I think the employee’s attitude of saying the owner shouldn’t do something was the issue. I get irritated when people inform me of something in a manner that acts as though I am beholden to follow any and all orders they give me.
I think the appropriate manner for the employee to do this would have been, “Excuse me, I noticed your dog is inside a car on a hot day, did you forget to let one of the windows down a little?”
That said, the customer should not have reacted how he did.
*sigh*
I used to have this job where I worked. I just fixed the computers but sometimes I had to deal with irate customers so that the front desk (all ladies) didn’t have to deal with them.
90 percent of the customers were perfectly fine. But the other 10 percent?
Personally, if it were me, and I had one of my staff on the firing line, put the customer on the blackout and leave it at that. Hand them back their money and tell them that they aren’t welcome there.