the Middle-East, I'm told dogs are seen as culturally unclean. And this is just what I've been told by a few African Americans I've spoken with, but they felt it was because often, in the poorer neighborhoods, most of the dogs around are chained, or taught to be aggressive. Or they're police dogs. Their exposure to dogs as children is a bit different than that of a middle-class child. When I looked at it that way, and experimented with going into different stores in different economic levels, and I did document a noticeable difference. I've noticed the same thing when I go in to do service dog education programs in schools. When the school is in a poorer area of town, I have more kids who are frightened of the dog. RE: Public access to pets in general I do wish non-service dog pets were more welcomed in general. The two cities I have lived in in the past few years have both recently, finally, put in fenced dog parks -- and what a difference! MOST hardware stores will allow a leashed dog inside, something I've learned to utilize in states that don't give service dog trainer's or dogs in training public access (which I always thought was stupid, how can we train the dog for public access if we can't get him in the store to train??!) I have again noticed a difference just between the mid-west and the east coast. The stores and people are a bit more