The Barking Boutique
reviews and complaints

They sold me a really sick dog. I ended up spending thousands on emergency vet bills, on top of the $3,000 I paid for the dog. The animal had many problems, but they claimed it had only been to two vets and had minor issues.

Honestly, I'm not sure how this business can legally operate as retail sales of dogs is illegal in NYS. Their 'breeders' are actually really terrible puppy mills and they bold face lie about it. Actual reputable breeders ONLY sell directly to people purchasing their puppies to give them a home. This is outrageous, shame to anyone operating & supporting this business.

Puppy mill dogs are being sold here. There needs to be an investigation and this place shut down. They act like they are purchasing from reputable buyers - even give papers and supply information on the parents. When you look up the breeders they turn out to be Amish puppy mills in Indiana. Our dog has suffered digestive problems and has fear aggression- which is a result of taking the puppy too soon from the mom. He is only 23 months and we have spent thousands of dollars on vet bills.

Be aware! This place gets their puppies from puppy mill breeders. When we arrived, they wouldn't tell us the price. We found out that the puppy was actually a month younger than they advertised. They buy all their puppies from Puppies ***. After doing more research, we discovered that the breeder they get their dogs from is unlicensed. It was also revealed that the "breeders" they work with have 30 breeding adults. These people clearly don't care about the well-being of these animals. Please do your research and don't buy from them! Their prices are also in the 4-5 grand range! This place is a joke and should be closed down. I'm very unhappy.

I really like adopting dogs that have been abandoned instead of purposely breeding and selling them, but The Barking Boutique is a nice place with helpful employees. It ain't their fault that the financing companies have a bad rep and charge high interest rates, which might make the boutique look bad. Puppies can feel sick in the car or get scared in a new place, they're just little babies! When I was thinking about getting a dog there, they told me they have health insurance and a guarantee that covers all vet expenses for the first year. I don't see any of those negative reviews mentioning if people actually took their pups to the vet. Getting a new furry family member is a big commitment that shouldn't be taken lightly or returned on a whim.

Don't buy a dog here. I bought a dog on 2/12 and took her to the vet. Turns out she's really sick with 2 viruses, Gardia and Coccidia, and she's super skinny. My vet said she's malnourished. The vet even took pictures and videos of my sick puppy. I had to pay $350 in vet bills. Now I have to decide whether to return this expensive puppy and hope the pet store doesn't harm her or keep her and try to save her life. It's tough because my 3 kids are already really attached to her. They're so upset and won't stop crying. Please be careful and don't buy a puppy from this store. My vet confirmed that these puppies come from puppy mills and they've seen many sick dogs from The Barking Boutique.

We bought a mini schnauzer from The Barking Boutique in Kentwood, MI on March 28. We paid $3,800 in cash. Unfortunately, after 2 months, we had to bring back Olive Oyl (also known as Rory at the pet shop) due to unexpected circumstances. We didn't receive a refund for this. During that time, Olive was staying at the Paws & Unwind Pet Resort for socialization. Now that our crisis has been resolved, we found out that Olive has been given to "a lady who lives on a big piece of land." We've tried contacting the pet store multiple times to check on Olive's current situation and even offered to pay the new owner to bring her back to us. However, The Barking Boutique has been ignoring our calls and texts. Olive will turn 6 months old on July 11, and we really hope she won't be used for breeding purposes. The whole re-homing situation seems suspicious to us, and we're extremely worried about Olive's well-being.

