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business question?

4K views 82 replies 48 participants last post by  C.K. 
#1 · (Edited)
since the day i opened in 2001 i have always had my dog in my shop. Our last pooch was a rottweiler and was a great dog, real nice and friendly. she died in fall 2008 and since then i have had my new rott puppy in the shop alot.

she is now 10 months old and also a real big baby, super nice, super loving.

over the course of almost 9 years i have only had a few uncomfortable customers that were not very fond of dogs.

today however was a different story. a lady walks into the shop and wants to sell me a first-aid cabinet to hang up in the shop. before she can even start the sales pitch my pooch comes into the waiting room and greets her as she does with all my customers. this lady flips out saying its illegal to have a dog in a business and she could call the cops on me. haha i laughed my ass off at her.

next i had a choice on how to handle this.

1st choice was to put the dog in my office and get the lady to leave politely

2nd choice was to call her names and tell her to remove herself from my waiting room with out the polite voice.
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my question is how would you have handled this situation and why?
 
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#50 ·
I don't know how your front office is setup, so I don't know what I would do for the future. Probably set it up so the dog and I stay on the back of a counter with a half door or something to let the dog and I around front, or people back into your office.

Not everyone loves dogs, and it sucks to drive customers away because of that. I'm indifferent to dogs unless I'm dressed decent and they are jumping on me, or they are always underfoot.

As far as that lady. I would have laughed, said "see you later!", then laughed my ass off with everyone else when she was gone.
 
#53 ·
IDK, to me having a dog in the shop is kind of like one of the comforts of going to a ma and pa type shop. People seem to think the owners are stupid. "Yea, I got this rott, things got a temper like a raging bull. Always biting kids and ladies. Oh well, guess I'll bring it to work and see what happens." Like any business owner would bring their dog to work knowing it had some fukced up temperment. There is a good year by my house (independently owned) that has a dog, I go there all the time. Its almost like a dog makes the place more wholesome or honest feeling. Shit I've even been to tow yards and junkyards with dogs that are supposed to be "protection", I dont ever recall one of those guard dogs being agro?
I would have challenged the lady to a foot race with the dog:sonicjay:
Oh, and fwiw I do not have a dog currently.
 
#59 ·
......People seem to think the owners are stupid. "Yea, I got this rott, things got a temper like a raging bull. Always biting kids and ladies. Oh well, guess I'll bring it to work and see what happens." Like any business owner would bring their dog to work knowing it had some fukced up temperment. ......
You bet some are that stupid! I worked at a place where the owners son brought his German Shepard to the office. It bit a few employees (one woman on two separate occasions), the bottled water guy and at least two salesmen. Maybe more. Scared the shit out of many others. Some of the bites were hard enough to draw blood.


For a business, especially where there are walk in customers, having a free roaming dog(s) is a bit unprofessional and disrespectful to both the customers and the employees. Regardless of how safe the owner knows his dog is, anyone not familiar with the animal does not know that. It forces them into a position where they have to make a snap judgment about their own safety. The bigger and stronger the dog the more concern the customer may have. And since every dog is not 100% predictable 100% of the time there is some risk even with the most docile animal. Plus the dog is an extension of its owner’s ego so any negativity towards the animal becomes an insult to the dog’s owner. That opens up another can of worms. And if the dog’s owner is the boss.....

As far as telling the saleswoman to f off, well you never know who she’s connect to. Certainly she will not speak well about the business. Maybe it will never cause you to lose a sale or come back to haunt you in other ways, but it is very unlikely to have helped your business in any way. To address the original question, put the dog in the office and politely ask the lady to leave. It is not the badass response that impresses webwheelers, but it is the response of a professional businessman.
 
#56 ·
the dog is fine in the shop, if she has a problem with it, she doesnt need to be there. For a customer, putting the dog in the office for a few minutes is fine, though.

I've been to your shop, and your dog is about as tame as they come...she came up, sniffed my hand, then followed me out to the shop.


had a bunch of people at my house one night not long ago, and some girl I didnt know who came with some other people didnt like the fact that both of my dogs were sitting on the sofa. I told her "this is thier house, thats thier sofa, if you dont like it, sit on the floor."
 
#58 ·
The owner of our company had the same attitude about bringing his rott to work every day. F-em, it's my dog and my business. Then the rott bit a delivery person. That's the last time we ever saw the dog..............

Now for a follow up, he now has a Springer spaniel that we see a couple times a week. His son has a Chessie that he brings in occasionally. We have a long time engineer who lost his wife a couple years ago, he brings in his Golden almost every day and I bring in my Lab once every couple months.

What's interesting is that almost every visitor we have comments about how cool it is to have dogs at work.

So, as long as your dog is not aggressive, enjoy your work place.
 
#68 ·
thats any owners worst nightmare. if my dog ever growls at a single person in a nonplayful manor she will recieve a bullet to the head instantly. with 3 small kids i will not chance any breed of dog to be even remotely aggresive.

thankfully my rottie is very submissive and loving. all she wants to do it meet new people and greet people at the door. its kinda cute and alot of people laugh about her. when she is at the front door waiting for them to come into the shop her whole body is wagging and its super easy to see she is super friendly.
 
#69 ·
I love it when people have dogs in thier Buisnesses. It's so Friendly to have them come up and wag thier tail to you, It's almost like a Non-talking - Adorable Sales person. We go to Denis Distrib. in Lansing everyonce in a while and my wife and I love thier dogs. They also have a Tortous......Pretty cool.
 
#71 ·
When I worked at advance auto I would make deliveries to different businesses. One particular business had two dogs, one i can't remember and the other a Pit. The front door was all glass and as soon as the dog saw you walking up it would bark. Once you were in the dog would not leave you alone and not break eye contact. Sometimes it would even growl. I could not imagine having a dog like that always having to worry about.
 
#74 ·
Yeah, I won.
All i wanted was an apology and $100 to cover my trip to urgent care.
The owner never called or gave a shit for all i know.
I got about $1800 but it took a few years.
I assume they put the dog down, never found out for sure.

I delivered to that place for 2 years, same time every week, same door. Never saw the dog before that day. It came up from the back and clamped right down on me, then let go and walked away, not a sound. I had no time to react, just stood there in shock for a sec...they gave me a band-aid in the office...
 
#77 ·
I know a couple of people have mentioned your insurance company and this was my original thought. Unless I missed it I haven't seen a response from you on this subject and I'm not really expecting to as this really isn't our business. Although I would hope the owner (not sure if that is you) knows the consequences if something were to happen. Any minor dog bite could easily bring in $10-15k with a decent attorney and a dog bite that actually does some major damage can easily reach 6 figures. If the insurance company isn't aware of the dog these costs would come out of the owners pocket one way or another.

On another note I love the dog, I have a boxer and it's funny how some people think he is a dangerous dog because of his looks. He is only 5 months and I've noticed some people looking scared and not wiling to let their kids pet him. When people ask me if they can pet him I tell them as long as they don't mind getting licked.

I checked out the website and there is some nice looking custom work in those pictures.
 
#80 ·
yes my insurance is fully aware of the rottie being at the shop all the time.

i do pay a higher premuim because of it and i dont mind at all. i can understand the liability and risk they took when writing my policy so therefor i dont mind the little exrta premuim, which is really minor money wise.

thanks for the compliments on the web site:thumb:
 
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