Pet Visits & Dog Walks in Saddlebrook Resort, Wesley Chapel, FL

Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel, FL 33543: A 480-acre golf and tennis resort on SR 54 in Wesley Chapel, open since 1981 and rebuilt under Mast Capital's $92 million renovation, where the lodging is 556 individually owned condominium units, most of them in the resort's own rental pool. Owners here tend to bring a dog for a week or a season rather than keep one year-round, so the work is walks and company for a visiting dog, at sunrise and after 7 p.m. in summer, inside whatever pet rules the resort sets for your building. We are just down Bruce B. Downs in New Tampa, and Wesley Chapel is where most of our visits are.

A pet visit here is a full 30 or 60 minutes: out, fed, watered, walked, played with, and a photo sent before we leave. In summer the walks are at sunrise and after 7 p.m., because the pavement on a Wesley Chapel, FL sidewalk at 2 p.m. in July is too hot for paws, and in the rainy season the storms come through between 3 and 6 in the afternoon, so afternoon visits are timed around them. A midday visit in summer is a shaded potty break and fresh water, not a long walk. The community trails give the 60-minute visit somewhere to go.

Saddlebrook is a working resort: guests check in at the front desk, the Walking Village is car-free with valet parking, and the resort's site does not publish an access procedure for owners' visitors. We arrange access with you and the resort before the first visit and confirm it at the meet and greet. The main amenity is ticketed and open to the public, so we can go there with your family, and you buy the passes. Saddlebrook empties out for stretches of the year, which is what home watch and pet overnights are for.