So today i took my girls to the local petsmart to get their photo taken with santa. i was very excited because itd be the first one taken with santa and 5$ (half paid for the picture) would be donated to the rescue there. Well I WANTED TO PUNCH THE MAN UGHHHH. i am still so distressed over it.

Ok keep in mind, prior to me rescuing yuki, she was abused by a man. And its taken a lot of hard work and time to overcome her fear of all men.

SO, when it was our turn, yuki openly greeted santa and was friendly and calm. So I handed him Yuki's lead while I tried controlling zizzy (who was more interested in the puppies up for adoption). And to my astonishment, the man immediately swung yuki around and yanked her closer to him with such force she flew backwards. THEN once she was sitting between his legs cowering, he still didnt release the tight grip he had on her! she was seriously choking herself trying to lay down by his feet. i grabbed her leash from him and told him "let go and she'll stay. you cant be so rough with her, she was abused by a man." and he goes "...oh." and just ROLLS HIS EYES. then continued to roll them as i kept getting the picture retaken for like 3 minutes because yuki looked so horrified and i wanted a decent one. well i eventually gave up just to get my poor little girl away from him.

as soon as we got home i made the girls a nice meal of their kibble, chicken, and vegetables and added some olive oil. and im hoping yuki wont be scarred for life of santa clause and praying this wasnt two steps back with her fear of men.

anyways, heres the dang photo.

grrrrrr. I would be mad too!
I was at Petsmart last weekend, and the Santa there was right out front smoking a cigarette. Good thing he didn't look anything like the 'real' Santa because there were kids everywhere. (I don't hate on smokers, but a Santa in full costume??)

you would think theyd have more common sense! you have no idea how badly i wanted to flip out on the man in front of everyone.

I did the Petco onces ONCE. It was a horrible picture. Horrible quality. Horrible set. And horrible Santa.

Some people are just idiots. I was at petsmart on Friday, not for photos, just for some shopping. I took Lucian with me for some socialization. The trainer there just came right over to Lucian, and seriously wouldn't leave him alone. He's still shy when it comes to meeting people, and moves his head when someone attempts to pet him. After a few minutes the trainer left, and then came back. He really annoyed me this time, cause he bent down, and kind of poked Lucian in the side of the face, back and forth with each of his hands, on either side of Lucian's face! I gave him a disgusted look, and he walked away after that. What kind of trainer can he possibly be, if he's purposely trying to irritate a dog. Lucian didn't like that at all, he tried to nip at the guy.

I would have flipped out on the guy if I were you. They should know better than to do things like that to someones pet. Poor Yuki.

As for the smoking, he should of gone where no one would see him, like out back by a dumpster or something.

arooroomom wrote:

I did the Petco onces ONCE. It was a horrible picture. Horrible quality. Horrible set. And horrible Santa.

Yeah i will probably never do the pet store santa pictures ever again. i have to admit, i wish i would have made it into a bigger deal. but i didnt think it would have been a good idea to make a scene, since i may be getting an interview there for dog training later this week...

Keyda81 wrote:

Some people are just idiots. I was at petsmart on Friday, not for photos, just for some shopping. I took Lucian with me for some socialization. The trainer there just came right over to Lucian, and seriously wouldn't leave him alone. He's still shy when it comes to meeting people, and moves his head when someone attempts to pet him. After a few minutes the trainer left, and then came back. He really annoyed me this time, cause he bent down, and kind of poked Lucian in the side of the face, back and forth with each of his hands, on either side of Lucian's face! I gave him a disgusted look, and he walked away after that. What kind of trainer can he possibly be, if he's purposely trying to irritate a dog. Lucian didn't like that at all, he tried to nip at the guy.

I would have flipped out on the guy if I were you. They should know better than to do things like that to someones pet. Poor Yuki.

As for the smoking, he should of gone where no one would see him, like out back by a dumpster or something.

i cant even tell you how many idiotic trainers i have met at petsmart/petco. i honestly have no idea how they got hired, or how they even make a iving off their stupidity. i would have snapped at the trainer messing with lucian, that is not the way to socialize a pup and they should know that.

OH PICK ME PICK ME! I KNOW HOW PETCO TRAINERS GET HIRED!

So, after spending time working for legitimate training kennels, and becoming a certified, tried and true, fearless trainer of the dogs, I was convinced by my friend the AWESOME PetCo groomer, to apply for their training position. Obviously, the craphole saw a chance at a real trainner and interviewed me. Their policy is as follows: Hire trainer as sales assosciate, while he reads training brochure (its like an in flight magazine) make trainer learn how to sell things on commission. Congratulations, you're a qualified trainer!

The pamphlet it strictly positive reinforcement. No corrections, no slip collars, just rewards for positive. Its the most useless training ever. Like their program.

That interview, and seeing the 100 dollar fee for private lessons, is what made me go into private training. I despise PetCo training.

Poor thing she looks completely terrified, what a jerk.

She does look completely terrified. Poor baby. I just want to pull her away and hold her, she looks so scared.

Asia is scared of people she doesn't know. Especially men. Which leads us to believe that she was abused or mistreated by her previous owners.

I would have been PISSED THE F OFF TOO!

That was the whole point of taking him with me, positive socialization. That guy put me off to going out there again. I have a local pet store, but it's really small, and no one ever has their pets with them when I go. That and the local dog park is like a deserted island. Plus every dog in my neighborhood seems to be dog aggressive. So there goes yet another option for socialization. I was thinking of enrolling him training there too, but no way now.

You should call and complain about that guy playing Santa. It might not result in anything, but it's worth a shot.

