It’s amazing the number of market customers who walk their dogs to market, yet the combination of dogs and food is definitely not a good one.
Not wanting to chastise customers (or worse, discourage them from attending the market) here’s a win-win solution you can try at your market: Create a special dog-sitting area where customers can “park” their dogs before visiting the vendors. And as a friendly approach to introducing this “no pooch” policy, one of the market vendors offers up homemade dog biscuits.
Next evolution of the idea: tie a note to the dog biscuits, thanking customers in advance for not walking their dogs through the market’s food-laden aisles.
Of course – don’t ever give a dog a treat without the consent of the owner. Make sure the dog-sitting area has some shade, multiple places to attach leashes securely (like to a chain-link fence!) and well-spaced bowls of clean water that are refreshed frequently by the volunteer supervising the area. Service animals, like guide dogs, should be exceptions to the park-your-pet rule.
To help you out, we’ve created a few posters that we want you to use! Feel free to download any of these pooch-posters and use them at your market (links to the PDF’s are just below!). If your market says no to dogs altogether we have some posters that will suit you too (keep scrolling!).
“Please leave your pooch in our supervised pet zone.”
“He’d rather hang out in our supervised pet zone.”
“Hey, Pooch! Hang out with us in the market’s pet zone while your human shops.”
“Let us watch your darling for you while you shop.”
“Please park your pet while you shop.”
“We love dogs, but we can’t have them in our market.”
Do you handle dogs differently at your market? Share your tips with us! Email us your ideas along with your name and your market’s name and (if possible) a photo.