Dating someone new means learning their quirks, and sometimes those quirks come with a whole hygiene debate attached.

One woman had spent years running her two dogs’ ceramic food bowls through the dishwasher’s high-temperature sanitizing cycle alongside her own dishes, never once questioning the set-up.

But soon her new boyfriend disagreed almost immediately, watching her load the bowls after a home-cooked dinner and reacting with visible disgust, insisting that mixing dog bacteria with human dishes posed a health risk.

He drew a hard line on the spot, refusing to eat off any of her dishes again unless she agreed to start handwashing the dog bowls completely separately from now on.

That’s how an ordinary dinner date quickly turned into a heated disagreement about hygiene and boundaries.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for washing dog bowls in the dishwasher?

I have 2 dogs. They each have 2 food bowls. They get a clean bowl with each meal.

After each meal, I pick up their bowls and place them in my kitchen sink. At the end of the day, I run the four dog bowls in the dishwasher alongside my own.

For additional context, the bowls are made of ceramic and I use the high-temperature sanitizing cycle on the dishwasher.

Here’s where the drama first started.

The story: I started dating “Steve” a short time ago. Last weekend he came to my place and I made him dinner.

After dinner, Steve saw me place my dogs’ dishes in the dishwasher along with our dinner dishes, and he was absolutely disgusted.

Steve was quick to chime in with his thoughts.

He said that running the dogs’ bowls alongside my own was unsanitary and a health hazard.

I have never seen an issue with this, because in my mind, the heat from the dishwasher kills bacteria.

But this didn’t satisfy Steve.

Steve’s argument is that dogs have different bacteria in their mouths than us, and “mixing it” can be dangerous.

He insists he won’t eat anything off any of my dishes again until I promise that I will start handwashing the dogs’ bowls separately, because only “human dishes should go in the dishwasher.”

AITA?

Sounds like her and Steve don’t have the same standards of cleanliness.

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter doesn’t really think Steve knows what he’s talking about.

This user isn’t really sure what the alternative is supposed to be.

This pet owner acknowledges it can be a bit gross from the outside looking in.

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If the person in this comment is cool with it, Steve should be too.

A high-temperature sanitizing cycle exists specifically to kill bacteria, dog-related or otherwise, which makes this less of a hygiene issue and more of a comfort issue.

On one hand, Steve isn’t wrong that dogs carry different bacteria, but he’s overlooking what dishwashers are engineered to handle.

If Steve genuinely can’t get past this issue, it really comes down to an issue of compatibility.

Everyone has their relationship dealbreakers. This may just be one of his.