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Dogs Should Be Welcome Everywhere

A mini-manifesto (with dog pictures)

Joining a yoga class in Puglia. There were two other dogs there as well.

Lately, I’ve noticed a backlash on social media, with many complaining that people have begun “bringing their dogs everywhere” in the United States.

“Why can’t you just leave your dog at home?” they demand to know.

Sir, what happened to you? is what I want to ask. What darkness lives in your heart that makes seeing the most perfect creature in existence in a coffee shop upsetting to you?

I’d like to know how the presence of a dog infringes on their social experience. There are often claims that dogs are unclean or disruptive, but I think they have confused dogs with babies and small children, who we very much welcome into our public spaces, as we should. Dogs are far less likely to scream at the top of their lungs or give you the flu, for example.

But the part I find so galling is that the United States is generally not very hospitable to dogs, so to issue this sort of complaint is to be bothered by the rare establishment that opens their doors (and hearts) to our furry family members.

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In Washington, DC, where I’ve lived for the last decade, there is hardly anywhere you can bring a dog indoors unless it is a service dog. There was a lovely coffee shop that I used to visit regularly precisely because I was able to bring Lucy with me and where the staff there fawned over her. She clearly brightened their day as much as seeing them was a treat for her. Then, one day, I arrived to find a huge sign saying dogs were no longer allowed.

A customer (or customers) had obviously complained even though Lucy always stuck by my side and was as quiet as a mouse the entire time (she’s also hypoallergenic). There were usually other dogs there, too, so the complaints might have been about them, but I never saw them do anything to interfere with another customer.

This outcry and the hostile sign on the door of my former favorite coffee shop could not be more starkly different from what I’ve encountered in Italy, where I have been able to take Lucy nearly everywhere.¹

My husband and I have shopped in Venice in high-end stores with Lucy in tow and pushed her in a special dog-friendly shopping cart at the supermarket in Puglia. She has sat my my side as I meet with vendors helping with my renovation. Lucy has over the years accompanied us to coffee shops and restaurants all over the north and south of Italy. She has joined me for yoga, eaten gelato inside a gelato shop as the workers adored her, and enjoyed a group lunch by the sea.

Lucy having gelato for her 5th bday, in a supermarket, dining at a fancy restaurant in Martina Franca, hanging out in a coffee shop (all in Puglia)

It’s not just that she is allowed in these places—she is greeted with smiles, cooing, and scratches behind the ear. She’s been given her own seat or special pillow at multiple Michelin star restaurants. She is rarely the only dog in these places. And the dogs are uniformly well-behaved because Italians are community-conscious and don’t want their good time to come at the expense of anyone else’s.

To answer the question posed by the dog haters, the reason people want to bring their dog places feels obvious: dogs are the embodiment of joy and kindness and everything good in the world, and who doesn’t want that energy around?

But just as importantly, people bring their dogs places because they love their dogs and know that it can be very stressful for dogs to be alone. They know how much joy it brings these sweet little beings to spend some time with their human and meet other humans—yes, even those who don’t want them there.

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I have not been to every town in Italy so I can’t speak for every square inch of the country. But I have traveled to many regions where Lucy has been welcomed nearly everywhere.

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