I used to take a dog or multiple dogs to the bank, and they jumped up and put their paws on the counter to get their treats. The tellers laughed and took turns patting them and stuffing more treats into their mouths. Now if I take a dog into the bank I get shocked or hostile stares.

What happened? I used to take my dogs everywhere and people would smile and ask to pat them. Now I am told they are not allowed. Not allowed in banks, schools, lumber stores or office buildings.

I took my puppy out to socialize and saw a group of children with their teachers waiting for a bus. “Jackpot,” I thought. “What could be more perfect?” When I walked my puppy toward them, the teachers told the kids to stand back. I assured them the puppy was friendly and they told me they couldn’t let the kids touch the puppy “in case something happened.”

A friend of mine has received a letter from her children’s school asking parents not to walk their dogs to school with their kids “because some people are afraid of dogs.” I used to bring the dogs into the school to pick up my son, then suddenly I couldn’t anymore “because of allergies.” What they all really mean is that they are worried somebody is going to be bitten and they don’t want a lawsuit.

The tipping point seems to have been the media frenzy over “pit bulls” that resulted in the Ontario Government banning them. Suddenly, everybody started assuring anyone who would listen that “All dogs can bite, not just one breed.” Now people equate all dogs with the frightening images plastered all over the media. In an effort to be fair and reasonable, we unwittingly imparted the idea that all dogs are dangerous.

Segregation
The pet industry is growing by leaps and bounds and dogs are more popular than ever. There are more dog toys, dog coats, dog beds and dog magazines than ever before. There are more products to pamper and cater to special needs, and yet a simple walk down the street is becoming a thing of the past. Dogs are depicted in ads selling everything from phones to cars and if advertising were real life, dogs would be everywhere. Yet real dogs are stuck in cars and walked in segregated parks. Designated areas for dogs to play seems like a grand idea, except now dogs are fenced away even more, becoming a kind of zoo exhibit seen from afar.

Kids and dogs used to be inseparable. Now we routinely warn people not to leave children alone with dogs. What happened? Most dogs don’t bite, even with good reason, so why is it so important to tell every school child to view any dog as if it were going to bite? If your only experience of dogs is media coverage of rare dog-bite incidents, and the literature about dog-bite prevention put out by well-meaning educators, is it any wonder that distrust of dogs is epidemic?

Like human teenagers, dogs are judged by the actions of a few high-profile bad apples. The more distrust there is of dogs, the more dogs are barred from public places and the less likely it is for people to see well-mannered dogs not bothering anybody, much less attacking them.

Responsible owners have been obeying the laws and keeping their dogs from bothering others. We keep stepping back and apologizing for bothering anyone, instead of demanding a fairer deal. A dog bit somebody, but it wasn’t my dog and it wasn’t your dog and it wasn’t any one of your friend’s dogs, so why are we apologizing? Dogs that walk to school with the kids and go shopping with the family learn the behaviour expected under those circumstances. Dogs unused to being out in public may behave inappropriately – they may bark or jump and cause a fuss – but even then they probably won’t bite anybody.

Initiatives such as the Canine Good Neighbour program and RDOG Day (Responsible Dog Ownership Groups) are a start in the effort to keep dogs as members of the community instead of barred from participation. In our increasingly sanitized and controlled society, it’s in all our best interests to be proactive in keeping our well-behaved dogs out there in public. Even though fear is a good way of getting somebody to pay attention, perhaps we could teach people the proper way to greet and handle a dog by telling them it is kind and respectful and the dog will like it, instead of saying that otherwise they risk being bitten.

Naomi Kane is a CGN evaluator, writer and breeder of Leonbergers and Italian Greyhounds under the Lewenhart prefix. She lives just outside Toronto with her canine and human family.

Illustration: Sylvia Nickerson

(Originally appeared in our April 2009 issue.)