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Dog owners will no longer have to flee to the suburbs just to drink beer outside

The mayor's office announced today it's making it pawsible for beer gardens and restaurant patios to serve patrons who want to bring their dogs with them.

Restaurants that want to let human/dog combos enjoy nice days dining and drinking outdoors can now apply for a "Dog Friendly Space" permit from ISD.

They'll have to submit a map of the outdoor space showing where they will have designated dog-allowed areas and agree to certain conditions, such as posting signs showing patrons which tables are dog friendly and providing separate waste bins for dog waste and sanitizer spritzers on designated tables. Servers will not be allowed to pet the pets or serve them anything other than water; owners will not be allowed to let their pets get up on chairs or tables.

In a statement, Mayor Wu said:

We’re committed to making Boston a vibrant, family-friendly City, and that means rethinking our outdoor spaces to better build community. Residents and small business owners have been eager for four-legged family members to be able to enjoy our outdoor spaces too, so we’re happy to make this regulatory change allowing dogs on outdoor patios and beer gardens.

Along with the statement, the city provided a quote from Laura Jillian Gray of Allston, who said the change will finally let her enjoy the summer in Allston:

It means a lot to me to know that the city listened when I pointed out how upsetting it was that we created a new dog park, but still didn’t allow dogs in beer gardens or outdoor establishments in Boston. It broke my heart to have to travel to nearby towns that were dog-friendly, because I didn't feel welcome in my own neighborhood. With this new change to allow dogs, I can't wait to enjoy this summer in Allston again!

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Comments

This is such great news. It was so pointlessly restrictive not to be able to bring dogs to the Night Shift beer garden along the Charles, for example - or any number of places with patios, for that matter. Overall, Boston is still generally a pretty unfriendly city when it comes to dogs, but this is a big step in the right direction.

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LOL!!

Dog-owners run this town! Ever been to Back Bay or the North End in the summer? The sidewalks smell awful from all the dog urine on the street light poles. Ever been to ANY park in Dorchester or Southie? Dogs off-leash at all of them, all the time.

Wow, I needed that laugh today. Thank you!

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Doesn't seem to be an issue there.

A bar patio is not a dog park - misbehaved people and dogs are easily removed from the premises.

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If only they'd remove bad parents and their kids!

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Try to find an apartment that accepts dogs, They are few.

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Boston IS very unfriendly to dogs & dog owners. Just look at your post.

Other cities in this country have made it work and it has been a quite the boon for business and no one gets their panties in a twist.

For the breweries itself I am sure they would much rather have the tables filled with paying patron w/ pups at their feet rather than parents that deem it ok to take up 2-3 tables with their kids at 2 tables (or running around without ever being told to be mindful of others) and they are at the 3rd. So the business looses money on those tables but that's cool though, right?

The funny thing about this subject is that dog owners pay lots of taxes for things we don't use (for me personally: schools, playgrounds, basketball courts, baseball fields, tennis/pickle ball courts, etc). That's ok b/c it's part of our social contract...we help each other. But for some they only want and take for themselves.

(Note: this is not about the children so put your pearls away.)

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And your comment helps to underscore that point.

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Magoo is so eggcited about this. Magoo is planning to bring Cutesy McPhee to have a frosty beverage outside. Cutesy McPhee is Magoo’s Cocker Labraboodle which is part Cocker Spaniel, part Labrador, part English Bulldog and part poodle. Magoo and Cutesy McPhee are best of buds and Cutesy McPhee is Magoo’s fur-baby. Magoo.

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Please put a leash on Magoo.

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And we wouldn't bring our kids to a bar.

This is such an incredibly bad idea.

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If you don't like dogs, don't go to a place that will have dogs.

If you don't like loud music, don't go a place that has a band.

If you're a strict vegan, don't go to a BBQ joint where everything has meat.

If you're a teetotaler, don't expect a beer garden to be refreshing.

Not every restaurant needs to cater to everyone.

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Afraid your little doggie tyke might pick up some bad drinking habits ?

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I understand that I may not be in the majority, but I don't like it, just like I don't like smoking in restaurants -- even outdoors, even in their own section, even though I could choose to dine elsewhere.

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Is the same as someone smoking outside and it blowing all over the place exposing people to second hand smoke?! Lol, ok

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...if they don't want. And I'm sure not all will.

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“It means a lot to me to know that the city listened when I pointed out how upsetting it was that we created a new dog park, but still didn’t allow dogs in beer gardens or outdoor establishments in Boston.” One of the benefits of banning dogs was not having to deal with annoying, entitled dog owners like Laura Jillian Gray.

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Yes, how annoying and entitled Ms. Gray must be when she exercises her right as a citizen to ask the city to make a common-sense change to a dumb ban that doesn't exist in other areas, and then feel grateful to the city when they make that common-sense change. Some people, amirite?!!

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You might check out the bar patios in the Fermentation District in Everett.

These places have welcomed dogs for a decade now and I've never seen or had any problems with it.

They still are not allowed inside.

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In my experience the city’s dog owners treat every open space like an off-leash dog park already anyway so we may as well just acquiesce.

Now the harried-looking millennial parents who, for whatever reason, feel the need to drag their children and double-wide strollers day-drinking with them will have one more living thing to look after. Relaxing!

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The rule change allows, but doesn't require, restaurants with outdoor spaces to allow dogs. So each business can choose whether to accommodate "entitled dog owners" like Laura Jillian Gray, or dog haters like Kinopio.

