NEW YORK — They’re skills any city dweller needs: Taking strangers and noisy streets in stride. Riding calmly in elevators. Hopping a cab or subway. And ignoring tempting food all around you.

Magneto, a 170-pound Leonberger dog, was out to show he could do all that as he sauntered along a crowded Manhattan street this past week. He waited patiently with owner Morgan Avila for a light to change, clambered in and out of a curbside car, and proved unfazed by a fallen McDonald’s bag and a hug from a passer-by.

Soon, Magneto was officially declared an “urban canine good citizen,” the American Kennel Club’s new title recognizing proper city-dog deportment.

“This ultimately will help the cause of dogs everywhere,” AKC training director Mary Burch says.

The test is debuting at a time when Americans are showing increasing interest in bringing dogs along in public settings. Some states have started allowing dogs on restaurant patios, and similar legislation is waiting to be sent to New York’s governor.

The AKC has offered a basic “canine good citizen” test for a quarter-century — more than 700,000 dogs have passed — and added a more advanced “community canine” title last year. The tests can be done at a dog show or training center, but the new urban exam unfolds in “a more practical real-world setting,” Burch said.

Open to both purebred and mixed-breed dogs, it’s no simple sit-and-stay challenge. The animals need to lie down and stay put for at least three minutes while their owner browses in a business or snacks at an outdoor eatery, for instance. About 500 of the estimated 70 million dogs nationwide have passed the test since its April launch.