Dogs in stores: Your dog versus my kid (introducing, member, children)

[stormynh]

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

Lovely this thought process of dog owners is ridiculous.

Just pointing out that you best not let your children pull on little dogs ears......no offense. What would you think if I went up and started yanking on your child's ears?? Would you be OK with that?

[unihills]

Originally Posted by stormynh

Just pointing out that you best not let your children pull on little dogs ears......no offense. What would you think if I went up and started yanking on your child's ears?? Would you be OK with that?

That sounds much better than the way you framed your previous post.

[the minx]

Originally Posted by I love boots.

I don't advocate anyone kicking an animal, but seriously, how does a dog accidentally bite someone?

I think the point he/she is trying to make is that most dogs aren't out to bite someone. It is almost always exclusively the fault of the person bitten (and/or the parent).

A kid kicks a dog. The dog is probably going to react when it wouldn't otherwise. It's a defense mechanism, not an intentional, "I want to bite everyone's face off."

[veuvegirl]

Originally Posted by stormynh

Just pointing out that you best not let your children pull on little dogs ears......no offense. What would you think if I went up and started yanking on your child's ears?? Would you be OK with that?

Very different point. Of course I would never allow my child to harm an animal.

My son was attacked by a neighbor's dog several years ago. The dog was very friendly, the owners had children it had never been aggressive. We were at a party and my son was petting the dog. Suddenly the dog snapped and attacked my son, biting his cheek and ear. Thank God for a man who stepped between my son and the dog or it would have been much worse. Two months later that same dog bit the owner's daughter, 33 stitches in her face. Dogs are animals and cannot always be controlled.

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by tiredtired

OK, dogs in stores apparently is becoming the norm.

Problem is my daughter is deathly afraid of dogs. It's annoying to us as parents as we have to pick her up if there is a dog within 100', but now that she is getting bigger and soon will enter public school, it will become a problem if she doesn't outgrow this issue.

I've had two social issues that have been a little hard to handle "correctly".

Instance #1: On hiking trail, stopped at a hiker's break area with picnic tables. Daughter is sitting on top of picnic tables. Another hiker with dogs off leash approaches, and dogs get excited to see daughter and scamper up on top of picnic table. Daughter freaks out as she doesn't want dogs running toward her.

Instance #2: In store today. Dog enters store. Daughter gets nervous. Dog starts to bark at daughter.

How would you handle either of those two situations? Especially the dogs in stores situation.

Personally, I like dogs.


I've previously owned dogs and am currently looking at getting another dog.


Having said that, I have two pet peeves (please forgive the pun):


1) People who bring dogs into places that serve food and places of business, and


2) people who insist on traveling with their pets in the passenger compartments of public conveyances (Planes, trains, buses, etc.).


I understand the need for service animals and I'm cool with accommodating them.


However, there are many people who are severely allergic to pet dander, fur, etc. and honestly, it's not right to make humans suffer through allergic reactions or even risk their lives just to accommodate an animal (except service animals as previously stated).


I'm sure many of you are familiar with the 7-year-old boy whose family was removed from a flight because the boy had a severe allergic reaction to a passenger's dog (not a service animal) that was present in the cabin. The passenger was asked to move his dog to the cargo hold and refused, so the boy and his family had to leave the plane and change flights.


When did we, as a society, determine that the comfort or convenience of animals is tantamount to or greater than the comfort, health, and safety of human beings?

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

The simple and elegant solution is to not allow dogs in stores. What's more, we have done the allergy medicine route, as you blithely suggested. We are way beyond Zyrtec here, and well into a three-year program with regular inoculations. We have also learned that people with a similar degree of affliction as my daughter are not all that rare.

As I stated earlier, while people like my daughter need to go to the store as part of the normal conduct of their lives, there is no justification for you to take your dog into any store with the exception of PetCo. None.

