No dogs allowed?

I love the looks on people’s faces when they see my dog Andrew sitting on my lap during an airplane trip. It’s so much fun to watch the double takes and stares we get when he struts down the concourse on our way to the boarding gate.

And there’s nothing like the surprise we get when the hotel elevator door opens and the person inside sees Andrew is the guest patiently waiting to get on!

The truth is, even before his celebrity status, Andrew accompanied my husband and me on many trips, and not only him, but our Dalmatian Tucker and some of my other dogs as well. Like many who show dogs, taking our dogs with us on trips and finding pet friendly accommodations has been par for the course.

We’ve frequently seized the opportunity to take at least one or more of our dogs with us on vacations as well. Why not? They’re part of our family. Why shouldn’t they enjoy time away from home too?

At one point we’d calculated that Tucker had been to 20 of the 50 states. That’s pretty impressive for a dog.

All in all, for me a trip just seems more fun when you have a dog with you.

Nowadays there are many more dog-friendly establishments than there used to be. In fact, when I’m booking a reservation and am told of a “no dogs allowed” policy, that’s an open invitation for me to give the hotel administration a little wakeup call of my own just to tell them how archaic they are.

Most of the high end hotels are pet friendly, and I’m talking the Ritz Carltons, Hiltons, Loews, Westins, Sheratons, Marriotts and even the Trump Hotels. So it’s pretty ridiculous when lodgings barely fit for humans have the nerve to snub pets!

In Europe, dogs have been allowed in public places for decades, without any major problems. I visited Holland, Denmark and Belgium during the early 90s and loved seeing dogs lying under the tables in restaurants. It gave me just the “doggy fix” I needed on my dogless excursions.

And dogs weren’t only present in restaurants, but in supermarkets, riding on public transportation, and of course in the bars and pubs! Someone had to be the designated driver, right?

If it’s okay for Europe, why have we in the U.S. refused to do as the Romans do? Here, most state and local health codes still prohibit dogs from entering any public places where food is served, with service and assistance dogs being the only exceptions.

Some restaurants even have the audacity to prohibit dogs from sitting with their people in the outside seating areas! Now this is just a travesty! What on earth could they possibly be thinking a dog can ruin outside the restaurant?

If anything a dog can add ambiance to a restaurant and give it a warm, welcoming feel.

If it has worked so well in Europe all these years, why are we still resistant? In my mind, there just aren’t any valid reasons for a hotel, restaurant, public transportation, or any other establishment to have completely non-negotiable, no dogs allowed policies.

There are reasons the no-dogs-allowed Gestapo will give for prohibiting dogs, but I can quash those one by one:

1) To protect people with allergies - People who are allergic to dogs are usually allergic to the dander from the fur, and dander can just as likely be carried on the clothes of someone who lives with a dog or cat.

If the person sitting next to you, or your waiter or waitress has dog or cat fur on their clothes, if you’re allergic, you could be just as affected as if the dog was sitting right there. There is just no way to really escape pet dander in the environment. It’s almost always present at some level.

2) Dogs can carry parasites and diseases - Yes, dogs can carry parasites and diseases - that they can pass on to each other, not humans! While zoonotic illness and infections do exist, the incidence and risk of transmission is extremely low, far too low for it to be a valid concern. And most zoonotic illness and infections are not life threatening.

We are much more likely to catch a life threatening illness from another human than from a dog or a cat. Ask any pre-school teacher and he or she will confirm that the toddler sitting next to you who is coughing and sneezing and running his little hand all over the seat covers is a much more likely host of yeastie beasties we can catch!

Today, therapy dogs with proper immunizations are allowed in nursing homes and hospitals, inarguably the most sterile environments there are.

3) Dogs are unclean - Okay, this one may be somewhat valid. Sure, dogs can be unclean. But so can humans! We don’t really know (or want to know) how often anyone else bathes. Let’s face it, deodorants, cologne and perfumes can cover up a lot.

However, for this concern I can only say that the people who love their dogs enough to want to eat out with them are likely people who take the best care of their dogs. These are the people who make sure their dogs have the proper immunizations, clean up their dogs’ waste, and make sure their dogs stay clean and free of parasites.

And lastly,

4) Dogs are a nuisance - Again, I’ll have to cite the above. The people who travel with their dogs on a regular basis are more likely to be the responsible pet owners who’ve taken the time to properly train their dogs to be good canine citizens.

I’ll never forget Andrew and my first trip to Los Angeles. Unfortunately one of the passengers was a very unhappy pre-schooler who we all listened to whine and cry for most of the 5 ½ hour trip. When the plane finally landed at LAX and I reached into his carrier to let Andrew out, the passenger sitting next to us said, “there was a dog in there the entire time?”

That was priceless! I’m sure that passenger will be an advocate for dogs in public places for the rest of her days! Our work was done.

Good boy, Andrew!

Stafford resident Laurie Williams appeared on the CBS reality show "Greatest American Dog" with her dog Andrew.