Halloween time at petsmart was not fun : (
 

I know many probably had a great time at petsmart last night but did anyone have a terrible time? We arrived there at about 6:15 and we were lucky to even get through the doors. It was beyond packed and soooooooooooo hot. I'd say there was atleast 100 people in there if not more. It was so loud and unorganized. My babies were beyond hot and I had to take their costumes off. The employees were so moody and acted like they wanted to run out of there. A few were going around with water and before I had a chance to say no one lady gave Pia water without asking me. I'm not trying to sound snobby, rude or whatever, but I don't allow my babies to drink after other dogs that I don't even know. Not everyone gets their babies shots and who knows what they could have. I'm sorry but that upset me.

We didn't participate in the contest and I'm not sure if it ended up going on or not. It was just so confusing in there and I could hardly hear my fiance talking and he was smacked up against me. I thought poor Pia was going to have a breakdown. She was panting like crazy and wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything. This now makes me wonder if her being in the comercial is even possible. I'd love to see her on TV but no way will I ever stress her out like that again. :( I feel so guilty for not leaving when I saw the huge crowd.

We eventually had the picture taken and afterwards I took all the babies to the jeep and my fiancee waited to pick it up. He came out cracking up laughing because they cut him and poor Paisley out of the picture. :rolleyes: It was a terrible night and at almost 9:00 people were outside still waiting to go in. Needless to say I don't think we'll be going back next year. :(

i sorry you had a terrible time
i never take my babies to things like that there always to cunfusing
& no you were right for being mad my dog dont drink out of the same bowl as strange dogs

You were there for almost 3 hours?? :eek:

It's ok, I just needed to vent a little. :cool:

I sure was and I need smacked for staying and putting the babies through that. :( I feel so guilty. :cry:

That's a shame. If they plan on having something special, then they should organize it correctly and have the employees act professionally. It makes it enjoyable for the customers and it is a 'gold mine' for the business.

Don't be! I'm sure you thought "We've been here X amount of minutes, it's gotta be happening in a few!" Trust me.. I've been there. :p

Now you know to skip it next year! I'm not sure how populous of an area you live in, but here in the city there are many different Halloween dog events. Maybe you can look into that option.

Several people on here said the same thing. I guess these events are getting so popular now that it is probably not worth going to anymore. That is too bad. I'm sorry that you had this experience. I don't know if I will go next year myself and it wasn't reallly that bad at the one I went to.

We went and waited over an hour past when they said the contest would be and then left. It was super crowded, the people were nice but unorganized,
The picture came out terrible. they got my mouth and chin in it and pixie was looking up and away. But I need to socilaize them more. I also came away determined to get Pixie and Cali better trained to sit and stay, or should I say trained as Pixie hasn't a clue what sit means (my fault)

We went yesterday and it wasn't even 1/8 that busy. We got there at 6 and left at 7:30. We had maybe 30 dogs there and it was amusing. The only thing I didn't like was that they let the people judge the dogs and you were allowed to vote for your own dog. I didn't like that. But my friend and I are going to one at Petco at 1:30 on Saturday, so hopefully that will be better.

Thats how it is at our Petsmart to thats why I dont bother going anymore. Also the pictures are always terrible

Our Petsmart Halloween Nightmare!
 

OMG!!! GIRL!!! I swear your Petsmart trip sounds almost EXACTLY like mine! We had a TERRIBLE time!!!! :eek: :thumbdown

Ok, this is going to be VERY LONG, and I do stress VERY LONG. lol.

First of all, I would guess that there were probably about 50 dogs there, if not even more. Well, I had made plans to go a while back, but I didn't know what I was going to do with the babies because of course their costumes don't have a slit in the back for the harness, and I was NOT about to put a collar on them as I just refuse to put those on my babies. So, we just carried them the whole time. Well, I KNEW that we were going to have a heck of a time with Stedman, because he is SO protective of me and my hubby, and he FREAKS OUT when other dogs get too close to us. Sure enough, we got in there and he was going absolutely CRAZY. I'm sure the trainer there thought that he needed obedience school, LOL :rolleyes: At one point, he started barking so much that he got ALL of Petsmart barking like crazy. I was SO embarrassed. And then there was Tatum. She was SCARED TO DEATH. I was holding her (hubby had Stedman) and her little heart was pounding a mile a minute, she was panting and her little tongue was hanging out, just like you said Pia's was. She kept trying to crawl up onto my shoulder and she wouldn't look at ANYONE. She kept staring at the wall behind us. Then, I had I don't know HOW many people walk up to me and ask me if she was "a teacup" :mad: Even someone with THREE Yorkies asked me this! And a few people said, "Is she one of those miniature Yorkies?" - I was like OMG....I am not even going to go there right now. So I didn't even bother giving the speech of, "there is no such thing as a teacup" blah blah blah....there was just too much going on so I said forget it. All I said was, "Well, she is small." :mad: - and that was that.

