Taking a child scared of dogs into a dog friendly coffee shop

[KimberleyClark]

DH and went to a local dog friendly coffee shop this afternoon with our neighbour’s two dogs, a golden retriever and a terrier cross who are staying with us for a few days while their owner is away. At a nearby table there was a father with his little girl of five or six who was obviously very scared of the dogs, who are both sweet natured and were just minding their own business and not wandering about or anything. When we got up to leave the little girl ran away into a corner. I suppose he might have been trying to acclimatise her, but if he was he wasn’t going the right way about it, having a chat with us, asking the dogs’ names etc might have been better. AIBU to think that if you know your child is that scared of dogs,a dog friendly cafe is not the best place to take them?

Why would I be addressing you in haven't quoted your post or tagged you so obviously im talking to op

Don’t do it. Children that young are only scared of dogs from behaviour they’ve seen from their parents. It’s funny how toddlers who grew up with pets from birth aren’t normally scared

Honestly the pearl clutching from the ‘dogs are everywhere’ crowd is such an overreaction. With the extra info in this post, regarding the cafe actively encouraging dogs it’s the dad that’s BU to take a scared child to a dog cafe, and if he was trying to acclimatise/expose her to dogs he should’ve been supporting her, talking to her and making sure she sat still and that he was between her and the dogs etc.

YANBU, but that is up to the dad to deal with really in whatever way he sees fit. Maybe for now he was just trying to get his daughter used to being in the same room as dogs. He could be planning on talking to the owners next time. Who knows.

He did indeed sound beautiful.
My mum has a very gentle black greyhound. She has had kids come up to pet him, and the parents were taken aback as they said their child was terrified of dogs. He must have something about him. Even dogs that are scared of other dogs feel safe around him. I

You are probably more likely to get sick from the food served to you, than a random dog. A minute of google searching has come up with some "reassuring" figures...Less than 10% of owners get sick from their dog. 0.5 cases of Capnocytophaga sepsis per million might be from a dog licking their face. Probably zero chance of illness if you are passing a dog in a cafe. On the other hand 40-60% of food poisoning cases come from restaurants & cafes.
Also, it's not so easy to be able to sit outside when it's not so popular here in semi rural north Scotland. It's cold 10months of the year, rains all 12mths and is proper windy most days! There are a lot of walkers around here that have dogs. Some tourists also can't/not allowed to leave their dog in their accommodation alone so have to come along.

And parents who take their child to cafes also aren’t doing anything wrong. Just because somewhere accepts dogs, doesn’t mean it’s purely for dog owners. Taking a retriever into a cafe is ridiculous.

And yet come the winter time when it's throwing it down, and 2 degrees outside, Costa is completely empty bar the slow trickle of dog walkers stopping by on their walk to get a hot drink to warm up.

Would you rather they close for the day because the business just isn't there from October to March?

Not a single dog owner has said that dog friendly cafes are just for them. Someone taking a do into a dog friendly cafe is doing nothing wrong.

Dogs like company a lot more than your average poster based on these threads.

Not as many as some posters like to think there are.

And even the dog friendly places are not overrun with dogs.

Very true

How the father is parenting his child is not your business. Her reaction didn’t cause you a lot of inconvenience.

I love dog people. They're just so wise and blunt.

I think dog people can’t make human friends. Dogs aren’t discerning when it comes to personality

That is shite. Many people who have dogs have kids and lots of friends.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Taking a retriever (that’s big, hairy, dribbles and food motivated) into a cafe isn’t a sensible thing to do. Yes, the cafe has said yes to dogs but common sense should still prevail. In the same way as you wouldn’t want a Great Dane in a cafe.

Im looking forward to the time when cafes stop accepting animals, which I’m confident will happen at some point.

I 100% agree that misbehaving dogs should not be in cafes but I also think misbehaving kids should stay home, too. I will die on this hill.

Oh, that cliched old line 🙄
The cafe OP was in is part of a chain that welcomes dogs and raises money for Guide Dogs. How big are guide dogs?... retriever size, maybe 😉

Yeah. Good luck with that when businesses are seeing significant boost to their profits by becoming dog friendly.

One of the most incredible, sweeping generalisations I’ve ever come across 😆. Wow.

Do you not understand the training guide dogs undertake? Are you really so simple to compare guide dogs with random retrievers?

I wouldnt necessarily be aware if a place was dog friendly, like today, when i ended up in a cafe with my toddler, which was filled with dogs. I love dogs but some people dont and you dont know if theyve had bad experiences in the past. Not everyone is a responsible dog owner so judging the dad by his reaction seems a bit harsh.

Coffi Lab's raison d'etre is being a place you can get a decent coffee and being dog friendly. Moaning about finding a dog in coffi lab is like moaning there's a child in soft play 😂