Today we will focus on Menards. Are dogs allowed in Menards or not? what they have to say when it comes to dogs being in their store. Do they allow it? Or do they only allow service dogs to come through their doors?
Knowing where you can, and cannot, take your dog is kind of important. The difficult part is that various stores have differences in their policies when it comes to whether or not dogs are allowed inside.
This is clearly important to know if you are a dog owner. You must have an understanding of those stores where you can simply walk in with your dog and not run into problems.
More stores across the country do appear to have changed their opinion, within limits, so it’s interesting to see if Menards is one of those stores.
The Answer
The answer here is different right now to what it would have been in the past. Previously, Menards had the policy of allowing pets to come into their stores, but that has changed in the last couple of years.
Now, only service dogs can come into their stores, and even though that policy may change at some point in the future, this is the status quo right now.
This is sad to hear, as it’s always good finding stores that have the view of welcoming dogs in with their owners to the store. So, to learn that something is now different does come as something of a blow.
But why is this the case? Well, it’s not exactly something Menards was planning on doing. Also, things were kind of out of their hands, to a certain extent.
Why the Change?
Apparently, the change is due to the global health crisis that has swamped the world since 2020. It seems that Manards made a few changes to how they did things, and restricting dogs from coming into their store was one of those changes.
But it wasn’t only dogs that suffered. When they first announced the changes, it also led to them stopping children under the age of 16 from entering their stores.
This was all designed to reduce the number of individuals that would be in their store at any given time.
Considering the circumstances, this is something that is easy to understand. However, even though this is the current policy, looking at what it was like before is a good idea. After all, we can only hope that things may revert back to the way they were at some point in the future.
What was it Like Before?
Prior to the health crisis, Menards was a very pet-friendly store. That in itself gives some hope that they could revert back to their old way of doing things at some point in the future.
Previously, they allowed you to entire their stores with your dog with the only caveat being they were on their leash, and were well-behaved. Those were the only rules, and they were certainly very welcoming.
However, we don’t want to paint this as being a universal policy. That was not the case, and that is where things became difficult for dog owners across the country.
But it Wasn’t Always Clear
But we do run into a problem here. Even though it was largely accepted that Menards was a pet-friendly store, it was not something that appeared in their official policies.
That did lead to some confusion and problems, as it does appear that approaches differed depending on each individual store. It does come across that there was no one set policy as to which stores would allow dogs. Also, there were those that just had a complete blanket ban on them.
This is clear when you do some checking online, and see comments from people working at Menards in different locations. It’s clear that it was generally viewed as being an individual store policy. However, they were certainly not breaking any rules if they did allow dogs to come into the store.
In some stores, employees were told to ask dog owners if their dog was a service dog. If they were, then there was no problem. If not, they were told to refuse entry, in a polite manner of course.
But then other stores had an open doors policy. As long as your dog was on a leash and well-behaved, then there were no problems with them being there.
Also, it was accepted that if your dog made a mess, then you would need to clean it up. This was rather than leaving it to the staff. But this was also something that was unwritten, and not set down in the company policies.
However, all of that was then put on hold when they were forced into putting a ban on any dogs. This was apart from service dogs to restrict the number of people in their stores.
Service Dogs
When it comes to service dogs, then they are open to welcoming any dog that is there to help their owner with any issue. So, it’s not restricted to simply dogs helping those who are blind.
However, they are aware that some people may sadly try to circumvent these rules and pass their own dog off as being a service dog. So, expect your dog to have to be wearing a vest indicating they do indeed work as a service dog.
Keep in mind that they do classify any dog helping with a disability as a service dog. It’s not as if they will ask you all about your disability. They are not as insensitive as that.
But you should expect to be quizzed by staff as to the role of your dog. This is perhaps the biggest change since they had to enforce their stricter policy of no dogs being allowed onto their premises.
If you have some concerns as to whether or not your service dog is allowed, then you can contact Menards and ask them directly. They do have a list of service dogs that can come into their store, and they will certainly help you out.
Alternatively, contact your local store and speak to the manager. They will give you the correct answer for their store. However, if you have no issues in getting into other stores with your service dog, then Menards will be no different.
What Will the Future Be Like?
There is undoubtedly some hope that their future policy on this matter will change. Chances are that it would only revert back to their previous approach.
That would ultimately mean each store manager would have to make the decision as to whether or not dogs would gain entry to the store. The problem with that approach is that one manager in a store can have a different opinion to another manager. That leads to absolute confusion.
But as of right now, it’s impossible to predict what may happen. That does mean you should think about simply leaving your dog at home when it comes to visiting a Menards store near you. It’s just safer, and a whole lot easier that way.
Visiting Menards
As a dog owner, you will now need to leave your dog at home when you plan on visiting Menards for anything. Please don’t leave them in your car on a hot day if you plan on then going into the store. It’s better if you plan ahead and ensure your dog is comfortable, and not in any type of poor conditions.
You will have no chance of entering their store with your dog. You could try giving your local store a call and ask to speak to the manager. This will determine if anything has changed, but it’s highly unlikely.
What you would need in that situation is for a manager to have a real affinity with dogs and to have a willingness to allow dog owners into their store. However, this would certainly lead to them going against company policy at this moment in time. But there’s no harm in asking ahead of going there.
Overall Conclusion
So Menards used to be more dog-friendly as a store. However, they were forced into changing their policy back in 2020. At this moment, you are not allowed to take your dog into their store. This doesn’t apply if they are service dogs.
There is some hope that their approach will revert back to the way it was before 2020. However, there’s no timeline on that, and nobody knows if it will actually happen at any point. But considering their previous approach to dogs, it would not be a surprise if it did change.
But do keep in mind that even before 2020 that things were not always clear as to what would happen with your dog at your local Menards. The fact they never had something written down in their company policy left things open to interpretation.
However, they are now stricter in what they will implement. As a dog owner, it’s best to pay attention to that. It simply stops you from running into some sort of problem that could have been so easily avoided.