There’s a dog bathroom at the Tucson airport — and it’s glorious
Crave something uplifting? Need to restore your faith in humanity? Want to feel good again? Take a trip. You won’t need a passport. Or a spaceship. Just keep your eyes open — and remember the dog droppings. It starts with the Twilight Zone feeling when you get off a plane at Tucson International Airport after dark. Most everything is already closed.
Despite the best efforts of the mayor and the merchants, this is still only a oneand-a-half horse town.
But the bathrooms are open. Of course. The bright, shiny surfaces are clean, wide and welcoming after the claustrophobic grimness of an airplane.
Just inside, you’ll find a baby changing station and a sign that offers hope. Real hope. The sign shows a stylized dog on a leash. Underneath are the words “Service Animal Relief Area.”
Under that is a dispenser where you will find a “Poopy Pouch.” Wow. First there was the “aha” moment. Service dogs gotta go, too. Then came the jolt. Oh. Somebody thought of that. How cool. How very, very cool.
Marcie Davis is co-author of “Working Like Dogs: The Service Dog Guidebook” and she has a website of the same name.
Davis, who is paraplegic, has been “partnered” with a service dog for 25 years, she says.
Until last year, airports were not required to provide post-security pet-relief areas, so it was nearly impossible to make a connection. Letting the dog relieve itself between flights meant going outside and then going back through security again.
“I stopped traveling because it was so difficult to get in and out,” she said.
For me, the sign announcing a pet-relief area was a sweet reminder of what kindness looks like.
For Davis and others who rely on trained service animals, it is something much more personal.
“It’s freedom, it’s independence, it’s quality of life,” she says. “It opens doors.”
She’s updating her smartphone app — called “Where to Go” — to help people find the new post-security pooping places. She would love to hear from people about their “favorites.” Reach her through her website.
I asked her if a dog would “go” on a disposable pad in a tiled public bathroom.
“If they are truly trained, they are like Olympic athletes,” she said. “They go on command.”
Jessie Butler of the Tucson Airport Authority says, “We’ve had really great feedback from our customers.” Mike Smejkal, senior director of development services at Tucson Airport Authority, says what’s there now is “an interim option.” Plans are in the works to relocate the area.
A good model might be the Portland International Airport. Susan Armstrong, VP of Training Operations at Guide Dogs for the Blind in Oregon, said it’s among a few that have done a “spectacular job.”
Picture a room with fake turf, fire hydrants, drains, a place to leave your luggage while Fido sniffs out the right spot and a place to wash your hands after cleaning up Fido’s doings.
As someone who hits the bathroom first thing after deplaning, I can certainly relate to Armstrong’s point about how an animal rest stop “helps the dog’s (travel) experience as well.”
Service dogs empower people who have a variety of disabilities “to be as independent as they want to be — as they can be,” Armstrong said. A dog like that deserves a throne. And it isn’t just service animals. Any dog can use these canine comfort stations.
“Most of the time, things that benefit people who have disabilities benefit everybody,” Eric Lipp, executive director of Open Doors Organization, which advocates for people with disabilities with a focus on travel and tourism, said.
It was a big benefit to me to walk into the airport bathroom and see that collective display of compassion and caring. When we open our hearts to the needs of others, we make this a stronger country.
The Obama-era federal regulation — yes, one of those — that mandated post-security pet stations is a reflection of our better nature. Our real nature.
The areas are too new to rate, Lipp said. Improvements will come with use and feedback.
For smaller airports, adding a Taj Mahal of doggie rest areas might be out of reach. But who knows?
The branding opportunities are mind-boggling.
“I don’t know why the Petcos of the world aren’t all over this,” Lipp said.