To think The Range has made a stupid decision

@melonhead , I agree I have two children with autism , who are both scared of dogs .

My friend has multiple severe allergies and has an epipen to use in emergencies. If we go for a walk we have a coffee stop in a local cafe we know and trust not to be dog friendly. She can’t travel on public transport because the risk is too high that earlier some inconsiderate idiot has allowed their dog to sit on the seats . It’s not an annoyance for her it’s a possible life threatening emergency as her allergies can trigger anaphylactic shock.

So now it looks like her life will be even more restricted if she has to check in advance which shops are dog friendly. She can’t risk being in a shop and having to pass in close proximity to a dog.

As someone who is scared of dogs, I can guarantee I'll never go into a Range again. Just the thought that there might be a dog when I'm trying to buy something puts me right off.

Toddlers wear nappies to keep their shit and piss contained. Perhaps shop dogs must have nappies to go inside ?

It wouldn't be so bad having dogs in all these places if people trained their dogs to ensure they were well behaved and kept them on a close lead. Unfortunately an awful lot of people don't bother, just let their dogs do what ever they like and just laugh or ignore them when they're doing something they shouldn't.

We were in a coffee shop a while back with a dog that just barked and barked, the owners did nothing, who wants to listen to that while they're trying to relax with a coffee? We actually went there because we had a dog with us ourselves (so nothing against dogs) but we would only take a well behaved dog. If she had started barking or being a nuisance we'd have taken her out.

@Ilama

You are missing out! The range has a huge range of things from useful household items (think the sort of things Woolworths sold, eg light bulbs, diy, gardening supplies, craft materials, toys) to decor ideal to brighten up homes (think first homes perhaps), furniture and fittings like mirrors, soft furnishings. Affordable things for normal people. The sheer snobbery is unbelievable if you haven't been. And they have an excellent pets section and their Christmas range is always great

Solution: carry a couple of large bottles of water with you, to pour over the dog piss so to at least dilute the filth and foul stench.

You’re welcome.

As a lucky recipient of a service dog, it's also the case that other dogs in shops makes it harder for the service dog to work. Service dogs are trained to focus, but they're not robots, and being sniffed and jumped on by pet dogs "being friendly" isn't helpful.

Agree with this.

They do!

😂😂😂

@AngeloMysterioso

Plenty of dogs in churches, some cathedrals even have "canine vergers" to greet visitors. Don't have an issue with it myself. My ddog was the unofficial guard dog for my previous church (I worked there) as a key holder I attended the burglar alarm etc and I would take him too, came in handy as it was usually drug addicted homeless trying to get into the hall to sleep

That's awful! They should have payed the full £29 per scarf!!

It's The Range, don't they all have a pet shop in-store? In which case they're competing with Pets At Home, and it's usually direct competition as the two stores are frequently fairly close by each other.

But I also wonder if the broader acceptance of dogs (which as a dog owner I'm not seeing a huge amount of in retail) is in part heading off the problem of "WTF do we do about all these emotional support animals?". They're popping up everywhere. They're not recognised assistance dogs in law, but the sort of people that have them tend to be a bit vegan-ish in making a very big deal about them.

I quite like the Range - was in there last week with DD picking up stationery for going back to uni as they have so much more choice than anywhere else locally. Also have recently bought picture frames in there, and crockery sets/mugs again for student daughter.

What I would say though is that despite the stores being massive, they do like to pile the random tat in the aisles so that in order to get to the stationery at one end of the store you have to navigate past the weird crystal flashy pumpkins and the 6 foot fall chef Santa. There's barely room for humans to pass, never mind dogs.

Dogs do not need to go the The Range, or John Lewis, or any of the other places which are "dog friendly" to accommodate the feckless owners who can't train their precious furbabies to be left alone. Big shopping centre in Glasgow went "dog friendly" and had to reverse their policy after 4 months because these devoted pet-parents couldn't stop their animals shitting everywhere.

In my experience most (CofE) churches allow dogs these days

I saw a woman shopping in Tesco yesterday with a small dog in a baby sling 😳

I’ve never understood why people take their dogs shopping

Amused to see this thread this morning..... arrived home late last night from a holiday in the UK, and spent part of the journey chatting about this. We were totally gob smacked by the insane number of dogs trotting in and out of shops, pubs and restaurants with their meek owners in tow on leads. Just couldn't believe my eyes. I realized after a while that the rooms we stayed in hotels and self catering houses had almost certainly had people using them who allowed dogs on the soft furnishings and beds. I like dogs but don't believe their rights trump my right as a human to enjoy my downtime with other humans only. Ridiculous trying to get by in busy tourist areas without tripping over entangled leads and yapping owners who think firm commands are a language they don't have to learn. I presume kennels have gone out of business with this new trend? Anyway, as a visitor to the UK, I wouldn't be in a rush to return unless I had to!

I love dogs and do take him to places like pets at home and our local cafe that is always full of dogs. But I wouldn't take him to the range tbh. He would probably try and run off with a cushion as he is still in that crazy puppy stage.

I live in a small market town where most shops allow dogs in. If a shop is dog friendly then they put a dog water bowl outside. I take my dog into town with me, he loves it.

We do :-)

The range would be better off putting public loos in their shops if they want to increase customers/sales.

I don't actually mind dogs in shops, despite not being a dog owner. But I don't think sales assistants should have to clean up dog poo/wee if dog has an accident. So I think it's a bad policy. And people with allergies will just stop going, which kind of defeats the purpose since they are hoping to increase sales.

there were senseless idiots @Mummyoflittledragon

Don’t they? I was in pets at home a couple of years ago. A couple came in with a rescue dog they’d just picked up, a large staffy. Didn’t think to take the dog for even a wee before going in. The dog pissed everywhere, mammoth amounts and in 3 different spots. Senseless idiots didn’t even think to take the dog to wee outside after the first massive puddle.