Buyer beware! I bought a puppy from The Barking Boutique and found out he had health issues. I went there to get a puppy and paid thousands of dollars, thinking I was getting a healthy one. I found out that there have been many complaints and lawsuits against this company. They are just a puppy mill. I had to return my puppy because of his health issues and had to sign papers giving him back to them. They didn't reimburse me anything. I was worried about his ongoing health problems. Even my own vet's office doesn't like this place, they say it's just a puppy mill. My puppy was sick for 7 out of the 14 days I had him. I had to take him to the vet and he needed an IV and medication for diarrhea. He also had hypoglycemia issues and his gums were pale, which could be a sign of other medical problems. I had to give him corn syrup every half hour and feed him special canned food every fifteen minutes. He needed diarrhea medication in the morning and at night for 10 days. I was very emotional and stressed about my puppy's issues. He wasn't gaining any weight and only weighed a little over 2 lbs at almost 3 months old. I paid $3,500 for the puppy, vet bills, and other things for him. I have since heard from others who had similar experiences with The Barking Boutique. I don't recommend this business at all. They should be shut down!

Me and my husband went to check out a "corgi" pup on Sunday, May 31st. The dog costed $3600. We put down $1300 and financed the rest, which was $2300. Turns out, it was a contract for leasing the dog. Less than 24 hours later, we realized that the dog wouldn't get along with our other pets and it had some tummy issues. So, we decided to return it. We called up The Barking Boutique and they told us we were stuck with the dog. My husband tried reaching out to the financing company, Credova, for help. "Craig" from Credova told us that we could cancel the contract by paying an "Early Termination Fee" of $3227.00, on top of losing the $1300 down payment. That just wasn't fair. We only had the dog for less than a day and it was already having stomach problems. Frustrated, my husband spoke to the manager at The Barking Boutique and she said we could get out of the contract by paying an additional $677. It seemed better than paying $3227. She mentioned that she might get in trouble for bending the rules. If she could bend the rules for that, why couldn't they make an exception for the fact that we didn't even have the dog for 24 hours and they were taking advantage of us? So, we paid the extra $677 and returned the dog. When I went to pay, the manager, who had blonde hair, tried to convince me to stick with the original deal of keeping the dog, but we didn't want to. The dog was sickly. It felt like she was pressuring me to buy an overpriced car. I said no, but I was really angry inside. Now, my family is out $2000 and The Barking Boutique will sell the puppy to someone else for a crazy amount. Oh, and our lease stated that by the end, we would have paid over $6000 for a dog that was already too expensive at $3600. Who even leases an animal? It's a scam and this puppy store is only interested in money. Don't go there. Don't support them. I'm going to look into getting Michigan to ban pet leasing. This place will cheat you. Don't go. They charge too much and have ridiculous lease contracts. I want my $2000 back. They treated us unfairly.

I'm writing to share my experience with The Barking Boutique in Kentwood. Like many others, I was overcharged and caught up in a financing scam. On 08/16, I visited the boutique and met Ashley on "Puppy snuggle day," a marketing event to play with dogs and potentially make a purchase or finance one. I didn't plan on buying or financing, but it happened, just like it did for many others.

I fell in love with a Huskamo puppy named Snoopy, whose price on the paperwork was $3,200. I made a $300 down payment, thinking it would be the first payment towards financing. However, I was mistaken. After making my third payment, I realized that the financing company had approved a loan amount of $3,339.36, with a high interest rate of 22.99%. I called LendingUSA and discovered that I had already paid $1,400 within two months for this "financing." The agent I spoke to had no record of my initial $300 payment. During the call, I also noticed that despite making larger payments of $371.74 and a second payment of $500, they were still charging me the monthly amount. They claimed it was because I didn't specify that the larger payments were not additional payments but meant to cover the monthly amount. They collected the payments through auto-pay.

Without my initial $300 payment, which they strongly suggested I call the place of purchase about, I contacted the boutique. The woman who answered seemed surprised and upset when I explained the situation. I had paid $300 initially to reduce the dog's price to $2,900. She correctly identified the employee who assisted me as Ashley. She explained that when they accept payments in-store for financing, they actually reduce the dog's price and submit the reduced amount to the financing company. It seemed that Ashley hadn't updated the accounts and submitted the full amount instead. The woman promised to pass on my information to her manager.

