Can I take a puppy to Costco?
As you can see, like most retail establishments that sell food, the official Costco policy is that no dogs are allowed inside their stores – unless it’s a service animal. However, that rule isn’t enforced at every location because some store managers do allow dogs inside Costco.
Disease
Although most diseases that affect dogs are under control today, diseases such as parvo, distemper, and even rabies still pose a very real risk to our dogs, especially to unvaccinated dogs. If your dog is not up-to-date on his vaccines, do not go to a pet store with him, or out in public. He is at risk of picking up some of these diseases from other dogs or from the places where infected dogs have been. This is especially true for puppies who have no immunity after the immunity from their mother wears off when they are a few weeks old. Even after puppies have been fully vaccinated, they can become infected by these diseases for a while. And sometimes vaccines fail. So, if you have a puppy, use extreme caution about visiting a pet store until your puppy is a little older.
Remember that even if your dog and your puppy have been fully vaccinated, there can be dogs visiting a pet store who have not been vaccinated. They could even be sick with one of these diseases and not showing symptoms yet. Dogs that have just been adopted from an animal shelter, for example, are coming from an environment where all kinds of diseases are floating around and a dog could be incubating parvo, for example. So, don’t visit a pet store with your dog or puppy if they are unvaccinated or if they have only recently been vaccinated.
In addition to diseases, dogs can pick up fleas and other parasites in a pet store, even if the store appears to be very clean. It just takes one dog walking through who has parasites to leave behind some hitchhikers for your dog to take home with you.
What to Know Before You GoThe pet store experience is not ideal for all dogs. A dog is a good candidate for a visit to the pet store if he is typically friendly and easygoing and is sociable around people,
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Pet Store Puppy Challenge | Can you tell the difference?
Youve probably already heard the arguments against buying a puppy from a pet shop. But regardless of how informed you are about animal welfare issues, once you’re in a pet shop, purchasing a dog may seem like no big deal. “Should I buy a puppy from a pet store?” you may wonder. There’s a very good reason for this—and it’s not the wellbeing of the animals puppy stores sell.
“You’re going to hear a very, very smooth pitch,” says John Goodwin, senior director of the Humane Society of the United States’ Stop Puppy Mills Campaign. “They’re not hiring animal care specialists—they’re hiring sales people, and what they’re telling you simply isn’t true.”
Disclaimer: Multiple sources from the pet store industry were contacted for this piece and declined to be interviewed.