Planet Paws Pet Essentials

An excellent local pet store that cares about its community and pets. The owner is involved and cares what his customers think. A bit pricey but worth it for the quality!

this place is fantastic!!! they have all the quality food brands and it’s quite a selection. they also have lots of natural products for your dog or cat. my only compliant is that they don’t have enough toys. I find it hard to find quality toys in the city so I would love to see planet paws branch out. otherwise, they are amazing. they have super long hours too! and the best part is, you can get a free tennis ball on the way out!

I’ve been here twice, and both times the staff have been super friendly and knowledgable. They carry lots of healthy dog foods including all of your raw needs such as marrow bones, beef ribs, ect, all of which are locally sourced. They also carry lots of great dog toys, and other pet products, but mostly dog related things — there is even a complimentary scale to weigh your K9 on.
Also, they have awesome hours of operation — I was surprised to find out that they were open until 10PM everyday and 11PM Fridays & Saturdays.
Great store, worth the drive from Halifax — I will be back.

I recently went into Planet Paws with some questions about my dog. She is biting and scratching a lot. The girl who was working there, I think her name may have been Mandy, was fabulous. Not only did she take the time to explain the different types of allergies that dogs face, she also recommended different types of foods to try from the raw diet to different brands of kibble. I didn’t feel pressured at all to go either way and left with samples of both to try. I have started my dog on the raw diet as well as yogurt and honey all of which she loves:) I will definitely be going back and highly recommend that any pet owners do the same.

This is a really nice little pet supply store. They carry a large selection of more ethical brands of pet food, litter, toys, treats and more. It’s clean, well organized and stocked full of goodies for your fur babies. Nice staff to boot.

Our Lab/​Bernese mix LOVES going to Planet Paws. Rodney Habib has a little piece of doggy heaven there for her. As soon as we turn up the street she starts whining and pacing back and forth. She loves her Bison bones and chew snacks the most. Rodney knowledge of raw food diets and other pet health topics is always interesting and informative.

Our favorite pet shop stop in Dartmouth. Heck in the HRM. Once you find this little gem tucked in Montebello Subdivision you’ll never want to visit the big box pet stores again! All the staff in there are extremely helpful and friendly. Rodney (the owner) is so knowledgable in pet nutrition! You always leave there feeling good if you went in questioning something.
I often felt like I should have been paying him for all of his time and advise during some food issues we had been having with one of our dogs.
This shop only carries the best quality foods around. Brands that have been researched up the wazoo. He takes alot of pride in what he carries in his store, and «I» as a consumer (or pet owner) appreciate that.
His store offers frequent buyer programs on several of his food brands also. Heck they even have doggie ice cream in the summer!
Last I heard this was the #1 Pet Store in CANADA and I couldnt agree more :)

I met a new neighbour recently, while walking my dog. I referred to myself as «Mummy» while explaining what my dog was «thinking». I’ve become one of *those* people.
Embarrassing as it may be, the above story is meant to illustrate that I take very good care of my dog, and I worry about his diet and the treats I feed him — and I really want him to live as long as possible, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to be institutionalized when he… goes.
This is why I go to Rodney and the rest of the staff at Planet Paws for advice on the care and feeding of my fur-​child. It’s not always easy advice to hear (he did tell me my fur-​child was fat, for example, which the scale confirmed) but I know the advice I’m getting is going to help me have a healthy dog for a long long time.
There’s a great selection of food, and everything sold at Planet Paws is nutritionally optimal, Rodney’s specialty. The store and staff are also very involved with Shubie Park and donate a lot of time and money into making the park a great place to take your dogs for a stroll.
They also carry a good selection of all the other stuff you might want for your pet, toys, grooming aids, dishes, harnesses, collars, car restraints, etc etc etc. Dogs are welcome to cruise the store, and will even get a little treat for stopping by.
Definitely our favourite stop on the weekend.

