The Dog Question

Lately on my Michigan football/sports board we’ve had a couple or three increasingly fractious threads about the Dog Question.

The Dog Question can be reduced to the following query: Is Sneakers a very good boy indeed, who should be welcomed in public spaces as a beloved member of our community, or some sort of crypto-demi-wolf that I don’t want in my coffee shop being given a lupine amuse bouche of whipped cream by his human companion (we don’t say “owner” in Boulder, where I witnessed this yesterday). let alone in the aisles of a grocery store, or jumping on me on a hiking trail, even though he’s extremely “friendly” and therefore I shouldn’t find this disconcerting in any way? (Rule of thumb: If you can’t jam your nose into my crotch without explicit prior permission, neither can Sneakers).

Despite this somewhat inflammatory and perhaps hurtful and insensitive framing of the matter, I’m actually fairly agnostic on the Dog Question in all its possible variations, but I have noticed what seems like increasing conflict over this, as illustrated by things like signs on local businesses telling people that we really love your dogs we really do but please don’t bring them in here — various service animals/emotional support llamas etc. excepted of course.

Discuss.