Emotionally intelligent signage and your dog

Sara Davis sends the following photo, which she took at her apartment complex in Cincinnati. The sign "left me angry," she says, and "feels invasive and generally icky."

It reminded me of another sign — designed to encourage precisely the same behavior but by encouraging empathy — that I snapped in my neighborhood in Washington, DC.

Is one sign more effective than the other? Or do they simply accomplish the same result by different means?