Dogs4life,
Niki is with me all the time because of her service dog status, but until she is off heat, she will not be coming with me everywhere like before. I do not think is good to be taking into a store a dog in heat -- service dog or not. One of the many reasons I have to spay her sooner than I had planned. I can totally see why she should not be going to places with dogs off leash, and I am all the way with you. Niki does not go to dog parks anyway because of different reasons I might post on another thread some other time, but it is just a personal preference. She is still going out now, but I do not take her leash off like I was doing before and I am walking her only near our house because I know there are not dogs to be afraid of. I do not want to take any risks either. I wish I had spay her earlier too, but for showing purposes I had to keep her unspayed. If I see that for sure I cannot show her within the next 6 months, I will spay her and be over with it. I have to admit, it is kind of annoying to have a dog in heat. We have not seen any real mess so far, but I was planning to take her to the beach for first time this weekend and of course, we had to cancel our plans. No beach fun for Niki until she is off heat.
PS. Your new avatar is soo cute!