feeding treats designed to help 'senior dogs' make younger ones get cancer?

[Tardis yorkie13]

ok so again with the food and treat talks, more of a rant about people not knowing about pets working in pet stores :/

so in the store today i was looking at foods and treats when this, (ahem) young woman who works at the petstore (who looks waaaaaay to young to be working and from listing to her talk to other customers knows little to nothing about actually caring for animals) walks up to me and gets my attention.

i was looking at some training treats. some low cal, tiny chewy treat that i was thinking would be the perfect size for a yorkie and not too hard for their teeth for training my puppy.

on the package it says something along the lines of 'enhanced with this vitamin and something or other added to help senior dog digestion and healthier coats"


so anyway- she walks up to , gets my attention and without even asking me what age my dog i might have been getting them for was , just leans over me and in a condescending tone says

' you know, giving dogs and puppies foods and treats with vitamins and chemicals designed for older dogs before they are old or need them will give them caner and make them sick. it really shortens their life span. you should be more responsible and read the labels better." - than just walked away. (probably to go harass someone else who didn't ask for her opinion!)

I was sooo mad that i just left the store, (before i went and said something creative to her face in front of her manager. )

urgh! people like that just rub me the wrong way! ignorant and misinformed, and condescending are certainly NOT personalty traits they should be looking for in employees that are supposed to be helping us find and care for our companions :/

anyway, in all my years raising,caring for and training dogs i have never found this info to be true. and yes certain chemicals you need to look out for are in just about everything but they are no more or less harmful to the dog at any age :/ and varies depending on breed and other health issues of your pet.

but giving a dog a treat designed to have extra vitamin c to help with coat health, when the puppy doesn't need more vitamin c , doesn't mean he or she is suddenly going to develop 8 types of cancer over night and dye :/

anyway , i honestly believe they should have better screening for pet shop employees. most of the pet health related horror stories i hear are from people being misinformed or giving just plain ridiculous advice/information from an employee who honestly knew little to nothing about the pet or food or toy ectra... and the owner didn't do their own research to see whats what. so in the process a poor animal had to get hurt for people to learn a lesson :/

anyhow. yeah rantness. she upset me. i think only people who know about animals should work with animals, their lives are too precious and fragile to put in the hands of people who don't care that by giving out wrong information- you could be endangering a life.

[Tardis yorkie13]

i mean, you wouldn't just hand a new born human baby to someone who thought you should hold them upside down by their ankles and feed them screws would you? no? than why do we do it with animals?!!!!!! - this is just madness!!!!

[matese]

I ran into this myself at Pet Supplies. You cannot ask these KIDS anything food related or safety related. The only thing I ask them is to point me in the direction of what I am looking for lol.

[LunarBerry]

Ugh, that girl's comment doesn't even make any sense on any level. I'm wondering if that's what she was trained to say or she just came to that conclusion on her own. Granted, it is possible to "overdose" on certain vitamins because the body doesn't get rid of the excess and even in some health conditions, you can't take certain vitamins (too much or at all), but with things like vitamin C the body will just get rid of what's not needed. And it's not like you're giving your dogs straight-up vitamins anyways, it's all within smaller amounts compared to the rest of the ingredients. Saying that any vitamins cause cancer when used young is dumb because if it actually did, you know it would be big in the news/grapevine because of concerns for effect on humans in comparison or from other concerned pet owners. Most vets would even at least mention something like that sort of thing. I would get pretty irritated too when someone, especially an employee (and a really young one at that), just tells me something like that without any proof/studies to back it up (or at least make it sound plausible) or in some cases, it was actually so dumb there's just no way to believe it (and believe me I've heard many dumb things from marketing)

[margaritaville]

I'm sure you have heard the saying, " you only get what you pay for" and I'm sure they are not hiring vets or rocket scientists.

When they approach me I usually just say, I'm good thanks. Just like anything else we have to do our own research.

My dd went into a computer store to look for a book. The guy behind the counter tried to sell her Computers for Dummies. She is a software developer for a major gaming system. She just walked out without saying anything!

