Early morning mall walking

[Zeeva]

Does anyone walk their pup early morning before the stores are open? How does it work? Do you need a license (CGC?) or some kind of allowance to walk in the mall during early hours? How about if they have an accident in the mall during the walk? Do I call the mall directly to find this out or is it a general thing?

I went early one morning and saw some people doing power laps in the mall. They were older people. The stores weren't open yet but were preparing to open. I've heard of people walking their dogs in the mall and I've even seen poop around the perimeter of the mall so I'm considering this'll be a good place for Zeeva and Smokey individually to train.

Can someone explain to me what I need to do to walk Zeeva or Smokey early in the morning at the mall?

[Liesje]

Mall walking is common here (one mall even has little route maps and mile markers) but I've never, ever seen a dog that wasn't an active Service Dog. But I swear I live in one of the most dog UNfriendly places!

[TrickyShepherd]

I've never seen or heard of it to be honest. Our indoor malls are located in very dog unfriendly places. Which is for a reason.. lots of stupid dog owners around here. I'm sure that would lead to disaster.

When I train or socialize, I just go to the outdoor shopping malls. The same thing, just not indoors. It's very dog friendly there.

CGC is a title/certificate, but I've never seen it used here to get anything special. The ONLY allowance I've heard come from it is apartments or home leases MAY allow a breed on the dangerous list IF it has CGC and can prove it's good temperament. Otherwise, my dog has it and we have the same rules as all others. So I doubt that would change any rules. If a place doesn't allow dogs... it would have to be a service dog.

If you have seen it done, I'd say call the mall and see if that's allowed and if you can with yours.... or if people are just disregarding rules by doing so.

[Daisy&Lucky's Mom]

Originally Posted by Zeeva

Does anyone walk their pup early morning before the stores are open? How does it work? Do you need a license (CGC?) or some kind of allowance to walk in the mall during early hours? How about if they have an accident in the mall during the walk? Do I call the mall directly to find this out or is it a general thing?

I went early one morning and saw some people doing power laps in the mall. They were older people. The stores weren't open yet but were preparing to open. I've heard of people walking their dogs in the mall and I've even seen poop around the perimeter of the mall so I'm considering this'll be a good place for Zeeva and Smokey individually to train.

Can someone explain to me what I need to do to walk Zeeva or Smokey early in the morning at the mall?

Anyone you can reach out to who has dogs ,maybe a forum member from Chicago who might know about this. You could also call the mall or a local dog club particularly one that does CGC.I think that would be cool. Here our malls barely let me in let alone the pack!

[martemchik]

I grew up in Chicago, and although I've never been at a mall early morning, I've never seen any dogs that weren't service dogs inside.

My suggestion is to call the actual mall or store you have in question. I've read about Home Depot being dog friendly, but I called mine (and maybe got the wrong employee) and they told me that they only allow service dogs.

I guess I question why you're looking at such a public place as a "training ground." It really is unnecessary in my opinion to be toeing the law for such things when there are areas where no one would even bother to question you being there with your dog.

[Sunflowers]

Most places only allow service dogs in malls.

[Bear L]

We can walk dogs in our indoor and outdoor malls here. However, I've never seen a large dog being walked in an indoor mall.

[Rangers-mom]

I have taken Ranger to the mall but he was a service dog in training at the time and he had a vest and paperwork. Even with all that identification there were places that did not allow us in (service dogs in training do not have the same legal rights as service dogs). I have to suspect that irresponsible dog owners are really ruining it for everyone else. It was very frustrating for me because taking Ranger places was a VERY important part of his training.

There were also places that were extremely service dog friendly but we still ran into problems with other patrons. One time we were at Barnes and Noble and a woman went up to the staff to scream at them about how we "had a dog in the store and weren't even blind." The staff tried to explain it to her but she was furious. They were kind enough to stick up for us and when we came to the check out they told us the story and were concerned that she had confronted us while we were shopping. They completely understood why we had to be there, but still it was an uncomfortable situation.

[Daisy&Lucky's Mom]

Originally Posted by Rangers-mom

I have taken Ranger to the mall but he was a service dog in training at the time and he had a vest and paperwork. Even with all that identification there were places that did not allow us in (service dogs in training do not have the same legal rights as service dogs). I have to suspect that irresponsible dog owners are really ruining it for everyone else. It was very frustrating for me because taking Ranger places was a VERY important part of his training.

There were also places that were extremely service dog friendly but we still ran into problems with other patrons. One time we were at Barnes and Noble and a woman went up to the staff to scream at them about how we "had a dog in the store and weren't even blind." The staff tried to explain it to her but she was furious. They were kind enough to stick up for us and when we came to the check out they told us the story and were concerned that she had confronted us while we were shopping. They completely understood why we had to be there, but still it was an uncomfortable situation.

This why I love Barnes and Noble their service to customers well that and their books. I have heard stories on here about home depot being very dog friendly is some areas.

[Rangers-mom]

Yes. Home depot was a great place to take Ranger for a lot of reasons. They were very friendly, they had concrete floors (but luckily we never had to clean up), they had lots of big motorized carts and ladders and odd things to help a dog adjust to weird stuff.

Target and Walmart were iffy, some were extremely supportive, others were not.

To be honest I think it had to do with how much flack they got from shoppers who were afraid of dogs. Personally I have a lot of respect for people who are afraid of dogs and I would not take my non-service dogs to places like this. Especially a GSD because people seem to be particularly afraid of them.