When Lisa Carpenter first walked through the door at her local Pet Valu, she was just looking for a place to socialize her Rottweiler-Cane Corso, Ripper. “I got Ripper during the pandemic,” she explains, “and one of the few areas that were open was upward in the mall, where the Pet Valu was.” But what started as a desire to give him some much-needed socialization time, quickly became their favourite go-to destination. Lisa recalls one of their earliest visits to the store, when she discovered Ripper had cut his paw and was bleeding. “Right away, the staff at Pet Valu brought us in there, made sure that Ripper was taken care of, didn't care that we had dirtied the floor a little bit, gave him a treat and kind of kept him relaxed until I was able to get someone to come and pick us up,” she says. This care for both her and Ripper is what has brought her back ever since, says Lisa. “I'll never forget, Josh was the manager at the time, and just the way that he interacted with us kept me coming back…the people that I've continued to interact with at Pet Valu is really what keeps me coming back, because my dog continuously gets lots of love, lots of attention every time we go there. And big dogs don't always get that type of attention.”
Lisa’s other dog, Breezy, who is a Staffy-Pitbull mix, doesn’t come into the store as often as Ripper — who is very friendly with all humans and other pets — but still enjoys the experience when she does. “Breezy is a little bit more challenging to bring into the store only because she's amazing with humans, but she's not very good with other pets, so she's very reactive to cats and dogs, especially cats, and there are typically cats inside of our Pet Valu,” Lisa explains. “We just make sure that there's no other dogs in there before we bring her into the store… and the staff is really good about her coming in — they know that she's got these issues with the cats, and actually we've been using it as a great socialization tool for Breezy.” This careful and supportive approach has been working too, says Lisa. “She's gotten better, we can definitely see every time we bring her somewhere, do something with her, you can see it getting easier and easier for her to get through that moment where she looks to react.”
Lisa says, she’s received VIP treatment at Pet Valu since day one. “I’ve always felt like a VIP customer at my Pet Valu.” She describes multiple ways the staff are always there to support her throughout her pet parenthood journey. “I've had little things like a dog getting sprayed by a skunk, or, more recently, a hot spot that Ripper had. So I have actually gone into Pet Valu and talked with the different staff … they're very helpful in showing me different products that are there to help me, or even researching for me.” The dog wash is another favourite service Lisa and her dogs enjoy. “Having two big dogs, rather than taking a bath in my house — one of which does not like to be bathed, but for some reason, when I put them in the bathtubs at Pet Valu, Ripper has no problems just sitting there. Just the way that the tubs are designed, I find for big dogs is really well done.” Lisa says she visits her local Pet Valu up to four or five times a week. “It's about a 7k walk from my house and back, which is what I like to do with the dogs on a daily basis.” “Sometimes it's just going in to do an order, like buy my food or my weekly treats. But more often than not, it's a place for us to walk with the dogs. They know it, they love it. They like the experience. We get our little treat, and then we go home.”
The Pet Valu experience – Bringing pet families together
Two Devoted Pet Lovers started going to Pet Valu before they even had pets. They were searching for a cat to rescue — and Pet Valu introduced them to their first cat
