This topic came up on the now out-of-control dog chaining thread, so I thought I'd move it to another thread. Here is my reasoning for dogs not being brought into stores with the exception of service dogs:

1: The store owners have a choice whether they want your dog in there. You need to respect that choice. If you opened a store, you would want your rules respected. Its common curtesy.

2: The store owner would need to purchase additional insurance if they allowed dogs. That is there choice, but when you sneak dogs in, you are doing them a disservice. What if you just opened a store and couldn't afford the extra insurance?

3: The store is responsible if somebody sneaks in a dog and it pees on the floor. What if a customer slips and falls?

4: The store can be sued if your snuck-in dog bites another customer.

5: Dogs just don't belong in food stores, period. If there is open food in the area are you going to cover your dog with a hairnet when you sneak it in?

6: I've seen a small dog carried into a furniture store. When I buy brand new furniture, I assume it hasn't had a dog sitting on it already. That's the joy of buying brand new. Its what you expect when you buy brand new and what you deserve for paying the price for brand new. Little dog owners shouldn't get to ruin that for people. Who gave them that power? What if somebody is allergic and here's a store selling soft-surface merchandise that sucks up allergens? What if this store is going out of their way to improve air quality to keep their merchandise in good shape and have low amounts of dust on the show floor and you just came in and ruined it for them? Would you like that if you were the store owner?

I personally think stores should be able to not only kick people out, but fine them for sneaking in dogs, especially if they cause damage. You put that store and its merchandise in jeopardy by breaking their rules. Not only that, but if you think you somehow deserve to break rules set up for everybody and sneak your little dog into a store, you're just rude and childish as hell. That's my opinion though.