So then everyone was asking if we wanted to get the babies pictures taken. I kept telling them over and over again that there was NO WAY that they were going to sit still for that. Tatum was PETRIFIED, and Stedman was too busy freaking out, trying to jump out of hubby's arms, barking his head off :eek: But they insisted that we have their pictures taken so whatever, we did. They said Tatum in front of the backdrop and she did EXACTLY what I told them she was going to do. She went FLAT on her stomach (all 4 legs spread out FLAT!) because she was scared to death. Hubby had to hold Stedman for the picture because he just would not sit still - and he let out a huge BARK right when she snapped the picture :rolleyes: So she asked me if I wanted to re-take them and I said, NO THANKS. We bought them anyway (basically for the frame lol) - but I will take MY OWN pictures to put in them as the ones at Petsmart turned out just horrible.

So then they went on the judging and hubby and I said, OMG...there is NO WAY we are even going to attempt this. Everyone was yelling and clapping - Tatum was shaking like a leaf, heart pounding, tongue hanging out - she was just way way way too scared. They had actually called her up to the front to the in the top whatever ??? so she may have won, but I didn't even care at that point. I told them I'm sorry, but we HAVE to leave. She is just too scared and I cannot do this to her anymore. And the darn lady at the front that was announcing everything kept saying, "Ok, lets scream louder, let me hear everyone!!! Clap, clap, clap!!" I was like OMG - we have SO got to go. It was just WAY too much for Tate. Part of Stedman's costume wouldn't even stay on and hubby had to walk away with him at one point because he just WOULD NOT shut up lol. Stedman was like the BAD 2 year old, and Tatum was like the shy, scared to death little girl lol.

So, we got there at about 6:30 and let right after 7:00. Needless to say, we will NOT be doing that again next year - no way no how! :thumbdown My hubby was just so mad that we put Tatum through that. I mean we didn't know that she was going to be THAT scared. He said that never ever again will we put her through anything like that. There were people coming up to her grabbing her face (just trying to be nice) and people coming up to her and petting her and I wanted SO BADLY to tell them ummm...PLEASE stop. She is scared to death of you because she doesn't know who you are :( I hate that she's like that but she is and I can't help it. She is just a TOTAL mommy's girl and I am the only person she wants.

There is another doggie Halloween costume contest here on Saturday (not at Petsmart of course, but somewhere else) and I was PLANNING on taking them to that, but after last night - hubby and I said NO WAY. The sad thing is, the costume contest on Saturday gives $300 CASH to the winner - what a bummer! LOL. Oh well though. When we got back in the car to leave I gave them some water (thank God I brought their little HandiDrink thing with me) and they gulped it like crazy. I also brought the Nutri-Cal (for Tate) and gave her quite a bit of that as she was just soo traumatized. We came home and they both went to sleep RIGHT AWAY (which we knew they would). They slept the ENTIRE night! :eek: My poor babies, they were just exhausted. It was just wayyy too much for them, especially Tatum.

NEVER AGAIN! lol.

Wow, that's something, so far the past 2 years our petsmart has only had around 10 participants. The pictures are always crappy because they're just using poloroids not real photographers. Sorry your baby had to go thru that.

Yep very,very disorganized and crowded. I held on to Maggie real tight or my husband did. Plus they were having obedience classes at the same time so alot of "extra" pooches everywhere !!!!! Maggie was not happy at all and everyone wanted to come up to her and touch her and hold her. Sorry no holding. I mean she weighs less than 2 lbs. But I did enjoy the other dogs. Especially the yorkies. There was a little male there not much bigger than Mags dressed as a cop !! cuteness overload !! lol But Petsmart was soooooo bad. I shoulda known they would be !! lol I have pics of last night on myspace page. www.myspace.com/pittypattyindiana I haven't been able to get them small enough to post on here yet !! lol

I'm sorry you had such a horrible time. It should have been enjoyable.