BarkWorks Pups & Stuff

I also did a check on the Cindy Hubers breeder from Da-​Pa-​Kli Kennels in South Dakota and she VERY bad reviews. And has been cited by the government inspectors as a bad breeder.

I’d encourage you to visit this site before considering shopping from Barkworks or any pet store that uses puppy mills:
Don’t shop, adopt! If you want to give a dog a loving home find a rescue in your area like
Luckily Los Angeles has enacted an ordinance on the retail sale of dogs so hopefully these places won’t be around much longer

Closing this Monday the 31^st.
too many complaints from what i was told ???

I’m guessing that 99% of the reviews on this site are from some sort of organized anti-​puppy mill smear campaign. I don’t endorse any mistreatment of animals, but I didn’t see any signs of it here, and the breeders from which these dogs came were clearly labeled in the shop. Nearly a year ago, I had some time to kill before a movie in the mall, and I wandered into Barkworks (not my first time here). I thought I’d take a few minutes to look at some cute puppies with NO intention of taking one home that day (I had planned to get a puppy within a few months, but not that day), and I fell in love. The dorkie I got is the love of my life, and has had absolutely NO health or behavioral problems.
I saw nothing of the problems described here. Sure, some puppies were sleeping. But none looked sick, lethargic, or dirty. They were taken out of their cages a few at a time to be allowed to play and exercise. I noticed no fighting (and I’ve been in stores where all of the dogs seemed to be fighting). There were several employees present, all of whom were very busy caring for the dogs. They gave me a private room in which to see if I would bond with the puppy, and helped me take him to my car when we were done.
The only negative I can think of is that the free vet visit I was offered was at a specific vet who happened to be far from my home. They offered an alternative, who turned out to be just as far away in the opposite direction. The vet was fine, but I then had to change vets once he’d had all of his puppy shots because I didn’t want to rely on someone an hour away. That wasn’t horrible, and it WAS a free visit, but it meant that I had to take my puppy to a new vet for his neutering, which made me nervous (it worked out fine too).
Now that I know a little more about the world of dogs, I’d probably try to get my next one from a rescue or shelter, but I really have nothing bad to say about BarkWorks.

I can’t speak on owning one of their pets per se, since I ended up buying our second Dachshund from a breeder we used before (sorry bout it, yes I do buy from breeders)… but we did look at the pups there before getting him and now I still like to go just to see the puppies when we stop at the Pavillion.
The employees there are not really anywhere to be found except by the register, but they always seem decent enough. I haven’t had any bad experiences with them.
Most of the pups seem to be tired, but they are puppies and much like babies they tend to sleep a lot. Sadly, they don’t have much space to get much exercise, so I hope that part of the employees jobs are to take them on a walk around the mall.
They do have a great amount of Dachshunds (which is a VERY huge deal in BH for some reason… when we moved here, having already been a doxie owner, I immediately felt at home!) There are lots of other little dogs and sometimes a large puppy.

I was in the shop on Overland this week. There were puppies seating in the window cage. Some of them were lethargic and seemed sick so I approached a sales person to let her know that may be the animals need some vet attention. She became very impatient with me and threatened me with the security unless I left the shop immediately. I was shocked… I just wanted to help these poor puppies… She called the security and I heard her telling them that I «grabbed her». I had to leave even though she lied with no shame…
What a place to work at! They are appalling people doing appalling business …
Please do not support them by giving them $$ for the poor puppies. Most of the puppies die before they reach the pet shop from being sick due to horrible living conditions. Just check out what happens to those dogs in puppy mills. This is just one of them…

DO NOT OBTAIN A DOG FROM THIS SHOP. We rescued a poor little puppy that was never purchased from this store in Westside Pavilion. Guess what — she came home infected with Giardia and worms. She has now infected my other dog and possibly even me. I love her, and I feel so bad for her, and I am SO happy to have her, but we cannot support a store like this to continue to exist. They are commiting fraud and false advertising. They prey on people whose hearts go out to these poor puppies stuck in a window. DO NOT PROMOTE THIS STORE. Put them out of business. These puppies do not deserve to be ill like this and certainly not locked behind a window. If you don’t believe me, check out
and search «barkworks» and have a look at
PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!

