The Dog-Eared Index
“This counts what exists; it doesn't know your dog.”
The index is arithmetic over verified conditions. Every component is a countable fact with a citable source: a share of venues, a count of legal water-entry points, a drive time, a code section. No component is opinion, review sentiment, or a venue score — venues never receive a scalar on this site.
Structure
Nine components in four pillars. Each component scores 0–100 against the absolute bands below — never percentiles, so a score means the same thing for the first town scored and the hundredth. The composite is the weighted sum, displayed as an integer out of 100.
| Pillar | Component | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | Patio share | 15 |
| Hospitality | Indoor welcome | 5 |
| Hospitality | Lodging share | 10 |
| Access | Water access | 15 |
| Access | Trail access | 12 |
| Access | Off-leash space | 8 |
| Rules | Ordinance regime | 15 |
| Practical | Emergency vet | 10 |
| Practical | Heat risk | 10 |
| Hospitality 30 · Access 35 · Rules 15 · Practical 20 | Total | 100 |
A town's composite publishes only when at least 7 of 9 components carry verified data. At 7–8, weights renormalize over the available components and the score is labeled provisional. Missing data stays missing — nothing is imputed.
Components and bands
Patio share weight 15
Measures: % of food/drink venues. Computed live from published venue records on every change — never hand-entered.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≥ 50% | 100 |
| 35–49% | 80 |
| 25–34% | 60 |
| 15–24% | 40 |
| 5–14% | 20 |
| < 5% | 0 |
Indoor welcome weight 5
Measures: % of retail/taproom venues. Computed live from published venue records on every change — never hand-entered.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≥ 25% | 100 |
| 15–24% | 75 |
| 8–14% | 50 |
| 3–7% | 25 |
| < 3% | 0 |
Lodging share weight 10
Measures: % of lodging properties. Computed live from published venue records on every change — never hand-entered.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≥ 60% | 100 |
| 45–59% | 80 |
| 30–44% | 60 |
| 15–29% | 40 |
| 5–14% | 20 |
| < 5% | 0 |
Water access weight 15
Measures: legal dog water-entry points, 15-min isochrone.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≥ 3 points, year-round | 100 |
| ≥ 3 seasonal, or 2 year-round | 80 |
| 2 seasonal, or 1 year-round | 60 |
| 1 seasonal | 40 |
| Legal wading/bank access only (no swim point) | 20 |
| None | 0 |
Trail access weight 12
Measures: dog-allowed trail miles, 15-min isochrone.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≥ 100 | 100 |
| 50–99 | 85 |
| 25–49 | 70 |
| 10–24 | 50 |
| 3–9 | 30 |
| 1–2 | 15 |
| < 1 | 0 |
Off-leash space weight 8
Measures: designated off-leash acreage.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≥ 20 acres, or any designated off-leash beach | 100 |
| 5–19.9 acres | 75 |
| 1–4.9 acres | 50 |
| Fenced run under 1 acre | 25 |
| None | 0 |
Ordinance regime weight 15
Measures: points (base 50, floor 0, cap 100).
| Modifier | Points |
|---|---|
| Base | 50 |
| Patio dining explicitly permitted by state or local rule | +20 |
| Any voice-control / off-leash-under-command areas in code | +15 |
| No shoreline dog ban at the primary shoreline, or a designated dog beach exists | +15 |
| Seasonal ban at the primary shoreline | -10 |
| Year-round ban at the primary shoreline | -25 |
| Breed-specific legislation in force | -40 |
Emergency vet weight 10
Measures: minutes to nearest 24/7 or after-hours ER vet.
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≤ 15 | 100 |
| 16–30 | 80 |
| 31–45 | 60 |
| 46–60 | 40 |
| 61–90 | 20 |
| > 90 | 0 |
Heat risk weight 10
Measures: days/year with normal high ≥ 90°F (NOAA 1991–2020).
| Value | Score |
|---|---|
| ≤ 5 | 100 |
| 6–15 | 85 |
| 16–30 | 70 |
| 31–60 | 50 |
| 61–100 | 30 |
| > 100 | 10 |
Excluded on principle
Review sentiment, staff friendliness, venue quality, fee levels, "vibe," anything scraped without a citable source, and any venue-level scalar. A future component enters the index only if it can be phrased as "count of X per published rule Y."
Independence
Advertising and affiliate relationships exist at the venue layer of this site. No index component measures venues individually, so no venue relationship can move a town's score.
Versioning
Bands and weights are frozen as index-v1. Any
change bumps the version and every published town recomputes, so
cross-town comparisons are always same-version.
Changelog
index-v1— initial bands and weights.
Data
2 towns have a published index. Component values for every published town: dog-eared-index.csv