The move has so incensed Cronulla resident Cheryl Brown, whose weekend ritual includes a walk in the park with her dog Max, followed by breakfast at Parlos in Cronulla Mall, that she organised a petition and spent a couple of hours on Saturday morning collecting signatures.

A spokesperson said the council was not "banning'' anything, merely enforcing the Code after receiving a complaint from a member of the public.

It wrote reminding cafe owners in the mall - the ban does not apply elsewhere in the shire - on October 1 of their obligations under the law and of the penalties for non-compliance - fines of $55,000 for the cafe and $330 for the pet owners.

The cafe owners are complying with the notice but it is costing them as much as $700 to $800 a day, according to some estimates.

Parlos cafe manager Chris Parias, who put out water and treats and prepared puppy-cinos for his canine clients, said his staff were under strict instructions not to touch the dogs and to ask owners of boisterous or noisy pets to leave.

He said some of the owners he had asked to leave had become irate and he estimated he was losing eight to 10 customers a day on week days and twice that number on weekends.

Nigel Urquhart, who owns Strawberry Fair directly across the Mall from Parlos, said: "We liked having the dogs around and were careful not to allow them near the food preparation area.

"But we have to abide by the rules.

"Once people understand what the rules are we hope they will come back again.''

Robert Schroeder, from Stonefish, said he had never had a complaint from the public about dogs in the outdoor area.

"Cronulla is all about fitness and getting outdoors,'' he said.

"This is just punishing those people who do the right thing.''

Should people be able to take their dogs to outdoor cafes?