If you were painting in a park, presumably dogs were allowed (and even expected) there. If the owner has him off leash he was a jerk, especially if he wasn’t even attentive enough to stop bad behavior. But that’s a different issue than dogs being allowed in stores and such.
@MotherOfDragons, you did nothing wrong! Your safety was paramount, not whether an ill-behaved/ill-trained dog ingested something harmful (law of natural consequences).
[quote]
Explain to me, though, why one needs to take them everywhere?
Do you think most people’s dogs are sufficiently well trained? Or as well trained as most of their owners think they are?[/.quote] There is no good explanation, other than people are taking others less and less into consideration. There are so many ill-behaved dogs. And ill-behaved children!
@MotherOfDragons’s point is well-taken: if you take your dog somewhere not intended for dogs, be it airport, store, restaurant, or someone else’s blanket at the park, and your dog gets into something he shouldn’t (e.g. toxic paint), that’s on you, and not the person whose whatever-it-was the dog got into.
There seems to be an assumption that if I love my dog, everyone else will also . . . and everyone else will also go out of their way to protect my dog from harm. (Yes, we will likely try to protect your child, but not all of us feel the same way you do about your dog!)
Just to clarify,
Service Dogs are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act in the US and are granted complete and total public access.
Emotional Support Animals do not have any legal status and are only granted access on airplanes and in any housing (pet-friendly or not).
NEITHER is allowed to be off-leash in public unless it interferes with the service dog’s ability to perform its job.
^^^ I think that was covered pretty adequately 10 months ago when this thread was active.