Excuse me, but I can’t help feeling that your tone and POV lean toward “all businesses should allow pets. Those that don’t are losing out on MY money-boycott those businesses that don’t allow dogs!”
If you need product X and the X store doesn’t allow dogs, are you saying with a straight face that you will not shop there? :dubious:
And you don’t know that it doesn’t bother anybody. I have shopped in Boulder several times in the past year (while traveling through-I was just there last week) and I wasn’t fond of dogs in the stores. Did I complain? No, but I was bothered by it. How many others just stay silent and Put Up With It? It may well be that Colorado has LESS respect for it’s humans.
What about service and repair men who come to your home? Sears has a policy that dogs must be secured away from the repair site. Do you not allow repairmen in if they insist on the dogs being put away? Do you see how silly your stance is?
Why do you not seem to understand that Fido is not welcome everywhere you are or everywhere YOU think Fido should be. Cope.
It is not, and has not been, my position that, “all businesses should allow pets.” I have reviewed this thread and I cannot find any post of mine which says that, or any variant of that. As I have stated repeatedly, the businesses have come to the conclusion, all on their own, whether or not to allow dogs into their store. Since I prefer to take my dogs with me, I would, naturally, prefer to shop at those stores which allow me to bring my dogs in. Other people can find many establishments which do not allow dogs, and everyone is happy.
“If you need product X and the X store doesn’t allow dogs, are you saying with a straight face that you will not shop there? :dubious:”
Wow. Just…wow.
If I should need to purchase a product, and the only place selling that product does not allow dogs, I have no problem going in and buying the product without my dogs. I do not have them with me every minute of every day. They stay home, or spend a few hours or so in daycare, or are looked after by someone. I like to take my dogs with me. They like to “meet & greet” people. People seem to like my dogs—at least, I get a lot of attention from strangers who can’t help themselves and want to pet and interact with them.
“And you don’t know that it doesn’t bother anybody.” No, I don’t. But, since there are other stores selling the same merchandise, if it bothers people, they can shop elsewhere, just as I do when there is no alternative store selling “X”. Again, it is up to the individual business whether they choose to allow dogs on the premises or not. I prefer to do business with those who welcome my dogs. Other people obviously prefer to do business with those who restrict access to only service dogs. To each their own. C’est la Vie.
[By the way, Boulder is actually a piece of alien territory transplanted to Earth. It is hard to generalize anything from what goes on in Boulder.]
“What about service and repair men who come to your home?” This could be a problem. Our dogs could possibly love them to death, so we always ask if they have a problem with dogs first. If they do, we have no issue with isolating the dogs outside, if the repair is inside, or vice-versa. Our dogs absolutely adore people coming to visit, whether they know them or not. They sit behind a child gate we put in the front door to greet Trick-or-Treaters every Halloween. We have a bag of dog treats we give to the kids to give to the dogs, and they just love it! (Kids and dogs, both.) Our dogs have no anxiety about people coming on the property, or ringing the bell, or coming inside. I just can’t conceive how this makes me “silly.” :rolleyes:
“Why do you not seem to understand that Fido is not welcome everywhere you are or everywhere YOU think Fido should be. Cope.” All I have ever said in this thread is that many, many places of business, and other venues such as Farmers’ Markets, Craft Shows and such, have a clearly stated policy that dogs are welcome. Other places do not have signage saying so, but still welcome our dogs. If they welcome my dogs, I tend to frequent their business, and spend my money, preferentially at such establishments, as is my right.
If my dogs are not welcome, I tend not to shop there, or otherwise interact with the business. I am not “boycotting” the business, or exhorting others to not shop there. I am exercising my rights as a free citizen to spend my own money at the places which most nearly fit with my lifestyle. And that lifestyle includes my beautiful dogs.
I cope just fine, thanks. You haven’t answered my question re what happens when a dog bites another customer in a store or vomits on the merchandise or pees on it etc? What happens if it’s one of YOUR “girls”? What then?
Where am I getting this? Perhaps from this post (and subsequent ones by you)
[QUOTE=DHMO]
It is not that I am questioning the honesty of such a person, but that, with about 350 million people in this country, a significant fraction of whom own one or more dogs, to aver, “I am afraid of dogs” and assert that nobody should bring their four-footed family out in public places because it disturbs them seems incredibly self-centered.
