by Louise Nilon

Created on: August 28, 2010

Firstly let me state for the record that I am unequivocally a dog lover. I have a dog and I love him very much, I look after him, feed him, walk him, spoil him rotten and even take him on holiday with me. This doesn't however mean I want to have candlelit dinners with him at fancy restaurants.

A restaurant is a place for dining out, with a loved one, family or even alone. It is not a place where your pet pooch can sit at a table with you and enjoy the dining experience. I'm not sure why someone would want to take their dog to a restaurant with them, I imagine it would be a boring experience for the dog and a stressful one for the owner. Additionally, to take your dog to a restaurant would no doubt spoil the dining experience of other, non dog-lovers eating there and could cause even more problems for those diners with allergies.

Another reason why dogs should not be allowed in restaurants is hygiene. Restaurants should be clean places to eat where food is prepared and served without risk of contamination. Regardless of how much you love your dog it is likely that he is not the cleanest of animals. No-one wants dog hairs in their food, least of all someone else's dog hair!

Moreover how civilised is your dog? Will he sit, well-behaved at your feet while you eat your meal happily? Or is he more likely to get bored and whine or try to wander off looking hungrily at other diners until he gets some food?  My dog, if he didn't get bored and start staring at other diners would undoubtedly commit the most revolting of faux pas and start to lick himself inappropriately in the middle of the restaurant. This is what dogs do, they have no concept of the social etiquette of dining in a restaurant, to a dog one room is just like any other.

Even if a restaurant was opened specifically for dog owners I could see this being a highly stressful experience. Dogs don't always get on, most likely mine would take umbridge with the next table's Akita and we'd have World War Three with dog food and soup of the day flying all over!

My view is that the only dogs that should be allowed in restaurants are guide dogs for the blind and working dogs for the disabled. These have a genuine purpose for being there rather than some over-attached owner just wanting to share Beef Wellington with their little chihuahua.

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