Do not buy your next friend here. They buy pupps from puppy mills!
AND – they try to sell packages with rescue dogs for profit. They claim you are getting the rescue dog for free, but you are overpaying for all of the supplies, shots, and fixing the animal. So in the end they are making profit on rescue animals! That is so unethical Barkworks!

Take a look at the reviews from BarkWorks Thousand Oaks too! They’re exactly the same!
I usually say take Unilocal reviews with a grain of salt especially if there’s only a few postings! But when you’ve got over 20 reviews! It’s a pretty accurate perspective!
DO NOT I repeat DO NOT! buy a dog from a petshop especially BarkWorks!!! I work at a vet and we had a puppy diagnosed with full blown Parvo 2 days after they brought it home! Go to your local shelter!
If you’re not familiar with Parvo, look it up, it’s one of the worst viruses a pup/​dog can get! It can stay in an untreated back yard for up to 7 years! Left untreated morality rate is over 90%!!
When the girl tried to return the pup with the doctors diagnosis (bloodwork lab test) the store gave her a horribly hard time and insinuated that it was her fault the pup had Parvo! NO! with such a strong reading that pup had Parvo from where it came from!

1. Poor puppies
2. Poor, badly bred puppies that are obviously not up to proper breeding standards
3. Poor, badly bred puppies that are obviously not up to proper breeding standards, being stuck in little plexiglass cubicles as children bang on the glass.
Pretty awful stuff.

Although I have thought that stores that sell puppies are evil, and am completely against puppy mills, I’ve refrained from reviewing BarkWorks simply because I didn’t have the gall to step into the store. Now that I have, I can honestly say that this place is just awful.
So I’ll sound like a broken record about puppy mill dogs and how the pets at pet stores are more likely to have health issues, etc etc. In an effort to make you feel like you’re buying from a breeder and not some mill, in front of each cage there’s a label identifying the dog’s breed, birth date, «breeder» and location of breeder. They don’t say «so-​and-​so puppy mill» but rather the name of an individual, so that you think that them rescue folks are cray-​cray and that they’re selling dogs from individual breeders. While I’ve heard (and subscribe to) the adage that a reputable breeder would (a) not sell to a pet store and (b) would never ship dogs (and thus deals locally) I wanted to take this whole we-​buy-​from-​reputable-​breeders for a test drive. So I wrote down the breeder’s name — Cindy Hubers of South Dakota — from the label of a cute Havanese puppy in the front window.
I then googled this «reputable breeder» and found that there were several reports for her (a) linked to all different kinds of breeds (real breeders only breed 1 – 2 breeds because they have to get to know the breed well) and (b) had a whole slew of complaints against her for dogs that were bought at pet shops from her — in places all over the country. So that could insinuate a bad breeder but no conclusive evidence of a puppy mill, if we give her the benefit of the doubt (ha). More internet sleuthing tied Hubers to the DaPaKli kennels in Harrison, SD, and in reviewing USDA reports from the kennel, see that there’s 60 (60!) adult dogs in the kennel and that they’re contained in wire mesh. No breeders have 60 adult dogs on premises. That’s a puppy mill, child.
And this is just one «breeder» whose name I randomly picked off of a label on a cage.
In walking around I was surprised to see how many «designer dogs» there were and how liberally that term’s used (who’s «designing» yorkie-​chihuahua mixes?) After doing a search for PUPPIES (not adults) on petfinder for some of the mixes that they were selling, I was able to find a plethora of most mixed-​breeds from local shelters or rescues. Yes, these pound pups won’t have papers, but if you were planning to show your dog in competition, you wouldn’t be buying from a puppy store anyways.
The sad thing is that they also have a few rescues in the shop. The upside is that they’re also put in the front cages. Their rehoming fee is $ 250, which is 2−4x less than most of the dogs in the shop, though higher than that of the shelters which they come from. Although some rescues charge more than that for their dogs, they tend to rehabilitate the dogs, get to know their personalities, socialize them, give them lots of TLC, and sometimes housebreak them before they find their forever home. Rescues also tend to do due diligence on ensuring that their forever homes are just that. These rescues can be yours for a cash exchange, are cooped up in the cages, and so are in no better case than they are at the shelter other than getting more exposure.
The BIG disservice that a store like this is doing, though, by acquiring rescues is that most people determined to rescue a dog will go anywhere BESIDES a pet store selling puppy mill dogs to rescue their dogs. Those looking for rescues vehemently oppose puppy stores so would likely not even step into the store (which is the only way to know about the rescues), and even if they do, because the store is getting the difference between the shelter pull fee and the «adoption» fee, rescuing a dog from here is feeding the same mouths as buying a puppy mill dog. Thus, these dogs will likely have a long while before getting adopted, if they ever do.