[/QUOTE]
And where has anyone in this thread (or in RL) ever made this claim? What people are saying is that dogs are not welcome in all public places at all times.
Where are these people and how do you know them, given your (excuse me while I gag here) “furry family”?
Yes, her complaint is unreasonable and her son needs help. I don’t see why you needed to put his terror in quotes. It’s dismissive and condescending. Have you ever had a phobia? Some day you may. Remember your smug dismissal.
But it’s your reply that set my teeth on edge.
Her fears may not be all that unfounded, really. Her son’s are certainly irrational–such is the nature of phobia. Have you ever seen a medium to large sized dog savage a child? I have. Not pretty-pretty much defines terrifying. It was not my child, btw. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. I don’t care how well you say you know your “girls”–you can never predict with 100% safety what an animal will do in a situation. You will say yes you can and they’re trained and yadadada, but you don’t know for sure. You can’t know. None of us can.
No, it is you with the distorted world view. Animals do not belong at every event and place that humans are. They just don’t. You will have to cope within these limits.
While they lose others. Such is the nature of the marketplace. Let us say that I hope “animals welcome” remains a minority view overall.
You said that you vote with your wallet–that’s your right and I have no issue with that. But your responses to others who have said that they do not want to see/ hear/be with your animals have been dismissive, snarky and narrow-minded, IMO. Just because you love these dogs does not mean that anyone will or should.
I know several people with a healthy, learned fear of dogs. You probably do, too. Or maybe not. It’s all too easy these days to insulate yourself from people who are not like you or don’t share your interests (this holds for everyone).
Semi-related topic: One of my pet peeves for people who have made a fetish out having a dog is this-- if a child gets bitten, it MUST be because of something the child did–that’s what “human pets” (it’s SO cute to refer to aspects of pet ownership in these ways!) say quite a bit when confronted with random dog attacks. “Oh, not Fido! He’d never! Your kid must have (fill in the blank).” The sad thing is that the dog is so attached to your (general you) ego that you’d rather blame the victim than the dog.
Sure, some kids will tease a dog; some do it not realizing they’re teasing; others aren’t doing anything at all, and yet the dog bites. Couple this with the mantra that dog lovers have of “never approach a strange dog without the owner’s ok”. Which sounds very wise and is wise, but when the dog is out and about in public or in a store–paths cross. Who is to say that the child approached the dog or the dog approached the child? “But my “girls” are on leashes and very well trained”. Sure–yours may be. :dubious: What about the others? Once you let dogs in, you’re letting in all dogs and all manner of owners. Have you thought about that at all?
Frankly, if I were a repairman, I would not want to be “loved” to death by any pet. If I were a visitor in your home, ditto. What you see as love, others can and do see as dog hair, slobber, loud noise and interference.
IOW, respect other people’s differences and don’t assume that your dog(s) is as welcome as you are everywhere you go. Wait–for you I should rephrase that: don’t feel entitled to take your dogs with you everywhere you go. This is not a difficult concept to understand.
Oredigger77, why not ask people BEFORE you bring the dogs to their house? You’re pretty much putting them on the spot? They may not want them to make an animal sit out in a truck all day. Call ahead and THEN if they allow it, bring them.
That’s not fair to your hosts, OR your dogs.
My dog is a cranky, snappish little thing. She’s getting worse as she gets older. I’d HAVE to have you leave your dogs in the car, because our dog would be royally pissed. (Yes, she’s been socialized. She’s been trained. She’s just extremely dominant) DHMO
Does your area do this with cats? They have those cat strollers, where you can put them in a little carrier with mesh over top and push them around. I think I’ll move to your area and push my cat around in stores. Why not? They’re so sweet and pretty and everyone LOVES kitties!!!
I would also imagine a restaurant could get in trouble with the local board of health if they allowed animals inside. Outside on the sidwalk, no big deal. But if you’re bringing them inside? Seriously, I can’t imagine an eating establishment allowing that.
BTW, do your bring your dogs to peoples’ houses without asking? Or if you do ask and they say no, do you decline their invitation? (Note: if you’ve addressed this already, I appologize. I looked over the thread, but couldn’t find it)
Tranquilis, I don’t think anyone’s talking about service animals. Service animals are obviously different.