[Lovetodream88]

I would write a letter to the manager. I hate it when people spread false info it drives me nuts.

[ShowGirlLola]

Yeah it's best to ignore advice from pet store employees. I had a middle aged manager at petsmart lecture me for not allowing Lola to run up to a group of 5 large dogs. I'm going to make Lola antisocial doing stuff like that lol.

[ColesMommy01]

I suggest you call corporate or the manager of that store. No doubt, you weren't the first person this employee felt they needed to enlighten . I love when animal lovers impart knowledge but her approach leaves much to be desired and could potentially drive customers off.

[Potter]

Originally Posted by ShowGirlLola

Yeah it's best to ignore advice from pet store employees. I had a middle aged manager at petsmart lecture me for not allowing Lola to run up to a group of 5 large dogs. I'm going to make Lola antisocial doing stuff like that lol.

That is kind of insensitive. It is none of his business anyway.

[Tardis yorkie13]

Originally Posted by margaritaville

I'm sure you have heard the saying, " you only get what you pay for" and I'm sure they are not hiring vets or rocket scientists.

When they approach me I usually just say, I'm good thanks. Just like anything else we have to do our own research.

My dd went into a computer store to look for a book. The guy behind the counter tried to sell her Computers for Dummies. She is a software developer for a major gaming system. She just walked out without saying anything!

yeah i understand that, but honestly :P

there are plenty of people who love and know about animals out there, you don't need a veterinarians degree to find someone willing to research the brands you sell at least to be able to properly recommend a SAFE food or toy,

or i don't know maybe ;if you know nothing about hamsters but are trying to sell someone a hamster they could ...i don't know... maybe read one of the CARE BOOKS ON HAMSTERS they sell at the store! and convince the costumer to buy the book too!

ohh and here's an ever better idea. when you need a new employee, advertise the open spot at animal shelters! there are plenty of people there that know and love animals that im sure would love to get paid to work with animals! instead of this person who has probably never read a pet food label or held a hamster before in her life.

i try not to be judgmental , and it's not just her,Im sure she's a lovely girl (maybe... i don't know her situation) but i meant there's 'im just not an animal person so i don't care about these things' people and ' I like to think that since i read a dog food ad on the internet once that it makes me an expert on all things dog ' people that just really should not be anywhere near animals let alone in a position where they have some say.

and yeah ;/ thats why i boycott best buy :/ i actually know alot about computers and i do all my reasrch before going in so i know excatly what im looking for, where they insted that they would charge me $300 to fix a tiny broken part on my laptop and take 4 weeks to do it, when i knew how to do it myself with a mini screwdriver, the replacement part i went in for ($6) and some glue :/

[Lilah Charm]

Sigh. Ugh. This is painful and very frustrating. Honestly, even with that kind of a condescending dumb a$$ comment (and how on earth could she say that without even asking your dogs age?!?) I honestly can only imagine she would choose to approach you to give you (unwanted and innacurate) health care information because she thought she was sharing something that would help your dog and is just too immature, uneducated and inexperienced to know appropriate communication techniques (seems like a lot of 'grown ups' lack that too) like saying "hello!" With a friendly smile and asking some questions about how to best serve you and your dog first off and secondly to either have information or aknowledge where she is lacking some and when it is best to step back.

My heart is soft on this issue for many reasons- first off that I work retail in the pet and livestock industry and have found myself vaccinating dogs and deworming goats in the parking lot, "gosh mam, maybe your goat is sick because you keep feeding it garbage sacks of white bread from the discount store and goats actually can't eat that..." And also because I have two young, beautiful daughters aged eleven and thirteen who will surely in a matter of short years be ditzy sales representatives at some low paying job where I hope they will never be presumptuous or poorly spoken but in the instance that they are I hope so very much that they are corrected and put in their place but in a way that they can learn and grow. I thinking is appropriate and necessary to address misinformation- it can be very dangerous. A letter to managment might be a very appropriate way to do that, sometimes there are very helpful educational seminars that employers can take advantage of and help educate their employees- maybe this silly and offensive young gal could get some good developmental opportunities out of it