| Etiquette Tips for Shopping with Your Best Friend |
| Always call ahead to make sure the store is dog-friendly. |
| During any holiday season or a retail store sale event, plan
on taking your dog when the store is not extremely busy. It can get pretty
chaotic during such times, especially for your pup. |
| Before you enter the store, make sure your dog has relieved himself. There are usually
trees, bushes or grass in the parking lot. Always clean up
after your dog. Pet stores sell pooper scooper bags. You can also buy sandwich
bags from your local grocery store - they work quite well and are cheap. If we don't
clean up after our pups, stores may stop allowing them! |
| If you have not been to a particular store, always ask if dogs are allowed when you
walk into the establishment. |
| Always keep your dog on a leash inside a dog-friendly
store. |
| Once inside the store, have your pooch on a short leash and keep an eye on her. This
way you can make sure that your dog does not go to the bathroom, or accidentally
surprise another customer or dog. |
| If another dog is in the store, avoid socializing the dogs.
No matter how well-behaved your dog is, you want to avoid causing a disruption in
the store, like barking or growling. This can scare other people around you and the
store may stop allowing dogs inside. If you want to socialize your pup with the other
dog, please go outside of the store. |
| Only bring a well-behaved dog into the store. Do not
bring a dog into a store if he is not comfortable around people or especially children.
Just one incident between a dog and a child can instantly ban dogs from the store.
If your dog is not comfortable around people, take her to an obedience class and
ask the teacher to give you tips and suggestions. |
| Before you set foot or paws into a dog-friendly store, take your dog to a local pet
store. If they do not go to the bathroom inside the pet store, then you are off to
a great start! This is because many dogs have already had "accidents" in
pet stores, especially on the aisle corners. Your dog will be tempted to go when
he smells where the previous dog has pottied. We recommend a pet store because they
are by far the most forgiving. |
| Always offer to clean up after your dog if she goes
to the bathroom in the store, even in pet stores. |
| When visiting pet stores with your dog, please be courteous and do
not let your pooch sample all the dog toys. If this happens, pet store owners
cannot sell the toy because no one wants an old used toy! |
| Finding Dog-Friendly Stores |
| Stores are not required to allow dogs, except for service and guide dogs. It all
depends on the store's management as to whether or not they choose to allow dogs.
If you want to take your pooch with you, call ahead and ask if they allow dogs. |
| If you do not want to do the research yourself, try finding resources that list dog-friendly
stores. DogFriendly.com lists stores that allow your well-behaved, leashed dog of
any size. This list can be found by looking here. |
