I wish I could give this place zero stars.
**Long story,…read morebut please read it.**
We moved to the high park area 3 years ago with out 3 pets and always into this Global Pet Foods for all our needs since it was so close to our home. As you can imagine, with 3 pets, the money we spend on them adds up when shopping for food, treats, clothes, accessories, baths and all other needs. Even though this location sold all the things we needed, it was always uncomfortable shopping there. I don't know if its part of their training, of if the staff just didn't like us, but EVERYTIME we went there, we were followed like we were stealing. Regardless of how we dressed, if we had the pets with us, or if we were alone or together. We were always followed by the staff.
Recently, we added one more dog to our family, Logan. He is a big greyhoud-labrador mix adopted from Mexico where he was a street dog. He doesn't feel safe leashed and sometimes barks when people are too close.
He is a big boy with an intimidating bark, but he would NEVER hurt anyone. He is always running free at dog parks, dog friendly beaches and off-leash trails and never had any issues with barking or aggression. He rides the TTC with us all the time and is a perfect gentleman.
Because this location has people following us closely, he constantly feels threatened, like they will hurt him, so he barks and hides behind us.
Last time I went into the store with my dog Logan, they were crowding us again and Logan got scared and barked at them, simply asking for space. I got what I needed and tried to get out as soon as possible. When a male costumer approached me and asked if he could pet Logan, I said "please don't pet him. He doesn't usually like men and he will bark at you". The consumer ignored my request and proceeded to approach Logan with his hands down to get him. Guess what? Logan barked at the guy, but in no moment, showed teeth or any other sign of aggression. He just needed space and he just simply doesn't like men. The store manager LISA made a whole scene in front of other costumers saying that my dog was aggressive and I was "putting everyone there in danger", meanwhile, Logan was hidding between my legs, scared and confused.
Other costumers where saying it was fine, afterall, dogs bark. It's normal. But she kept making a scene, telling people to hide behind the isles and be careful with Logan and screaming "you need to muzzle this dog!! You need to muzzle this dog!" I was so embarrassed, even considered leaving everything behind and just going home. I left the store in tears. I could not believe what had just happened.
Today, the manager LISA blocked us from entering the store with our dogs because Logan barked. He wouldn't have barked if she wasn't so close to us. He was fine when we walked in, only barked because of her. She said we could only bring him of he was muzzled. Doesn't she understand that some dogs bark when they are nervous?? She works at a pet store, I'm sure they see anxious dogs all the time. Is this how she treats everyone?
I told her that we would be bringing our business to petvalu, (who treats us amazingly and we never had ANY issues with our dogs barking there. They get treats and belly rubs every single time) and she gave us a smirk and said "that's fine".
It's a shame that no other pet food chain carries the dog food we feed to our boys (North Paw), but I much rather travel an hour by TTC to another location than to ever going back to this store.
Unfortunately their head office is already closed, but I do intend on talking to them about this behaviour.
Please avoid this place. Specially if you have big and/or anxious dogs.