text message or I will arrange a phone call. Even if you just need some simple advice I'm happy to help.

why should you Get in touch?

Hi, i'm jack, I treat every dog I train like my own. I seriously do, I love all dogs regardless of their breed or history. Every training session is a lesson learnt for both me and your dog, I try make every session as fun as possible, Although I believe in pack leadership I don't believe in showing dogs "who is boss" I believe in showing dogs that I am pretty cool to hang around with, and feeling safe in my presence which is why I also try to make every session an adventure for us both. One of my favourite things about this job is seeing how exited dogs get when they see me. Dogs really are Angels sent from heaven.