Do not buy anything from these guys!!! Poor facilities and mistreated puppies here… seriously. It smelled like farts and feces in here and the puppies looked lethargic and sad.
If you didn’t get my message already; Their dogs come from puppy mills.
PLEASE Boycott this store.

I never usually go to the Westside Pavillion, but I have a Hot Dog on a Stick refillable cup so I go to get it filled a lot. One day I saw Barkworks… and I LOOOOVVVVEEEE doggies.
So I’m flipping out and a lot of these dogs are incredibly cute. They sell all sorts of breeds there and they put the «popular» breeds in front like the Husky and the Golden Retriever. Inside there are more like Shih Tzus, dachshunds, beagles, and terriers.
One thing I wish they did was let you play with the dogs a bit, but you can only do that if you are going to buy one. They sell some accessories but of course this is a mall store so you can find more at like PetCo.
I always try to come to this store to check out what kind of dogs are out and I swear one day I’ll get a new dog (my old one died many years back).
PS Wow, I see a lot of extreme hate about this place actually. Dogs aren’t people, folks.

Please resist the urge to buy a cute dog from this store. The cages are small and crowded, the dogs that are stuck in a cage together are usually fighting, and of course, there’s the obvious fact that these dogs are from puppy mills. You might think that by buying a dog here, you’re ‘rescuing’ a dog from this crappy store, but you’re only saving one dog, while simultaneously funding the breeding of countless others. What’s even more maddening is that a lot of the ‘exclusive’ breeds I saw in the store are the same breeds I’ve seen at shelters.
We don’t need to breed dogs anymore. There are plenty, and they’re being euthanized every day.
I’m about as much of an anti-​PETA carnivore as they come, but why people would pay for the breeding of dogs when so many animals are sitting in shelters waiting to be rescued is beyond me.
What’s worse, a lot of the people that are coming in these stores are obviously low-income…do they not know that you can adopt a pet at a shelter for $ 100-​$ 200? INCLUDING pure-​breds?

If I could give this place negative stars I would. On first inspection to someone who doesn’t know a huge amount about the pet industry it doesn’t look bad.
Think again.
The dogs are kept in little glass cages, with lamps over them and only very small ventilation holes. Imagine how hot that would be! A lot of the boxes were filthy and a few were out of water. I, being curious as to where these puppies had come from started asking an employee a few questions. Standard «good breeders» type stuff.
And then the kicker. I asked him what happens to the puppies that don’t sell.
He got this awful dirty look on his face, and then snidely said «Well we donate them to schools and temples. What do you think lady, we Euthanize them.»
I was appalled. It must have showed on my face as well, because after seeing several ‘older’ puppies on clearance I was imagining all of the adorable babies in that store that wouldn’t sell being taken in the back and disposed of. He then had the gall to say «That’s a loaded question, we /​love/​these dogs.»
This company is horrid. NO GOOD BREEDER WOULD SEND ANIMALS TO A COMPANY THAT IS GOING TO EUTHANIZE THE ONES THAT DON’T SELL. End of story.
Puppy mill dogs, selling for several grand, and killing the poor ones that aren’t cute enough to make the cut. Awesome business

