ABSTRACTDog-walking promotes physical activity and positive social interactions, and thus dog-walking has implications for people's physical and mental health. As a result, experts in public health have endorsed designing and managing public space to support dog-walking. Nevertheless, the presence of dogs in public space is subject to negotiation and can be controversial. Generally, municipal governments or local councils exercise political jurisdiction over both dogs and public space. As a case study, we systematically collected and analyzed a local newspaper's portrayals of issues relating to dog-walking in public space. Our purpose was to understand how public and policy agendas were being represented by local media, during a period of time when local policies on dog ownership and dog-supportive public space were being reviewed and revised. The analysis involved three phases: 1) thematic content analysis, 2) issue framing analysis, and 3) policy analysis. Thematically, we found that social conflict pre...