A dog in Planet Paws will remind you of a kid in a candy store, except you won’t have to worry about a mouthful of cavities, only slobbery kisses and happy tails.
My dog isn’t a fussy eater, but his allergies make it hard to find tasty treats he can have that won’t send him into a gassy overdrive. There’s nothing worse than the whole house becoming a methane factory because the supposed grain-​free dentabone from another store contained traces of barley.
Luckily, the staff was on hand to give me a run down on some fantastic local, organic, and all-​natural options that were rather inexpensive and were quite a hit with my handsome little man when I got home. Plus, they’re the only other store in the area that sells the brand of food my boy eats, so I was able to stock up on a large bag of it for a fraction of the price of the other store. For those looking to feed their pets non-​processed foods, they also have a fridge/​freezer for fresh foods.
It doesn’t have as wide a selection of toys and accessories as other stores I’ve visited, but I will definitely be coming back here for food supplies. The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful, and they, being a local business, support other local initiatives like Shubie Snacks which help maintain Dartmouth’s favourite dog park, Shubie Park. If you’re lucky, one of the staff’s new pup Shubie (sensing a theme here?) might be in and available for soft cuddles. Plus, after you’ve picked up some treats for Poochie, you can stop in at the adjoining Funky Munky ice cream shop for a treat for yourself! Everybody wins!
Just note that in the summer especially, the parking lot is a bit chaotic with all the traffic from the pizza place, convenience store, and most prominently the ice cream stand. Be careful driving in, and keep an eye on your furry friend when navigating the parking lot!

After visiting this place tonight, I have found my new pet shop!
After going through round one of obedience training with my westie puppy (luckily she didn’t eat her certificate like a friend’s pup did), the trainer at Fetch highly recommended Planet Paws because of their love of Shubie Park and the food-​knowledge of the owner, I decided to trot over to see what all the fuss was about.
I went with many purposes in mind — to check out different food options for my possibly-​allergic-​to-​everything puppy, to get a harness so I can walk my dog in harmony with all the other new (delicious?) springtime animals roaming around, and to get some new chewy snacks for my dog to munch on.
This place has it all, I was so impressed not only by the variety of the products but also by the staff who were all super helpful! We tried on a few harnesses and I got to walk my pup around the store to try it out, and I waited my turn to talk to the food guru who gave me some great insight into what’s best to feed my dog. I walked out with a new harness, a free bag of shubie snacks (their own homemade snackies, all proceeds go to the shubie park fund!) and a couple small bags of food that are low on the food allergy scale to see if my dog stops her butt munching.
The staff genuinely care about my dog and answered all questions that I had, I will definitely go back (I was encouraged to, so they can see how my doggie is faring), and luckily I can transfer my food bag counts that I had accrued at another local store to their store so I can still get my free bag eventually. Fab! And the store is super pet friendly, so bring your dog for a drink and a snack :)

Did I just find my new neighbourhood pet shop? After my half-​hour long first visit last week, I definitely think so!
Conveniently tucked in between my house and my favourite dog park (Shubie park), this shop was built as a custom extension off a video rental, pizza place, ice cream joint combination dealie on Montebello and is really quite lovely on the inside! Built around a lovely (and big!) faux-​tree, the interior is worth a look whether you have a Fido at home or not.
All your pet supply table stakes are on hand: tons and tons of food brands (plus the offer to order anything in that you don’t see on the shelves), treats, toys, leashes, collars, sweaters, vitamins and supplements, even cookbooks for home-​cooking for your pooch’s palate!
Now, I could easily stop there and land at a solid three-​star but it’s the added steps that this crew has taken to enhance the community that really push into four, borderline five-​star territory. This I know, again, because I insisted on asking them 127 questions while I was there. Here’s the scoop:
— They custom-​make ‘Shubie Snacks’ with Kathleen from Tailwagrrrs (my favourite doggy daycare), with all the proceeds going to maintain the dog park at Shubie. I think they mentioned they’ve raised some $ 30,000 since August? That sounds crazy… but I’m pretty sure that’s what they said. Are you a regular at Shubie Park? You know that gazebo and all the brand new benches? Yeah. Planet Paws built those.
— The owner is seriously educated in the pet nutrition (for example, did you know some of the biggest brands of pet food are made by Mars and Nestle?) and clearly very passionate about helping his customers. Long story short: one of my dogs is a delicate flower who can’t eat anything without full-​body meltdowns. The owner has given me tons to think about when it comes to his health including some options that would basically keep my money out of their hands (non-​kibble/​store-​bought diets, etc.). For him, the health of my pooch is more important. And that’s pretty awesome.
— In addition to all the mainstream food options, Planet Paws also carried a huge freezer full of raw meals. I won’t get into the whole nutritional side of why that’s important but will instead leave it at them supporting other local pet food suppliers rather than sticking exclusively with the big corporations.

I have been in this store a # of times. The owner Rod is very knowledgeable about dog food which is helpful.
Don’t go in there and ask questions if he is in a bad mood or to question his advise or to say that the dog food he suggested last time didn’t work for your dog and could he suggest another.
Unfortunately i did this, returned to get more advice because the food was not working for my dog; I walked out of the store never wanting to return. I will go elsewhere.
I am not sure retail is the best place for him.