Well what happens when a human vomits on merchandise or pees on the floor? You either throw out or clean the items depending on what it is. You think no one has ever been sick inside of a store before? I don’t know what point you’re trying to make by asking that question. If a business feels that it will attract more customers by allowing dogs, then they’ll allow dogs. Where I live, I’ve seen dogs inside of many places.
From reading the rest of your reply, you seem overly high strung about this.
People vomiting is a rarer occurrence than dog vomiting IME. I’ve never seen anyone urinate inside a store–whip down the pants and let loose in Aisle 5 to mark that last bathrobe as YOURS, as it were. If this is a common experience for you, please let us know which shops you frequent so that we can avoid them in future.
Sure, the lucky store staff just clean it up and move on. But there remains the other question: what happens when (not if, when) a dog bites another customer or a store worker? I’m sure you’ll come back with what happens when a human bites or injures a customer or worker. Thing is, human bites are much more rare than dog bites (and they are much more dangerous, but that’s another thread).
And none of this really matters, because we’re talking about a choice here. Stores have to allow humans in (although they can limit whom they serve: No Shirt, No Shoes etc) because that’s what they’re in business for. Pets (not service animals) are not necessary in a store. So what happens when Fido bites another customer? Is the store liable? Is the pet owner (and let’s all watch as he protests that his precious must have been provoked)? Or is the poor victim’s fault? It’s easy to see why most businesses don’t want animals in their establishments due to this liability alone.
I like most dogs; what I dislike is the current dog-worship that is common now. What gets up my nose is the assumption that all other people must be dog lovers, and the sense of entitlement that people like DHMO have that whither they goest, so goes their dog.
Think about it: why would you assume your dog was included in an invitation? Why should your pet be welcome in all stores in order to obtain your custom? :dubious:
Unfortunately, my daughter who’s completely non-verbal due to her autism and also developmentally delayed, is terrified of dogs. I wish she wasn’t but she is. When a large dog, friendly or not sticks his nose in her face, she may react badly. She might push your dog away, she might flap her hands, she might squeal and run, or do something new I am not prepared for.
As a result we try to not bring her to a lot of places where there are a lot of dogs. So, if a park or event specifically asks “no dogs allowed other than service animals” like they did at several of the autism walks we took part of, or other childrens events - please respect that request.
You mean like babies in diapers? :dubious: And before you say that babies don’t roll in their own poo, in 40+ years of owning multiple dogs, I have never seen one roll in it’s own poo. The rest of your post was more examples of you not know much if anything about dogs.
People, particularly young children, smell. Shedding isn’t limited to dogs either, particularly as our population ages. I don’t want to buy things with sticky fingerprints on them, but shit happens.
Says who? Family is what you make of it.
I really can’t believe many of the posts in here, the lack of tolerance, the bad information, the wild ideas (dogs vomit on the floor all the time? Really?) I use a service dog and of course don’t run into much trouble with that due to the laws. I also hear all the stories about people passing their dogs as service dogs and I really don’t care as long as the dog has manners. Any place that allows small children should be prepared to allow dogs - according to a girl that works in a pet store I frequent, the dogs are much less trouble and less destructive.
Just because you don’t like dogs doesn’t mean they should be kept locked away - we are losing too many rights as it is. If I have to put up with your screaming baby, you can put up with a dog. Afraid of dogs? Get help. Allergic to dogs? Get medication. We shouldn’t lose the right to go about with our dogs because you want the world to bend to your whims.
Agreed, if they are going to allow people to bring their babies who spew disgusting fluids and make noise, there is no excuse for turning away a well-behaved animal.
I think this is the first line of disconnect here - that you have any right to bring your dog anywhere except your own backyard or into your own vehicle. Some places allow people the privilege of bringing your dogs there.
[QUOTE=curlcoat]
Any place that allows small children should be prepared to allow dogs - according to a girl that works in a pet store I frequent, the dogs are much less trouble and less destructive.