Despite calling multiple times, I was only able to leave voicemails and received no response from the company, management, or any associates. They have taken my money and provided no assistance in resolving the issue. This dog is not worth $3,200, and with the financing and interest, the total cost exceeds $5,700. I have already paid $1,400 and an additional $300 for AKC registration, which they claim is provided to customers who purchase AKC breeds.

My sister also bought a dog from them, which turned out to be severely sick with a UTI and respiratory infection. When we called, they refused to cover any ER visits or testing for a $2,800 dog. They are also experiencing the same financing issue.

I am desperate for answers, a resolution, and for the pricing of my dog to be corrected and paid off. This business practice is absurd and fraudulent.

I bought a cockapoo puppy for *** on March 14th, 2022. I was told to let the barking boutique know if there was diarrhea within the first two days of buying the puppy because it could be due to stress. However, after 10 days, my dog cried while pooping and only blood came out. The business was closed at that time, so I took her to an emergency vet hoping for improvement. The vet diagnosed her with Giardia. When I complained to the company, hoping for reimbursement, they laughed and said I wouldn't get anything because it was an emergency vet. They claimed that all the puppies have Giardia because it's in our water here. They didn't do anything to address my puppy's health issues or the $900 vet bill.

We got our puppy from The Barking Boutique in ***, . 48 hours later, we found out he had Giardia after a vet visit for *** diarrhea. I've been trying to get a refund for the vet visit (or at least the medication as per our contract), but we haven't had any luck. You can't call it a 2 week limited puppy health GUARANTEE when you add fine print saying you'll only pay for meds, not the vet visit or diagnostic testing. It's like saying we guarantee their health, but if they're not healthy... oh well! It's also ridiculous that the company can just go silent when it comes to what they legally owe the consumer according to their own contract.

I went to Barking Boutique to find a puppy. We were told we could get financing, but the truth is we were taking out a loan with interest! If we knew this, we would have never agreed. It's like buying a car, not getting a pet. The interest is killing us, and we can't reduce the balance. It just keeps adding up, and we'll never pay off this puppy. It's a real shame that they're allowed to do this. We're now paying $6,000 for a puppy that's worth $1,500. We love Lexi; she's part of our family. But this is a financial hardship for my husband and me, especially since I'm unemployed due to Covid. We're barely making ends meet. We'd love to settle with a reasonable payment of $1000 to finally be done with this expensive joke of a loan. EasyPay finance and Barking Boutique are making so much money off people's emotions and love for animals. It's really sad that this can happen and it needs to stop!

On January 22, 2022, around 4:30PM, we bought a puppy from The Barking Boutique at the *** location. (***). They say their puppies are healthy and come with health guarantees. But, unfortunately, we had to take him to an emergency vet at 3:00AM on January 23, 2022 because he was pooping blood. The vet found a not-so-common parasite and prescribed four different medications right away. When we called The Barking Boutique to share our experience, hoping they would cover the vet expenses as they promised with their 14-day vet reimbursement insurance, they only agreed to reimburse us for the medications. Their dogs are already way too expensive, and when you're assured they'll be healthy, you don't expect to rush them to the vet. We've thought about returning him within the 48-hour window, but they'll only give us back 50% of the money, even though we had to pay for the medical treatment that we believe we shouldn't have had to.

We got our dog *** (***) from Grandvilles barking boutique in February . After having *** for almost three years, he suddenly went blind. We took him to a vet who confirmed he was blind due to glaucoma. We also visited a specialist (Optometrists) who confirmed the same. They said it was primary glaucoma, which is hereditary. We have a three-year warranty with the company, but they are refusing to help us. We sent them all the required documents. Our dog had to undergo surgery and have both eyes removed. We are devastated by what has happened to our boy. He is too young to go through all of this. The company's lack of sympathy and care for the dogs once they leave their facility is terrible and disgusting. Dogs are more than just dogs. *** is part of our family. We just want a refund or for them to cover the expenses due to their negligence and irresponsible breeding of these innocent animals.