Is this really that big an issue? I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen dogs in stores that weren't service dogs. There are no stores near me that allow dogs, there is a restaurant or 2 that allows dogs for outdoor dining only...what and where are all these stores that allow all these dogs that it's become such a big problem..can we have the names of the stores?

[veuvegirl]

Originally Posted by ocnjgirl

Is this really that big an issue? I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen dogs in stores that weren't service dogs. There are no stores near me that allow dogs, there is a restaurant or 2 that allows dogs for outdoor dining only...what and where are all these stores that allow all these dogs that it's become such a big problem..can we have the names of the stores?

There is a list a few pages back. Depending where you live I think it can be a bigger problem. When I was in NYC almost every store I walked into had dogs in it. I chalked it up to NYC.

[jjrose]

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

Lovely this thought process of dog owners is ridiculous.

I have had children run up to my leashed dog and try to pick them up. It is very easy to injure a small dog by picking them up incorrectly or dropping them. Why shouldn't I get upset when someone doesn't control their children around my controlled pet?

[badlander]

Originally Posted by phlinak

Personally, I like dogs.


I've previously owned dogs and am currently looking at getting another dog.


Having said that, I have two pet peeves (please forgive the pun):


1) People who bring dogs into places that serve food and places of business, and


2) people who insist on traveling with their pets in the passenger compartments of public conveyances (Planes, trains, buses, etc.).


I understand the need for service animals and I'm cool with accommodating them.


However, there are many people who are severely allergic to pet dander, fur, etc. and honestly, it's not right to make humans suffer through allergic reactions or even risk their lives just to accommodate an animal (except service animals as previously stated).


I'm sure many of you are familiar with the 7-year-old boy whose family was removed from a flight because the boy had a severe allergic reaction to a passenger's dog (not a service animal) that was present in the cabin. The passenger was asked to move his dog to the cargo hold and refused, so the boy and his family had to leave the plane and change flights.


When did we, as a society, determine that the comfort or convenience of animals is tantamount to or greater than the comfort, health, and safety of human beings?

Too many animals die in the cargo hold of an airplane. Our one puppy was flown to us on a three hour flight but I did not know how often death does occur and would unlikely ever put on in that postion again. The person with the dog bought a ticket that provided him the right to have his pet on the plane. Insteas of putting the dog in cargo the airline could have offered him a different flight or the child and his parent a different one. To say that because a child was allergic to the dog the dog HAD to go into cargo is taking away the customer rights of the dog owner. In that particular case it was the passenger's rights in both the parent and the dog owner and others do not get to decide whose rights count when it does not affect them.

In Europe it is more common to see dogs in resturants and bars then I have seen in North America. They seem to have worked it out. If it is not OK for animals to travel with people then the government or the companies should make it the policy to not allow that. If it is allowed then it is allowed. And if a person is allergic to a dog they would be allergic to a service dog too.

[thinkalot]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

You obviously don't understand the definition of self-centered. I am piping up to protect my daughter's health against a real and quite preventable threat. You just want to take your dog to Barnes & Noble as if it were a fashion accessory, like you're Zsa Zsa Gabor or something.

And, on behalf of all people who are allergic to dogs, absolutely ban pets from stores. Given that people who are allergic constitute roughly 20% of the population, it seems reasonable that we consider those people's health and comfort over your whimsies.

As for the service dog issue, they are such a tiny proportion of dogs that it's really not much of a sticking point. I think I've seen one service animal in the past year.

You keep bringing up 20% of the population. The ones that are allergic to the same degree as your daughter is probably under 1%. I know people allergic to dogs. They can play with dogs and pet dogs, they just can't be around them constantly or live with them.

The number of Service dogs are growing. You can't go to any major store such as a grocery store that hasn't had at least 1 service dog that day, maybe a dozen that day. I don't know where you live that you never see them.

Since dogs will never be banned from all stores no matter how much you complain or exaggerate the percentages you should start thinking of how your daughter will handle this growing up.