[/quote]
Whether or not children are there really has nothing to do with whether or not dogs should be allowed. Children are human beings, and human beings shop in stores. Both kids and adults can damage merchandise, make messes, or cause problems. The cost of wear and tear by humans is a part of doing business and is factored into the cost of running a store or restaraunt or whatever. The addition of more sources of wear and tear or damage (eg., dogs), is going to cost the business owner more, even if you want to argue that the amount of wear or damage is not that great. It’s not like you’re trading kids for dogs, you’re adding dogs to the mix on top of all the people already present.
Now, a given business owner might decide that the cost of an additional source of damage or mess (and inevitable complaints by other customers) is outweighed by the benefit of happy animal owners who like to shop with their pets. That’s fair enough, but it’s far from a reasonable assuption that all shop owners who have kids in their stores should automatically also let dogs in. It’s also pretty obvious that the costs will be lower and the benefits greater in a pet store than in a food, furniture, or clothing store.
Contrary to popular belief, most small children do not projectile vomit outside of illness. They do not smell unless they’re in need of a diaper change, and once that’s accomplished they’re fine. And babies in diapers aren’t rolling in their waste with parts of their bodies that are then left unwashed to brush up against other people or objects. Have you people ever actually been in public with a human child?
While small children may make a mess, one thing that can be fairly well assured is that no toddler is going to bite a stranger and cause them significant harm. You can’t promise that about any dog. Unless the dog has no teeth.
I do not bring my dogs to people’s houses unless it’s clear people are okay with that, but otherwise we do bring our dogs pretty much anywhere we go.
I love being around dogs, I love taking a walk, exploring some are with my dogs, and as it’s been said by someone, they love to tag along wherever we go, they’re so easily pleased. So that’s why I/we bring them. It costs nothing to just make them hop in the car for some errands.
I’m French and many places of business allows dogs, even places that serves food or drinks, as long as your dog is well behaved.
I will keep the dogs in the car (or at home) if I’m at some place where there are small kids, or people who tell me or show that they’re afraid of dogs. or if I want to just unwind in public without having to constantly check where are the dogs if off-leashed, or if the dogs aren’t bothering someone/taking too much space/trying to get food out of someone.
It’s not all that common now for UK pubs to allow dogs. If they serve food they tend to be a bit more restrictive, I only know of a few local ones that allow dogs inside. My ex-housemate would insist on taking her appalling trained dogs everywhere, so I got to know which would allow them in.
I’ve had people insist they should be allowed to bring their dogs through (and even smuggle them in to) the wildlife park I used to work in, including the area that had free range animals. We were pretty sure that was what caused one of our mara to miscarry, as we caught the dog, off lead, chasing it. The owner had carried it over the fence after being told we couldn’t allow it in.
On a sillier note, when I worked in a grocers, one of the regulars had this weird idea that we would allow dogs if carried (apparently he saw someone carry out a teeny toy breed that we hadn’t noticed someone had brought in), so used to lug his massive great hairy beasty all around the shop. Was a very patient dog, and it looked so hilarious that we didn’t bother telling him it wasn’t allowed for ages. Most people were fairly understanding, for a start, we had a pastry cabinet with the lower shelf at dog height…
really? you took my post seriously? really? really? wow. I don’t want to get warned (or start a thread in the Pit) so I will not say anything else.:rolleyes:
Thankfully most of the Lake District ones, even that serve food, let you take your dog in. Would make walks and holidays there awkward if you couldn’t!
Meh - my dog has never barfed on me (or anyone else for that matter). My son barfs on pretty well everyone he meets. Well, not so much anymore but a few months ago, for sure.
Would I go to a place that had a ‘Please bring in your dog!’ sign? You bet! Would I choose it over a different store, selling similar goods with a no-dog policy? Probably. Would you, as a non dog person, be free to go to the store with the no-dog policy? Of course. So I really don’t understand what you’re getting all worked up about.
If you don’t like dogs in stores, go to stores that don’t allow dogs. I, who likes dogs in stores, will go to stores that do.
Why on earth someone would rant in repeated posts about this is beyond me.
That being said, I would never bring my dog to someone’s house unless he was specifically invited. And he’s a good dog and does get invited to a number of places we visit. When he’s not invited he stays home and works on his novel.
I suppose most country ones do, since movin’ t’Big City (from Cumbria) I haven’t been to so many of them. If you’re in a town of any size, odds are it’s no dogs.