I went to check out a pug puppy on 3/5/22. The puppy was super cute! When they told us it would cost around $5,000, we asked to see the paperwork and the price so we could take her home. We also asked if we could finance her. We told them we had $1,200 to put down on the puppy today. They said it was declined with no reason. They mentioned it might be because of our credit score, but I haven't seen any hard inquiries on my credit score related to this. We even tried with a co-signer, but still no luck. They didn't give us a reason for the decline. Personally, I think their prices for animals are too high. The pug puppy also looked skinny. We drove all the way from Ransonville *** to see this puppy. We asked over the phone if it would cost more than $700, but they couldn't give us an answer. They didn't ask for ID, statements, or any proof of anything when we tried to finance the dog. They said it would be based on our credit score, but they never ran a credit report. They also said we could pay it off in 36 months, but the website says something different. They never showed any paperwork for the dog either. Honestly, I think the dog would have gone to a good home, but they didn't want to work with us. They kept saying they didn't know why it was declined. In my opinion, they should have just taken the cash for the dog and left it at that.

Complaint on False Advertising, and Employee Conduct: On the evening of 12/3/22, I heard the company's radio ad claimin' to have pure bred and purpose bred dogs. I went to their website to check out their puppies and noticed they advertise lots of crossbred dogs that ain't recognized by the *** (Labradoodle, Golden Doodle, ***, etc.). I called 'em up to ask 'bout their Purpose Bred dogs and the store manager answered. When I asked 'bout their mixed breed dogs bein' called Purpose Bred, all they said was they were bred for Hypo Allergenic purposes. They said these dogs won't trigger allergens, but no purebred dogs are officially recognized to be completely allergen free. When I asked for more info, they just repeated that these dogs were bred for hypoallergenic purposes, even though they advertise lots of mixed breeds that don't have this quality. The manager was super rude and said I needed more education if I didn't understand. The term purpose bred is supposed to be for dogs bred for work or sport. The puppies they show in their catalog are just there to trick people and confuse 'em 'bout the dogs' true genetic makeup. The breed parent clubs in the U.S have said they don't accept these designer breeds. They advertise these dogs for way more money ($2400-$5000) than reputable breeders who sell puppies with genetic testing and health clearances for both the parents and the puppies. The ad needs to show what they're actually sellin': unpredictable mixes and mill puppies.

I bought a puppy from The Barking Boutique in *** on June 24th, 2022 for $4,000. I paid $500 for them to find the color and type of dog I wanted. The puppy had kennel cough in a few days but got better. In January 2023, the puppy was running in the kitchen and we heard two loud yelps. We thought the puppy stepped on something or hurt her paw. She immediately wouldn't put her right paw down on the ground, and within a week, I had an $800 expense. They told me she would need surgery to fix a fluxating patella. A week later, the puppy had a double ear infection, which cost over $200. One week after that, the puppy couldn't walk on her left leg, and they said it was the same issue as the right leg. After a recheck of her ears that required another treatment and pain medication for her knees, I have paid over $1,200. I had a surgical consultation that cost another $185, and I was shocked by the news. It will cost $10,000 for surgery on both of the puppy's legs, and that doesn't include follow-up appointments and post-operative X-rays. The Barking Boutique said they would reimburse me for the cost of the dog as per the contract when I bought her. I am a single mom of 4 kids, and I originally got the puppy for my daughter who suffers from anxiety. Now, we can't imagine life without this puppy. She has become a lap dog and needs to be carried everywhere. She can't walk for long before she falls and can't run and play. She whimpers in pain every day. I don't know how I'm going to come up with the rest of the money for the puppy's surgeries, and I feel that The Barking Boutique should cover the full cost. They claim to know their breeders, but according to the surgeon, our puppy should never have been bred because it's stage 4, the worst they have seen in such a young pup. They either knew or didn't follow through on the genetics of the mom and dad dogs. Our puppy's quality of life has declined in just 6 weeks, and I still have to come up with $6,000.