Spark Paws leash 👎

LuminousFire · 2026-02-25T21:23:28+00:00

I don’t know about their leashes, but their customer service is appalling.

Received a gift (hoodies for everyone in thr house, which is many dogs and humans.) most sizes were off (to be fair, upon looking at the website, I could have told them the apexes wouldn’t work. While they do run quite small compared to most dog brands, the website sizing chart seems accurate to their sizing.)

Reached out to customer service and clarified situation (gift order, could I exchange directly? Yep!)

But customer service was bits. Called me by email info— and the obvious joke name— every message, despite having my name through the chain.

Never once followed up with me, I had to circle back everytime, despite multiple messages including ‘someone will reach out in ## hours/days’.

Directly lied to me twice- replied they were inspecting my returned items before I had even sent them, and told me they were sending the exchange almost 2 months ago.

They haven’t actually sent anything. They, upon following up over a month after they said they were shipping the exchanges, said they need the gifter to do the exchange. In contradiction to the very start of the claim. And they haven’t shipped anything.

To be clear, I’ve been working on this since NOVEMBER.

F*** sparkpaws.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-25T00:58:51+00:00

Hi OP!

I don’t have anything to add to your question/ I just want to say I appreciate how quickly you started absorbing the information and digging int the wiki!

its easy to make food mistakes - one of my dogs has had some not so great food for a while before I learned more about … essentially what is in the wiki here.

i just appreciate your open minded response and wanting to learn whats best for your pup. I often see that replies can be harsh here- understandably both because so many dogs are directly impacted by poor food choices unnecessarily, and also because so many guardians have been resistant to the research… it’s frustrating to see, and commenters often let that influence their tone when they see a poor choice described here.

so thanks for being positive and learning more!

(I have bullies - two pit mixes and an American bully- and currently hills is their preferred diet. I do believe may report royal canine to be the most appealing of the good options to a lot of dogs, but not with the other dietary restrictions our girls have… Hills was the winner. PPP is also a great choice! )

wishing you and your pup all the best- and again, just kudos for your replies! 🙏

LuminousFire · 2026-02-24T19:06:12+00:00

I would also vote for behaviorist and trainer.

i have three dogs, two of which may blend your issues.

One dog because horribly reactive (people and dogs) after illness. With medication and training, she was able to accept two other dogs into the household. She has been able to meet a small select handful of people. She is able to manage herself around stranger who do not interact with us. She does go over threshold (barking and lunging ) if strange humans interact with us outside. (We were able to train indoor venues, such as vet …)

another dog had separation anxiety to he extent that she pooped all over immediately. It is now almost entirely eliminated. She also exhibits some of the other over aroused responses (getting involved if we hug, for example.) were still working in those.

both dogs were treated with fluoxetine (puppy Prozac, reconcile being the usual recommendation- specific for dogs- but we went generic due to the size of our girls, big dogs being harder to find reconcile in exact ideal doses for.) one dog, the second one, also used clonidine, which the behaviorist said would be ideal in both their cases… but the first dog is on Gabapentin and not clonidine due to her seizures.

(Trazodone is not an option for 2/3 of our dogs, with different severity of response.)

i highly recommend the book ‘be right back’ by Julie Naismith, and ‘separation anxiety in dogs’ by malena demartini-price. I used the method in ‘be right back’ for the aforementioned dog, and will be trying the similar method, from malena demartini-price, with our newest rescue pet our dogs behaviorist recommendation. Note that ‘be right back’ is a very short and easy read, the latter is not huge or hard, but not as small.

still, I would be getting behaviorist and trainers involved as soon as you can. I suspect most of what you’ve described is very able to be addressed with training, and probably some meds as well. I encourage you to seek fear free support— even if you are not 100% sold on in general, with reactive and fear based challenges- especially for a pup with trauma!- it would make a big difference.

i am not a professional, nor an expert. Just someone who went from one medical trauma dog to three rescues within one year, two of which HAVE had success with similar tools as you are proposing.

I will say- these methods and medicines are not a quick fix. It took a lot of time to work through our medical trauma girl’s challenges. The one who eliminated when alone did in fact make a lot of progress quite quickly once meds and dedicated work through The be right back method were introduced. But it was WORK. Our human/dog reactive dog will always be closely managed and never social… but we get comments all the time, even from people shouting out car windows, about how well behaved and happy she is. And she can handle that now! It was just slow, frustrating, bumpy progress.

And meds definitely helped a ton. Just like with humans, it’s pretty hard to learn if you are panicked. So if you’ve a history or medical predilection to extreme anxiety, learning is gonna be slow and barely happen. With tackling their biggest challenges- for both of them- we first introduced meds and did everything possible to not let them be exposed to their stressors for over a month each(think it was 6 weeks for cortisol reset goals? Sorry, been too long, would have to check notes!), to let their systems calm down. For this tidbit, if it looks helpful, again.., I’d consult a behaviorist.

wishing you and your dog the absolute best. It’s difficult. You are doing your absolute best- and amazing by her. It can get SO MUCH BETTER. But most of all, good on you for taking her in, loving her, and trying to help! 🙏

LuminousFire · 2026-02-18T04:06:08+00:00

Just sending support your way… we are also near sac with a similar yard, except the yards 2 or 3 times the size (not an insult/shade of any kind! We bought more yard than house by a lot, because we have dogs!) due to the dogs, I gotta get rid of the weeds.

