Is Your Dog Ready for the California's New Law AB1965?
Dog Friendly Cypress Inn Carmel California
Californians may soon be dining out with more doggies than they can shake a tail at.
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law a bill making it perfectly legal to bring your dog out to dinner with you.
Here's the fine print: the dog must remain in an outdoor-dining section, be on a leash, behave, and not be in the same area where food is being prepared.
Sponsors of the original bill, AB 1965, argued that while outdated state laws made it illegal to do so, many restaurants already chose to allow dogs on their patios. A number of county health departments around California had also approved rules allowing individual restaurants to decide whether or not to allow dogs on patios.
David Cohn, president of the Cohn Restaurant Group, said many of the chain's eateries with patios already provide water bowls for dogs and he doesn't expect the new law to have much impact.
"We think it's wonderful," he said. "We do find that in our neighborhood restaurants, we get a lot of people who want to sit on the patio with their dogs and we're fine with that - we encourage it."
The new law overturns a prohibition on pets at restaurants and allows the practice at the discretion of the business. But it also allows cities and counties to still impose local restrictions on dogs dining out.
Among the law's conditions are that pet owners must keep their dogs on a leash or in a carrier and can't let them sit on chairs or tables. Restaurants will be required to have separate outdoor entrances to the patio so the critters won't be marched through indoor dining rooms.
Sources: San Jose Mercury News & U-T San Diego
Is your dog ready?
It is of course best to start early. If you have a puppy start taking him/her everywhere with you. Start at places like Starbucks or Pete's. They almost always have outdoor seating. Get your puppy used to seeing people and other dogs and start teaching him basic commands when at these places.
If you have an older dog or a rescue you need to start with basis obedience first. The two must commands are "down/stay" and "sit/stay". If you have a reactive dog it may take the help of a professional to get you to the stage of taking your dog to a restaurant.
Make sure your dog is ready to go to a public cafe before actually doing it. Don't just show up and hope things go well. It might be a very embarrassing outing for you and a traumatic experience for your dog.
Prepare your dog by first proofing your obedience in outdoor places with distractions then trying short outings to small out door seating areas like Starbucks. Practice your sit/stays and down/stays with mild distractions at first then start increasing the distraction level.
Two New Nosework Classes Starting Soon
Buddy Earning NW1 Title 2014
6 Week Classes:
Saturday March 14 - April 18 10 AM to 12 PM.
Limit 4 Dogs
Cost: $225 per dog and handler Returning Students $195
Location: San Leandro
Wednesday March 4 - April 15 (skip April 8)
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Limit 4 Dogs
Cost: $225 per dog and handler Returning Students $195 Location: San Leandro
The class is open to both beginners and intermediate dogs will be geared to getting dogs and handlers ready for Nose Work competition.
The class is structured for pet dogs but is based on the same training techniques and methods used for police and military sniffer dogs.
For more information and sign-up click on this link: Nosework Class
Sunday February 15th Lake Temescal Wednesday February 18th San Leandro Marina Sunday March 1st Lake Temescal Wednesday March 4th San Leandro Marina Sunday March 15th Lake Temescal Wednesday March 18th San Leandro Marina
You can now access the Class schedule from your mobile device by going to www.dogsquad.biz and clicking on the calendar icon in the upper right side column.
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