You’ve decided to take your new family member (canine) to visit a dog-friendly business—a pub! I ask how you’ve made that choice. You answer, “Neither one of us has ever been there and it seemed like something we could do for fun. It’s our first week together.”
I don’t know a great deal about you or your new dog, but I do know enough to encourage you to reconsider those immediate plans. You’ve known each other for a week or less—choosing where you go together should take more thought! What you and your new dog experience in the first weeks of your relationship sets the tone for all your tomorrows.
Photo by Jessica Theisen de Gonzalez
First of all, disqualify any business to which you have never been. Go first, without the dog, to check the business out.
* Think about how you feel when you get there, this place that’s new to you. Safe, welcomed, comfortable?
* Now think about what your new dog might feel on that first visit. You don’t know that the dog is okay with loud noises; you don’t know that the dog is okay with close quarters. You don’t know that a “dog-friendly” pub is really a wise choice for your “first date” with your pup.
Don’t throw him in the water to find out if he can swim! It’s unfair and unwise to overwhelm your new dog with new experiences over which you (and the dog!) have little or no control.
Instead, scope out the place you’re hoping to take him, then devise a plan to introduce your dog—in tiny increments that you can arrange and control—to the new experiences you might both encounter there … before you go.
* If you can, take with you on your first or another dog-less visit a friend or a family member who’s old enough to be helpful. Explain what you hope to accomplish—the humans (you included) put themselves in the brain of your new dog to preview what he might see, hear, smell, feel, and be surprised by in such a very new-to-the-dog environment.
* Observe and ask questions of staffers there who seem approachable (without interfering with their work). Your reconnaissance visit should benefit them if it results in your becoming a well-informed “regular” at the business.
* If you’re comfortable with approaching other customers, especially those who have dogs with them, introduce yourself to the humans, explaining why you’re asking for their advice. You might hear some useful information—that there are good times for visits, like when it’s usually uncrowded, quiet, calm—or even that there might be bad times you’ll want to avoid, when it’s often rowdy, packed with people.
* Later, you and your helper/s can discuss what you all think. Could this business eventually be a good experience for you and the new dog to have together?
Then start your to-do list: What should you work on with the dog before that first visit?
As an example: the question of getting to the business. Will you and the new dog walk to a business in your neighborhood, or will you drive the two of you to a business across town?
* Has your new dog experienced car rides so far only as stressful?
Change that if you can! For your homework: put the dog in the car, let the dog right out; drive the dog around the block, go right back home … get past the potentially unpleasant parts of car rides (for you and for the dog)—throwing up, diarrhea, panting, whining—before you take the new dog on a car ride to some place you hope will be a pleasant experience for you both.
Don’t rush the process. Be patient!
(Are you frustrated because car issues are taking too long to solve? Ask your veterinarian for some help; medication might be worth a try.)
* You’re going to walk to the business, not drive?
Your new dog seems okay with walking, but … what about all the other new experiences he might encounter just entering a new environment like the pub? Going in the doors, going out the doors … stairs, hallways, substrates (flooring and other surfaces under the dog’s feet). How you can introduce your new dog to many variations of these situations while assuring that the dog’s experiences are positive?
Again, be patient … and use your imagination! Friends, family, neighbors—they all have doors, stairs, flooring. How will you find opportunities near home to acclimate your new dog positively to what could become daily realities in your lives?
* Many other issues should be considered before a visit to even a dog-friendly business. Noise is only one example. Think about that pub you’re interested in visiting. Amplified music, bursts of laughter, raucous cheers for the sports on TV. At home, you can familiarize the dog with the pub version of loud-music noise by using your own sound system’s volume control with care. Start out very quietly, amp up slowly … until your new dog comes to accept loud music as non-threatening, maybe even pleasant to the animal.
Is that asking too much—of you or of your dog? Then maybe don’t take your new dog to the pub!
Enjoy every single minute of the next ten years or more you have with this new dog. Every experience you have together is so important. Don’t be in such a hurry to rush the dog into “adult” situations when neither of you is yet fully prepared to face the consequences. Setting your dog up for success builds the dog’s skills and his confidence in you and in himself.
Enroll in an excellent positive training class appropriate to your new dog’s age and history. This is an extremely important choice for you to make at the beginning of this relationship, offering you and the dog guidance and a structure on which to build a lifetime’s education.
Don’t miss that opportunity, please. You and your dog deserve the best!
Safety Rules For Dogs In Dog-Friendly Businesses
No communal water bowls (leave a bowl and water from home in your car).
No flexible/retractable leashes; no long lines (a six-foot leash is appropriate).
No choke, prong, or e-collars (a collar with ID tags should be worn for safety).
In Your Pocket/s (or in a fanny pack or treat bag)
Multiple plastic bags
Disinfectant wipes
Paper towels
Drool towel/s
Clicker, treats, etc.
Be prepared to clean up whatever messes you or your dog make.