Personally, I'd prefer the city do more about open spaces for off-leash dogs where we can go with other dog owners. Yet even these spaces are blocked by dog haters for all sorts of fabricated complaints. My dog would be far less reactive on leash seeing other dogs if he had a chance to run free with them. In that, Ms. Gray is lucky, because people in SW Boston have blocked it left and right.

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I am personally allergic to dogs soooo if I see a mutt on a patio I’ll just have to take my business elsewhere. So much for health codes.

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Sit inside instead! Problem solved.

If you have that strong of an allergy that sitting near a dog in plein air affects you so, you must never be able to leave your home, eh?

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Passing a dog for a moment while walking outside is entirely different than sitting directly next to one for a couple of hours if you have an allergy. No need to be snide to someone with a legitimate concern.

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Wow. Who knew that Chicken Little would incarnate in so many geographically isolated dog haters?

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Having an allergy != being a "dog hater". If someone is that sensitive -- and you should know better than to assume they can't be -- then they are, and it's a shit move to berate them for it.

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Having an allergy and weaponizing it/being a dramatic cloaca about it, and demanding a prohibition = dog hater.

I have allergies, too, but I don't expect the world to to be configured around them. I doubt that said dog allergies are so severe as to cause issues outdoors in open air (that would be highly unusual) and even then I doubt they could be fatal like my food allergies are.

I actually avoid certain restaurants and buying fish from certain stores that don't take care to avoid cross contamination, and won't order certain dishes in others that could be contaminated to avoid anaphalactic mayhem. But I don't demand that salmon be banned from sushi and bagel places or a city-wide prohibition on pecans, or that anyone around me not order these things.

When your issues are already accommodated by default in a private property setting (dogs not allowed indoors), its a shit move to play the allergy card.

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I'm allergic to perfume/cologne...I don't expect ppl not to wear it. So your point is moot.

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…. allergic to dogs. But he just washed his hands after petting them and was fine.

Another friend takes Allegra if she’s in an indoor space with a dog. She had a dog as a kid but didn’t develop an allergy till she was an adult.

What does being near a dog do to you?
How do you feel about service dogs?

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I am not taking a side in "dog gate" but one should be cautious about assuming the experience of themselves, or worse random friends and acquaintances , is universal for others. I have a food allergy but it presents itself in affects hours later that are supremely uncomfortable but not deadly (yet, fingers crossed) yet I know others who might literally go into shock right then and there and need an injection to break out of it. I really don't want friends using me in an argument as an way of saying "it's not the end of the world." I jokingly tell people if I get hit it won't kill me but I'll be pissed for three days, which is much better than the fate otlf others who have seemingly similar issues.

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I am very much against this. People who choose to have dogs should enjoy having them, but that doesn't mean the rest of us should have to endure being around those dogs, whenever we happen to leave our own house and wherever we happen to go. Dogs annoy me, dogs make me uncomfortable, and this new relaxation of health code rules will mean that I will have fewer third space places to enjoy.

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Thankfully, there's lot of option in the city. Go support breweries where you like how they operate.

The beer gardens who agree to these permits think the gain from dog owners is worth more than the loss in sales from those who dislike dogs. Prove them wrong.

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what else would we expect from BostonDog.

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I’m Poochie the Rockin’ Dog, and I’d love to hang out at the beer garden with my new friends Itchy and Scratchie!

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And I thought you died on the way there?

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Just more catering to the loud vocal minority. Nothing more nothing less. Odd timing considering a 4 year old recently got bit by an off leash dog in a city park where leashes are mandatory.

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I feel the same way about children, but people take those things everywhere! And they can be loud and run around and generally be a PITA.

I'd rather have a dog sit near me than a toddler.

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Actually, I'd take the toddler over the entitled parents.

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Dogs are so much better to endure than most people, I'd say. I'm all for it!

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Will there be any dog free establishments?

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but they don't need to be everywhere humans go, unless they are service dogs. The more you allow all dogs into social settings, the more potential disruption to the work that service dogs do for their people.

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But support the city doing literally anything to loosen the stranglehold they have over how every single business/restaurant/popsicle cart in this area operates. If a business thinks enough of their customers want to bring dogs that it behooves them to allow it, good on them. I probably wouldn't choose to hang out on a patio with a bunch of dogs but there's lots of patio dining now so whatever, I'll go somewhere else. Freedom of choice, amazing.

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Aeronaut Allston has allowed dogs at their beer garden already though, what's the difference here again?

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Lots of people seem to be mixing and matching the idea that something was banned "due to health codes" and "something I'd prefer restaurants not do".

"I don't like dogs", and "A kid got bit recently", are factors everywhere. You could pick up dander, or sadly, someone can get bit in parks, sidewalks, and anywhere leashed dogs are allowed. Which is almost everywhere in our outdoor world. (I'm focusing on leashed here, not official or un-official off-leash dog parks).

"Animals should not be indoors in restaurants because it's not healthy" is a different thing. My impression is that the rules were made when restaurants were exclusively or nearly exclusively indoors, and carried over onto the restaurant patios by default. This is just correcting that default mistake.

Especially in outdoor beer gardens, I'm all for it.

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Don't ever visit Provincetown.

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sniffing around for your food, or women on their period.

This has been what's happening on the West Coast.

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