When I visited the Twin Cities a few weeks ago, I looked for dog-oriented local guidebooks at my favorite local bookstore and came away empty-handed. Curses, I thought, and I cursed again when Amazon too had no useful results to offer. All the cursing could have been avoided, however, if I had known then about Sidewalk Dog, which describes itself as “the go-to community guide to dog-friendly businesses, special events, stores, restaurants and travel opportunities in the Twin Cities area and for your most popular destinations beyond.”

It’s a great site, packed with useful information for dog lovers. If you’re visiting Minneapolis-St. Paul, you’ll especially appreciate Sidewalk Dog’s new interactive map, showing dog parks and dog-friendly restaurants. Check out, too, the Sidewalk Dog blog, which has some wonderful posts about dog-friendly restaurants, coffee shops and hotels, dog parks, and pet stores (and other topics too, but those are the ones I’ll use most as a visitor).