I was wanting to take to pups to petsmart for santa pictures we didn't go cause we got corrected by one of the trainer at the local petsmart and my husband doesn't want to go back.. A local small pets store was having pictures but we miss the days. The pictures were free you down loaded them from there facebook page.

oh maybe next year.

As for the smoking santa in ront we would not have gone into the store if we saw someone in front smoking either a santa on anyone Kerian had asthma and the smoking would trigger it.

What an Ar$e. And to pot it all off he's not even looking at the camera!

Yeah, I wasn't impressed with ours, either. Granted Carolina wasn't really paying attention (she was more interested in the other dogs), but she doesn't like to be picked up and the camera person had the great idea to try and put Carolina on Santa's lap. I informed her that Carolina is over 50 lbs and isn't a lap dog. That photographer replied "It's okay, Santa's got a few large dogs at home". Needless to say, we're not going back next year.

Oh my god Im so sorry that happened! I was warned about the santas at petsmart because the pictures either A) suck or B) that santa sucked. The santa doesnt even want to touch the dogs either so whats the point? Your cutie looks so horrified, poor thing. Maybe because I have a temper, but if he wouldve done that to shiva, I wouldve... been very derogative to say the least (which isnt good of course) Atleast you wont be going to that every again. I know some malls do the santa thing alot better, but I havent personally done, but Ive seen some pics (very nice) with real looking santas HOLDING the dogs or atleast hugging them. Once again, sooo sorry, poor thing

There you go, hope this helps its the real husky santa!

i dont think getting pictures done with a complete stranger whos in a rush was my best idea. i really regret going without thinking off the bad possibilities.

last night a man and his dog walked up to us as i was walking the girls last night. yuki has seen this man so many times and has always allowed him to pet her, however, last night she shied away from him and did her little nervous woofs.

you shouldn't have to consider the possibility that the guy working as Santa Claus at a pet store is a complete ass who has no idea how to handle a dog. He's working as Santa for a national retailer of pet products. That's like saying you should have considered the boarding kennel you had your dog stay at was going to mistreat your dog, or that the professional show groomer wasn't going to know how to give your dog a show cut. He should consider the possibility that dogs are going to be a little nervous around a strange environment and person, and handle the dogs with some knowledge and care. Being scared of men isn't terribly uncommon for rescue dogs, which aren't terribly uncommon themselves. Shoot 75% of the problem rescue dogs that came into the kennel that I first trained at were listed as Male aggressive, or shy around males, and the men that worked there had to be extremely Passive-Assertive, calm, confident people, because you worked with a lot of dogs that were very reluctant to trust you, or approach you at all.

K9_Eric wrote:

you shouldn't have to consider the possibility that the guy working as Santa Claus at a pet store is a complete ass who has no idea how to handle a dog. He's working as Santa for a national retailer of pet products. That's like saying you should have considered the boarding kennel you had your dog stay at was going to mistreat your dog, or that the professional show groomer wasn't going to know how to give your dog a show cut. He should consider the possibility that dogs are going to be a little nervous around a strange environment and person, and handle the dogs with some knowledge and care. Being scared of men isn't terribly uncommon for rescue dogs, which aren't terribly uncommon themselves. Shoot 75% of the problem rescue dogs that came into the kennel that I first trained at were listed as Male aggressive, or shy around males, and the men that worked there had to be extremely Passive-Assertive, calm, confident people, because you worked with a lot of dogs that were very reluctant to trust you, or approach you at all.

Thats a good point, I should have been able to trust my pet in good hands...especially with me standing right there watching. That is the last time I trust complete strangers though. With my experience as a groomer, I'd never send leave them in another groomers hands cause i have seen how some people treat their clients, yelling at them and smacking them....like that would make them behave.

Yeah, I tend to groom my own dog. If I'm lazy and it's been muddy all week, like this week, I take them to PetCo. I only do that because the groomer there is a guy I went to high school with and he owns and dock dives Mixie's sister, Galaxy. (We managed to get 4 puppies from her litter into good owners hands, from the nasty byb). He is an excellent groomer, and I trust him completely. His brother, who owns one each of Soshanna and Mixies brothers, is a kennel tech, and when Leevon and I both have to leave the house, we pay him to watch our kennel-home.

i wish i had friends who could do me favors like that, then again, i dont know if i would even trust them lol. not after my one groomer friend took the girls to petsmart and shaved their stomachs. i was furious.

The manager of the kennel I trained for when Soshanna was a pup saw her nails one time and, even though I clip them weekly, and walk her on cement, insisted I must not know how to get a dogs nails back to the quick. So she barely tipped the nails, and quicked my dog twice. Thankfully not bad enough to scare my dog, she's a doll for it, but still.

I just got Luna from the daycare and she took a picture with Santa

Jessica - you should post about the horrible experience on the Petsmart facebook page to shame him! Ugh, terrible! Sorry for that experience!

BTW, not all dogs that fearful have been abused. Many just weren't properly socialized or may have an unpleasant yet to abuse exposure to someone. Frosti was fearful of many things - mainly people with hoodies, hats, sunglasses and like we found out the other day - SCARVES! She was cowering and barking her head off at this lady at the pet store, who then took her scarf off after I explained Frosti's issues. No problem after that! She was also afraid of vacuums, the washing machine noise, our space heater, the swiffer, etc. She ok with most of those items now but still afraid of some new things. I think some people treat husky puppies as stuffed toys, keep them at home and don't socialize them to new people and experiences. It's really sad.

Kizmat wrote:

I just got Luna from the daycare and she took a picture with Santa

Thats a very nice santa pic