Since dogs can pick up on the emotional state of their owners whether they're happy, angry, sad, etc it makes them a animal that is very close to sentient.
I'm to into my career, my dog just died, etc a lot of frustration and confusion could be saved with simply saying no in response to being asked out.
If a woman says maybe and she really means no she should just say no to begin with.
Otherwise it gives a guy the false misleading impression possible she's interested, he'll ask again about it and maybe she become angry because she was hoping the maybe would be discovered as the soft way of letting him down easy.