Ever just had to walk away from...

... some owners and their dogs and admit that no matter what you say , they will do it their way!

I met a guy in P@H, with a huuuuge czechoslovakian wolfdog pup. 6 months, and handful but really lovely boy. This guy needed a few bits and one of the staff came to help him choose a strong collar/lead. I was still fussing pup and just made a suggestion about the collar that I thought was strong out of the selection.... no probs there...

Then he said ' I need a fabric muzzle' I then said that if it was to stop him chewing then a baskerville muzzle is much nicer for the dog and would still allow him to pant/ drink etc.

'Oh no its not for chewing - its to stop him barking when I got out'



Apparently its only for 2 hours a day....
So I started making a few suggestions ie - training methods, kongs for distractions, leaving the radio on and maybe getting a DAP plugin to help calm him a little...

too which the P@H employee says -

'DAP doesnt work on wolfdogs cause of the wolf in them...'

Now before I shout my head of is there any truth in that?

At that point I just gave the dog one last pat and went, before I put my foot in it lol

It just makes me so cross that this guy wasnt even willing to listen at all, he was going to do it his way and even the P@H staff member was more than happy for that to happen without attempting to give him any more advice

PAH staff are shop assistants, not dog behavour experts.

TBF I am not sure how most people would react to information provided by a total stranger?

No there is no truth in the statement by the PAH employee re wolves.

As for putting a muzzle on a dog to stop it barking, these people have obviously never seen police dogs barking with muzzles on..........................

Sometimes you have to accept that you cannot help those who will not be helped...........

Fabric muzzles hold the mouth shut though, can a dog still bark with one of those on? Rupert can still screech with one on, I know that much.

As for the P@H staff...well I've found them to be mostly useless to be perfectly honest. They try to be helpful but I've found they simply don't have the knowledge.

I work there and I try my very hardest to offer people good advice. The people that work there are not training and behavior experts and should not be expected to be. I offer the best advice I can, but will be honest I don't know something - there's no point bluffing something.

I get frustrated all the time at customers like this - I had a man shout at me last week when I was offering advice regarding pulling explaining that a check chain will not be the best aid for him.
Yesterday a man wanted to attach a chain to the dogs collar to yank as a training aid.
Watching people yank puppies so they cry, practise Cesar moves, fit inaptoptiate training aids is hard, but I can only do my best and accept it when they don't agree.

When you manage to convince people there are better ways, and give them more ways to get info like Dogsey and extra reading it's a good feeling, but I have learned some are too strong minded and they think they know best.

I think this one thinks of himself as a dog behaviourist the way he was going on.... talking to this guy about the reason why his dog was barking was because one of his pack was missing, you know, cause of the wolf in him....

I did see him recommend bakers to a couple who were getting a pup once though...

Thats what I thought, unless hes hoping it will hold the dogs mouth shut till he gets back

Yeah it is worth it when you do meet people who are willing to take on board your advice, even got one couple to give raw a go after their dog kept getting the runs on kibble and roxie was playing at the park with their GSD, shes been on raw for a couple of months and is so much better!

Aww I want to see the Puppy!

I was in P@H once as a teen (14-15) and at that time, I owned hamsters and there was this couple buying one for the first time, me like yourself, couldn't help giving my advice and the P@H assistant, clueless was telling me I was wrong I might have been young, I might have no qualifications, but I had a hell of a lot more experience and knowledge than she did! In the end, I walked away and went to look at puppy stuff, but the couple found me and wanted to know more

that was the reason I was stalking the guy down the lead and collar isle hahaha

I own a pet shop and some people honestly seem to think I'm a behaviourist or a vet. I do try to give good advice if it's asked for (I've got a lot of local dogs off Bakers!!!) and I don't stock check chains or slip leads so I don't have to watch numpties buying them. It's so frustrating that some people won't listen at all. I had a man in last week with a Lhasa Apso that was a nervous wreck when being groomed and I suggested he purchase some Skullcap and Valerian tablets to give to the dog for a few days before being trimmed. He looked at the price (£9.20 for 100) and said it was far too expensive. So he'd prefer his dog to be distressed than to give him some calming tablets to make the experience less stressful. 100 tablets would have probably lasted him a year or two. I meet a lot of people whose pets have ailments and they think taking them to a groomer is the thing to do. I sent home a cat last week that was so matted his skin was splitting. The owner thought I could shave him and he'd be fine. The poor cat was in agony.

WhichPets this is not aimed at you at all as you at least seem to care! But tbh if someone went out their way to give me advice, I would believe them over the p@h staff any day (not saying I would believe anyone, but personally I wouldn't just ignore them no matter what lol)

Maybe it's just the ones near me... but like... well I know more about rats than I do about dogs (had them longer, etc), and the amount of crap they try and tell me about them which is just rubbish is unreal.