Puppies In Training – Not Always Welcome. And That’s Okay.

Puppies in training occupy a grey zone that is not well covered by clear laws and store policies.

At Heeling Assistants, we encourage our clients to bring their puppies into stores where dogs are generally welcomed – places like Winners/Homesense, Chapters/Indigo, most hardware stores like Canadian Tire and so on.

Once the puppies can meet a basic standard of behaviour – generally level 2 in our curriculum – clients may begin to request access to more exclusive locations.

But what do you do when stores don’t want our puppies in their dog friendly store… because they are service dogs in training?

Well… nothing.

But it is as rare as it is disappointing. I can count on my fingers the number of times our dogs in training have been shooed from a public place where they had the right to be.

Today, however, was a truly rare day.

We were turned away twice.

We love taking our pups in training – with at least one adult “chaperone/role model” service dog – on shopping outings to pet friendly stores.

Chapters Pinetree Village is a popular location with our clients. It’s pretty quiet first thing on a Sunday morning, and it is basically impossible to escape without an armload of books and cute book-related merchandise.

We generally go at 10:30 in the morning, and we try to avoid days when they have events listed on the Indigo website. We hang out near the back and spread out as people shop.

Today Pinetree Village didn’t have anything listed on indigo.ca. 

Our one adult dog and three pups were met at the door by the manager, though,  who politely requested that we only visit Chapters at pre-arranged times on weekdays, and not on weekends.

It’s ruff when a dog friendly store turns away people with disabilities and their dogs in training, BUT we have a strict policy with our clients that they leave without argument whenever asked to vacate a store.

Every service dog and service dog in training is an ambassador for all of the others out there, and creating a negative impression with business owners makes life harder for all other service dog users.

We didn’t particularly mind being ejected into a beautiful sunny day, but our clients and their kids were disappointed not to be able to go book shopping after all.

So we walked over to Starbucks Pinetree Village.

Everyone went in for coffees and “pup cups” (whipped cream in a cup which dogs go nuts for!).

We did not take the dogs inside, not even the adult role model service dog.

We do not permit puppies in training to enter places where dogs are not generally welcome, since they are not yet at service dog standard.

The outdoor tables had no chairs, so we asked for some and were given permission to bring some outside. However, we were then approached by an employee who apologized for the mistake and said that the chairs must go inside, because their inside customers needed them.

We asked where we could sit, in that case? She replied that she preferred we leave because it wasn’t “appropriate” for us to be there. She was quite clear that this was because we were a group of service dogs in training and not just regular customers with dogs. Our sign announcing their status was part of the problem.

Keep in mind, we were Starbucks customers drinking Starbucks beverages and eating Starbucks food. We just happened to also be training service dog puppies.

This was beginning to feel a bit ridiculous. We weren’t a zoo, after all. We had three quiet puppies lying in the shade under the tables and a half-asleep golden retriever adult dog.

If a puppy class can’t enjoy a drink in peace outside of a Starbucks, were can we go?

Well, not outside of the Marble Slab in Pinetree Village either, apparently. We asked formal permission this time and were denied. Again, we didn’t want to bring the puppies in, we just wanted to exist nearby.

So we found some space in the shade and stood around drinking coffees and not eating ice cream.

As frustrating as this all was, it the kind of thing we just have to accept with good grace.

When it comes to puppies in training, we create a grey area that is confusing to store employees who are just trying to do their jobs and protect their place of work.

I have obviously reached out to Starbucks and Chapters corporate to get clarification on their policies, to know whether we were in the wrong, but ultimately, in the moment, it didn’t matter.

This is just the sort of thing one has to be okay with happening sometimes when one is training service dogs. Uncertified pups who are still learning don’t have legal access rights in the same way a working service dog does.

For some reason, this seems to give people the impression that it is okay to shoo us away even when we are training in places where regular pet dogs – possibly less well behaved –  would be tolerated.

Most days, though, and most places we go, people are positive and accommodating.

Today… just wasn’t one of those days.