Dog friendly? What would you do?

Hear, hear

I'd have gone home too. I guess it was their way of saying you should not have taken your dog. How nasty of them though.

Riggie

I'd have gone home too. I guess it was their way of saying you should not have taken your dog. How nasty of them though.

No, just that bringing her dog shouldn’t mean that the OP could then dictate whether other people should eat.

Equally “nasty” of her to think she should be able to do that don’t you think?

I would have gone home! To eat alone when it is perfectly feasible to eat together is an absolute no no and you cannot leave a dog tied up outside. Miserable bunch! You are far better off with your dog!

I would have gone straight home too, really unpleasant of them to exclude you this way. Wouldn't be rushing to see them again.

Amalegra

I would have gone home! To eat alone when it is perfectly feasible to eat together is an absolute no no and you cannot leave a dog tied up outside. Miserable bunch! You are far better off with your dog!

By perfectly feasible do you mean the people who didn’t want to eat with dogs in the Conservatory (which was everyone except one person) should have just put up with it so that one person could have her way.

Feasible but is that a reasonable thing to expect. That everyone else should give way to you?

Equally “nasty” of her to think she should be able to do that don’t you think?

Not at all Lathyrus. As the OP has said, several people in the group have taken their dogs on previous occasions, so she was just following precedent. If someone had then decided the group was to become dog free it should have been communicated to everyone before the outing, not by excluding someone on the day.

Just as an aside really but in rural areas I find most places are either happy to admit a dog or have a designated dog friendly area. Perhaps it's because so many of us walk our dogs then go for lunch or an early supper and we tend not to be fair weather walkers. We are made very welcome as I think we constitute an important share of their customers. We went to a rather up market Brasserie in a city near to us recently for Sunday lunch and although we didn't take our dog, there were other people there in the main area with dogs happily sitting at their feet or under the table. I've never seen a dog misbehaving and certainly wouldn't tolerate my dog doing anything that would annoy customers or staff. As I said up thread, the main problem I have is asking people not to interact with him without my permission and I am shocked at how many parents think it's OK to let their children pet a strange dog, it is definitely not OK. However, as others have already said, I don't think this thread is about "dogs" it's about how you treat friends.

I don’t think anybody objected to her taking her dog. She didn’t say that. Just that they wanted to eat in the restaurant and she thought they should eat in the a conservatory because she had brought her dog.

Perhaps if other people had taken their dogs they would have also taken the car as the OP said she had thought of doing. She decided not to and expected everyone to fall in with her decision.

She just didn’t think about what other people might want at all. Only about what would suit her. And then she(and a lot of posters) think they should just have said whatever you want Grannyrose, never mind about anyone else.

Try if you can to take the dog out of it. Should one person dictate what a whole group does, just to get what they want?

Where is GrannyRose15?
Please come back so we have answers to the questions...

Definitely 3 and seriously reconsider my choice of friends. I would feel very hurt

We need to know if your friends knew and agreed to you taking your dog in advance. If so they were not being considerate nor inclusive. However if you just brought the dog along it was for you to accept other people don’t necessarily let their pets rule their life. You did the right thing by leaving either way..

The OP could have avoided all this by simply taking her car for the dog as she thought of doing and then rejected the idea.

In a group where she knew some people but not others, she could not have known that everyone would be happy to eat with dogs.

To me, taking the car would have been showing the friendly consideration for others that many posters have called for from the rest of the group.

Don’t you think it should work both ways?

I am totally with Lathyrus

I wish the dog could speak and tell us his side of the story! ?

Another proof that dogs are better than people!

My one question no one has answered is
Did the big group realise she wasn’t with them at the restaurant or did they not miss her then maybe when they did realise they just presumed that she hadn’t come in with them ???

It could be a simple mix up and not the nastiness you have all jumped to presume

Fernhillnana

Another proof that dogs are better than people!

I'm a dog lover, but really - in the circumstances a dog out with other dogs would have gone wherever the food was and been happy . The comparison makes no sense.

Anyway, I agree with Lathyrus and Glorianny too, except that I would probably have sat with the OP, even if I felt a bit put out about the situation.

Remember that the 3 options are only the ones put forward by the OP - there were other options that we haven't been given:
1. Check before the walk if the dog was welcome.
2. Ask if other people were happy to eat amongst dogs in the conservatory.
3. Take the car so there was an option to put the dog in it if the conservatory was too full, or if the others didn't want to eat there.

As it is, the choices are presented as having been either
1 Risking the dog being stolen or howling throughout and running the lunch.
2 Eating with other dog owners, away from those in the party who hadn't brought their dogs.
3 Making the others feel bad by leaving, without (presumably) being assertive and asking if anyone wanted to sit in the conservatory with the OP.

As option 1 is unviable, we are left with either eating in the area set aside for dog owners, or behaving rather rudely by leaving unannounced, assuming that there is not more to the story than we have been told.

I see no compromise at all from the OP. It's all about her feelings and her desire to have the dog there, and for the others to put her feelings first and sit in an area where there would, presumably, be not only her dog, but others too. Not everyone would want to do that, which seems to me, as a dog lover, fair enough.

I was thinking about your question...Has anyone been in contact since to find out where she went to...was she ok? If not then I stand by my original comment...ex friends and onto pastures new and friendly to dogs and humans....

Joseanne

I wish the dog could speak and tell us his side of the story! ?

?

I expect he wanted to go home ?

Big big 3.

BlueBelle several of us have asked questions but no replies as yet.

Lathyrus, you keep saying the OP thought everyone should eat in the Conservatory because she wanted to eat with her dog. I haven't seen that. In the original post she explains the facts and merely asks what we would do.

To all those posters saying why doesn't she go out with a dog walking group instead, well this is a group where her dogs and other dogs have been welcomed previously - it is a dog walking group.

The OP has made it clear that if she goes out with the group again she will check all the arrangements and make provision for the dog either at home or in the car if her pet isn't welcome/permitted.

She sounds like a perfectly reasonable person to me.

Interesting to hear people's opinions of dogs in eating areas. A pub isn't a pub to me if dogs can't come in. Many happy memories of lively, cosy pubs with several dogs sprawled in front of an open fire. Lovely.

Ok , you’re right, she hasn’t actually said I expected them all to do what I wanted. She does sound rather miffed that they didn’t though, in a passive aggressive sort of way.

And she’s had plenty of support, which is what I guess she was looking for.

People love their dogs more than they love human friends. Me, I love my friends and family. But I don’t bring them along when Im out for a meal with friends and expect everyone to eat in Pizza Hut because thats what they like?

"Friends decided to eat in restaurant area even though they knew I couldn't bring my dog in with me."
This is the sentence that says it all, I think from that it is pretty obvious OP expected everyone to eat where the dog was welcome. However she does say she hardly knew some of the walkers, therefore it would have been better to check them out before attending with the dog. Dog lovers cannot take for granted that everyone is comfortable around dogs.