I bought the sickest dog I have ever purchased in my life from Barkworks.
I knew he was sick the moment I bought him, but the salesman told me if I bought a sick dog I could get back up to 150% of my purchase price.
I bought a Coton de Tulear a dog I have always wanted. With the assurance that if a Vet proved he was sick I would qualify for a refund.
It just broke my heart to leave him there because I had visited him twice and no one had bought him. They wanted $ 1,500 for him. They agreed to sell him to me for $ 1,100. I could not bear to think that he would be put to sleep because all the shelters were full
The next day I took him to the Vet, he was indeed a very sick dog. I spent over $ 1,000 getting him better. After several weeks of visiting the Vet and numerous types of anti biotics we finally got him well.
I felt I was entitled to a full refund but NO I got $ 675 back.
I’m taking them to small claims court and hopefully someone will close them down.

I actually bought my dog from here. I walked into the store and I fell in love with my pug Wringo. He was just sitting there, depressed looking, waiting for someone to buy him. So my family and I took him home that day. This was all before I knew about puppy mills.
We took my puppy to the vet for a check up and we found out he had worms in his stool. It was a quick and easy fix, but my puppy didn’t seem well until the meds finally kick in after a while. Unfortunately, I’ve heard that many dogs that come from Barkworks have medical problems and are in need of medical attention.
I still go into the store to check out the puppies because I love dogs. I always look out for pugs and boston terriers because I also have a boston. But I will never buy a dog from there again, because I do not support Barkworks. I hope they go bankrupt. They charge so much for the puppies up to a couple thousand dollars.
And one other note, when you walk into the store now, there’s a strange odor that lingers around. The odor is really sour and distasteful. They really should do something about the smell because it deters prospective customers from coming in. IT SMELLS REALLY BAD IN THERE MOST OF THE TIME. Not all the time, but most.

I wish there was an option zero stars!
My friend used to work there when it first opened. She loved the dogs and liked being able to see them and play with them daily. Sadly, 3 weeks into working there she was yelled at for «feeding the dogs too much» because they «have to seem desperate and cry so people will feel bad and want to buy them.» Her manager honestly told her this! Obviously he’s just listening to orders as well, but that is just WRONG!
After 2 months of working there she couldn’t stand it anymore. She felt so cruel because she had to obey orders she didn’t agree with.
She was never told where the puppies come from (except for the state: ie. Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, etc) but she knows they weren’t from reputable breeders. They paid $ 100 — $ 200 for a puppy and price them for $ 500+
Stop supporting inhumane places like pet stores and puppy mills! Go to shelters, breed-​specific rescues, or if you’re really set on a dog that meets the AKC standards, then DO YOUR HOMEWORK and search for an HONEST, REPUTABLE Breeder.
An honest and Reputable Breeder:
— doesn’t sell to pet stores
— doesn’t sell for profit
— does EXTENSIVE research on their breed
— pays thousands! of dollars on improving their breed
— have health guarantees
— shows their dogs for conformation at dog shows
— does NOT mix breeds!
— sells Pet Quality dogs ONLY on Spay/​Neuter Contracts
— will get their dogs and puppies all and any medical attention needed regardless of cost
— will be in good standing with their local and/​or national breed club
— will be a forever friend that will be open to any questions you might have

What an evil, evil store. Hitler seal of approval.
It’s beyond depressing. When millions of animals in shelters get put down annually there is not one reason anyone should ever buy a dog, especially from a place stocked by puppy mills.
The dogs are in small glass cases of emotion, it’s sick. Dogs on top of dogs with a few pieces of news paper and maybe some water, all to be pimped out for the dollar.
So fucked, please no one ever shop here. I’ve gone through twice, just to better observe what exactly is going on and I leave well passed pissed off. Amazing groups like the ASPCA have to spend on advertising to help rescued animals just to combat designer stores like this that basically support the slave trade of dogs.
So so so fucked.

Im so glad others have written about this horrible place.
I was there on Sunday and I was so upset by what i saw
There were at least 2 puppies to a box that did not have any air or place to move around in.
the dogs were all lethargic and were rolling around in their own dirt.
I have been on the phone for the last 2 days trying to report them to Animal Control. Im determined to get the city to take those animals at once.