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showAuth({"version":"1.0","encoding":"UTF-8","entry":{"xmlns":"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom","xmlns$blogger":"http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008","xmlns$georss":"http://www.georss.org/georss","xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","xmlns$thr":"http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0","id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-708938817000327103.post-8760284482970910246"},"published":{"$t":"2015-11-07T09:43:00.000+10:30"},"updated":{"$t":"2015-11-08T09:43:13.926+10:30"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Columns"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Dogs allowed in shops? That's not so barking mad"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Mbf0efCokRs\/Vj6FQT-lVHI\/AAAAAAAACpk\/41sOOqMIwCc\/s1600\/Capture.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"324\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Mbf0efCokRs\/Vj6FQT-lVHI\/AAAAAAAACpk\/41sOOqMIwCc\/s400\/Capture.JPG\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\nIF you’re reading this, congratulations. You’re alive! You survived the end times!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nFor those who are unaware, it happened on Thursday. You’re forgiven if you didn’t know about it; there weren’t any horsemen or plagues or anything like that to herald the occasion.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nOnly Bunnings, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/news\/victoria\/bunnings-warehouse-to-allow-pets-in-its-stores\/news-story\/db45a8de764864230c9b847edb692784\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eannouncing that from now on it’s going to allow dogs into its stores\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nI know it doesn’t sound like much of an apocalypse, but going by the reaction on advertiser.com.au that’s how people were greeting the news.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“OMG, this is the most stupid idea that I’ve ever heard of,” wrote Dave, who possibly needs to get out more.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“Bunnings is no longer a safe shopping environment!” wailed Mia.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“We will never go to Bunnings again!” gasped David.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“Can I bring my pet elephant, gorilla and lion with me next time I shop at Bunnings?” wrote someone called “Dragon”, in what I think was meant to be an attempt at comedy. (Although frankly, it’s possible that someone with the name “Dragon” might actually own a gorilla, so maybe it was a genuine question).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThen there were the scores of commenters all pledging a new allegiance to Mitre 10. (Poor old Masters, its main rival introduces a dog policy and they still can’t pick up the overflow).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMost of the angry comments seemed to focus on hypothetical negatives:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“Dogs running up and down the aisles, just what we need!”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“What about the loud barking?”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“Who is going to pick up the mess?”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWhich is funny, because you know what you do see regularly tearing up the aisles at Bunnings, being loud and making a mess? Children. And I haven’t seen any outcry about them being allowed to wander free among the potting mixes.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWhen I lived in New York a few years ago, I was amazed at the places people would bring their dogs — into supermarkets, cafes, pubs, the post office. Not just amazed at the fact that they were doing it, but that no one else ever minded.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nHaving grown up in Australia, the land of “we’re heaps laid back — except don’t do that mate, or that, and you can’t do that unless you’ve got a permit”, this felt like some sort of thrilling social anarchism.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPeople acting sensibly with their well-behaved dogs, and other people just being totally cool with it. It’s as if everyone was being treated like ... I dunno, responsible adults. WHAT STRANGE SYSTEM OF LIVING IS THIS?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBecause here’s the thing about allowing dogs into shops like Bunnings: it’s actually not that big a deal. It doesn’t mean that dog owners are all going to rush to bring their pets there.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIt’s not like we all heard Thursday’s news and thought: “Finally, now we can fulfil our desires by taking our dogs to Bunnings to let them poo freely in the hooks and hinges aisle and maul small children!”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWhat it does mean is that people who, for whatever reason, need to buy hardware while in possession of a dog can now do so without worrying about them frying in a locked car, or barking at people while tied up alone outside.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAnd, as per what is often referred to as “common sense”, such people will need to have their dog on a leash and under effective control in order to bring them inside.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIn my experience, people with untrained, uncontrollable dogs tend not to take them out to crowded public places; I can’t imagine it would be much fun trying to get an unruly Fido to heel while measuring out lengths of two-by-four.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nSo I say good on Bunnings, and I hope other businesses follow their lead. Pun fully intended.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n---\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003EFirst published in The Advertiser, November 7, 2015. \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.adelaidenow.com.au\/news\/opinion\/petra-starke-who-let-the-dogs-out-this-ideas-not-so-barking-mad\/story-fni6unxq-1227598956058\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECLICK HERE\u003C\/a\u003E to read the original article\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/708938817000327103\/posts\/default\/8760284482970910246"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/708938817000327103\/posts\/default\/8760284482970910246"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.petrastarke.com\/2015\/11\/dogs-allowed-in-shops-thats-not-so.html","title":"Dogs allowed in shops? That's not so barking mad"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"petstarr"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09455921983611787867"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjHw-A2jLGqT8RwSHGuBf3ee9SG0jkW-khCmY1n6f0EUdd0-cbukkcvO5uOooFYedyM5gR901vE6a7S2ImLskBGhjI7p9cN9J79yr-RXwmpB9DIMWlEqAYCRE0D0z8hKw\/s220\/headshot-sm.JPG"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Mbf0efCokRs\/Vj6FQT-lVHI\/AAAAAAAACpk\/41sOOqMIwCc\/s72-c\/Capture.JPG","height":"72","width":"72"}}});