Here's my beef

Being a dog owner is new to me. We moved to Ireland for a lifestyle change and part of that was getting a dog. To be honest my husband who had never been allowed a pet as a child cause his parents don't like them was very keen. I had a dog as a child and tried to talk him out of it. We eventually agreed to get one and I started looking on the ISPCA website http://www.ispca.ie/. I did lots of research about which breed and wanted a labrador cross but was determined to get a rescue dog. Then one day I say a photo of this cute looking labrador collie cross and all reservations when out the window. 

I did a lot of research about dogs before getting one but the one thing I didn't count on was the 'attitude' of, in the most part, Ireland has towards dogs. I love going back to England and having dinner in the pub with my friends and catching up over drinks but in Ireland.....

Where I live I can't even get so much as a sandwich if the dog is with me unless I am prepared to sit outside. The weather is in the most part great but the temperature would give me chilblains.

I suppose that a lot of dogs, especially where I live, are working dogs. Dogs are left to walk themselves and owners do not clean up after their four legged friends. 

So this blog is about discovering dog-friendly Ireland. In these current economic times being dog friendly could be a real boost for business. Certainly in England the places we go often have more than just our dog and for sure they would not have got that business if they weren't dog friendly.

The majority of tourists to Ireland are from England and every time I go over on the ferry there are a lot of dogs travelling. 48% of UK households have a pet - 23% are dogs which is around 8 million dogs. (source:http://www.pfma.org.uk/pet-population/) That's a lot of potential customers to exclude from your business.

So I want to highlight those places that are dog friendly and hope that all pet lovers will give them their business.