Should Dogs Be Allowed in Restaurants

My first inclination says no and for this reason – because not all dogs are trained. I mean, sure I would consider taking Puppy with me to eat here and there, but I would never take Titus because at the moment he is too reactive and just too young. Puppy is calm, patient, and largely just doesn’t care. She’s uninterested in having all of the attention on her and when she is confronted with masses of people, she simply plops down somewhere and relaxes. Titus, on the other hand, feels the need to greet everyone or things just aren’t going to work out. He could be walked for five hours, but if he sees a person, he will feel obligated to pull their attention to him. It is a curse of the breed, hehe.

Now, this is just the problem with my dogs – which are minor and fixable if I desired to take them into restaurants (but I actually enjoy a break from them, to be quite honest). As far as other people’s dogs, how many times have we gone on a walk with our dog and seen someone’s small little creature go just about ballistic when our dog passes by? Or say your dog is trying to pee and they just so happen to show interest in greeting another dog and that other dog’s owner looks at you like you’re satan for dogs behaving like dogs?

I think allowing dogs in restaurants is a liability for dog owners and restaurant owners – it is one reason why I am also largely skeptical of taking my dogs to dog parks when there are more than just a couple dogs there. I approve of dog socialization but the majority of dog owners don’t understand dog behavior enough to put their pets in that position. First, taking your dog into a restaurant is a liability because your attention isn’t focused on the dog, it is focused on eating. What if some little child comes up to pet your dog and you know your dog doesn’t like children? Or your dog doesn’t mind children, but the child tries to poke the dog in the eye? Then either you hurt some child’s feelings, or the dog hurts some child’s fingers. Either way, you suddenly look like a bad dog owner even though the child is harming your dog.

Second – store owners. How are you going to regulate safe-behavior dogs versus violent ones? Is the owner just going to have to sign a waiver saying that their dog isn’t violent? Because – well, people lie and people don’t know what violent really is. Sure the some dogs may not have ever bitten someone, but growling at a child or another dog without being provoked falls under violent, while if your dog growls at another dog that is annoying it, that does not fall under violence.

As much as I enjoy the company of my dogs, I think it’s safer that dogs are not allowed inside restaurants (but outside them at the little tables is okay – if you are paying accurate attention to your dog). I wouldn’t take my dogs even if it was allowed, to be honest.

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