As pet parents, we are often looking for ways we can include our dogs in more of our lives. This can include taking them with us when we go shopping, traveling with them, and finding a dog friendly places to take them for socialization purposes. However, it seems that over the last few years. There are more places that are actually saying no to allowing dogs.
And we wanted to see if there was a reason for that. Obviously, there are people who have allergies and having dogs in that space can be a problem. However, I have actually noticed that there are less places that are dog friendly in my area than there used to be. And I was wondering why that might be. So I reached out to some experts to get their opinion.
I asked the experts why more stores and business businesses are saying no to dogs. And this is what they had to say.
Here's what some pet experts had to say about the shift to less dog friendly locations
The owner of Rescued By Training LLC, Kate LaSala, shared that "if businesses are cutting back on access, it’s likely due to bad experiences – untrained dogs being taken to places that are too overstimulating for them or people not being responsible by cleaning up dog waste."
Basically, it sounds like the decision to be less dog friendly is due to bad behavior. And I completely understand this. A few bad apples can easily spoil the bunch. This seems to be the case with dog friendly spots as well.
Another expert who answered this question for us was Annie-Mae Levy, a dog trainer and behaviorist with Woofz. According to Levy, "There are a couple theories as to why this is happening. Firstly there are tons more dogs around now than there were 10 years ago meaning that dog friendly locations probably see far more pets than ever before. With so many more animals around there are likely more present that are ‘behaving badly’ and causing problems.
We know for sure that dog reactivity is on the rise over the last few years and this could definitely be a factor in why business owners are closing there doors to dogs. Pets barking at one another or even at humans certainly doesn’t make for a peaceful consumer experience!"
Once again, this makes perfect sense as well because these places aren't really about the dogs, they are about people. So while it might be nice to bring our dogs to certain places, it is not necessary.
Honestly, as much as we might want more dog friendly places, we also need to remember that in order to have those spaces, we need to be responsible dog owners as well.