Just yesterday I read and commented on Dr. Patty Khuly’s blog about dogs and other service animals being allowed in restaurants and other food-related businesses. Then last night I saw a clip on a pair of true service dogs, Pong Pong and Wow Wow. These dogs were trained by their owner, Sun Chien, to push their custom-built shopping cart (along with money and a shopping list) down to the local market. 76-year old Sun has been unable to shop for himself since suffering from a stroke. Genius! Krieger and I definitely have some work to do before we hit Pathmark again.
I have brought Krieger with me to several venues that have a loose no-dogs-allowed policy. I say “loose” because there’s no sign saying “NO DOGS!” but conventional social etiquette probably says you shouldn’t bring your pet dog to the supermarket or local bar. Or to see Borat in a packed NYC movie theatre. A few things have allowed me to get away with this:
- I choose my battles. While it would be great to bring Krieger everywhere, I’m not one to cause a scene at a 5 star restaurant or other “nice” place. But if half the human patrons in a given venue are dirtier than my dog, I figure he deserves to be there as much as them.
- I act like we belong there.
- Krieger looks the part. He’s not a little foo foo dog -he’s a Belgian Malinois. Who in their right mind keeps a Malinois as a pet anyway? Most of them are protection, narcotics or service dogs.
- I’m still respectful of other people. I won’t bring him anywhere if he will cause a disturbance (I wish people with crying babies and misbehaved toddlers would follow my lead on this), and I will certainly leave if anyone expresses a true allergy or phobia.
For the most part, Krieger has felt welcomed everywhere I’ve brought him. I’m not exactly sure why more places aren’t dog friendly when a well-trained dog is clearly less intrusive, obstructive and destructive compared to a bratty kid (or hammered adult). While the kids are sneezing on the produce and puking up their formula in aisle 4, I can work on training Krieger to push the cart and swipe a debit card.
