St. Louis, Missouri -
Museum of the Dog

The American Kennel Club Dog Museum houses a fantastic collection of high quality, mostly traditional, paintings and sculptures of dogs as well as memorabilia from AKC shows in a beautiful Greek revival mansion situated in the 500+ acre Queeny Park southwest of St. Louis. And the best part is, well-behaved dogs on leashes are welcome inside this first-class museum! The grounds are beautiful and paved paths invite joggers, dog-walkers, and horses to enjoy the area. My pups and I discovered this gem on a trip from our home in Chicago to see The World's Largest Catsup Bottle. [Charlie Propsom, 05/29/2007]

[RA: Always listed in area travel guides, but sounded a little too serious and upscale -- though they used to let dogs roam the galleries. Noted in our old database, early 1990s: "Dogs no longer allowed inside, except in the community room. 'The problem is, we were having a lot of accidents on the carpeting. And even in the fall we were having fleas. You'd walk into a gallery, see a big wet spot, and go, 'Oh, great.'' Fleas would bite museum workers as they sat at their desks. Museum recarpeted. Community room is tiled." Problem eliminated, one way or another -- perhaps the whole place is tiled now?]