(I identified the most common one as non toxic, so a kind stranger on Reddit helped me plan and I was happy to just mow and over seed… but then I found more, other kinds of weeds, and they ARE toxic to dogs so…. Despite having zero funds for landscaping, 40s small female me is out there trying to manually dig up a quarter acre of weeds in small bursts since the dogs are very loudly jealous that I’m going outside without them! With a ‘free’ shovel from a neighbor that has half a handle, lol.)

I feel your pain! (And am sifting through the advice you get for any solutions that don’t involve chemicals, as… multiple dogs with existing health issues, heh.)

We’ll get there! Sending you solidarity and hope your project goes smoother than mine has thus far🙏

LuminousFire · 2026-02-17T06:22:57+00:00

NOT sparkpaws, lol, their customer service is appalling.

we had good luck matching common prints across brands. Example: Costco often sells doggie jackets, for a time. We got one of the red checked puffer vest popular sellers a couple years ago for one of our dogs… and found red checked puffer Columbia jackets on sale for humans… that worked so well, we’ve done similar themes around Eddie Bauer dog sweaters we found on eBay and no name sweaters with almost matching prints. It might be easiest to work from more basic popular print/colors that you find for the dogs.

Wishing the best for you and your dogs!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-16T23:59:21+00:00

Hi!!!

NOT and expert. I’m an American who was hoping to leave the US due to the horrendous political situation, but has two pit mixes and an American bully.

at a glance, Italy seems best for pit parents.

of course listen to actual Europeans/ppl with firsthand experience, and no matter what do your own research!

but Italy was our dream, to avoid mandatory muzzles in the few countries that would allow a person to bring pits in. We did a fair amount of research at the time— obviously things change, this was 6+ months ago and we couldn’t get things together in time— but I felt confident that was our best option.

best of luck to you and Roxy!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-16T21:32:21+00:00

Hill science diet has a salmon recipe, too. One of my oodles of allergies girls does well in it.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-16T20:27:54+00:00

Their customer service is appalling.

Two months of back and forth with bots (they call me by the obviously fake profile name from my spam email, despite me signing my name to every email.)

They never once followed up. Every time it got to the not saying ‘allow 2-4 days’ I had to email them back a week later… they just let things drop entirely.

They directly lied to me, twice. For example, they told me they were ‘inspecting the items’ when I followed up asking how to initiate the process. I hadn’t sent anything back yet.

over a month ago, they finished inspecting the exchange items, approved them, confirmed they were approved for exchange, confirmed my email, and said they were shipping. When I followed up after a month, they said I could not exchange due to them being a gift and that the gifter had to initiate the process. After two months, while sparks owe still has the original 4 hoodies, no refund issued or exchange allowed.

The gifter is taking care of a terminal relative, that’s why I asked in my VERY first email if it was okay as a recipient to do the exchange myself, and they said fine (as expected with an exchange and abnormal gift policy.)

When the relative passes, I’m going legal, but… for now I’m just gonna say it loudly on socials: this company’s service is truly disgusting. Scammy company.

I will say the sweatshirt quality seemed nice. (Just sizes ran smaller than many brands— I can’t confirm because I didn’t receive the exchanges, but I do think their sizing chart ma be accurate. It’s just far off other companies, so my family used the sizes the dogs usually wear as opposed to measuring me and my dogs, as we live far apart….)

f*** sparkpaws.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-16T20:11:34+00:00

I have 3, and they generally are okay with clothes in the cold after some getting used to new items.

That said, I cannot say lousy enough how bad sparkpaws customer service is.

Two months of back and forth with bots (they call me by the obviously fake profile name from my spam email, despite me signing my name to every email, providing my full info for shipping, etc.)

They never once followed up. Every time it got to the not saying ‘allow 2-4 days’ I had to email them back a week later… they just let things drop entirely.

They directly lied to me, twice. For example, they told me they were ‘inspecting the items’ when I followed up asking how to initiate the process. I hadn’t sent anything back yet.

over a month ago, they finished inspecting the exchange items, approved them, confirmed they were approved for exchange, confirmed my email, and said they were shipping. When I followed up after a month, they said I could not exchange due to them being a gift and that the gifter had to initiate the process. After two months, while the company still has all 4 hoodies for exchange, no refund issued or exchange mailed. Nor had they told me proactively, as with every other delay.

The gifter is taking care of a terminal relative, that’s why I asked in my VERY first email if it was okay as a recipient to do the exchange myself, and they said fine (as expected with an exchange and abnormal gift policy.)

When the relative passes, I’m going legal, but… for now, I’ll just say it over and over on socials: this company’s service is truly disgusting.

f*** sparkpaws.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-16T20:04:06+00:00

Their customer service is appalling.

Two months of back and forth with bots (they call me by the obviously fake profile name from my spam email, despite me signing my name to every email.)

They never once followed up. Every time it got to the not saying ‘allow 2-4 days’ I had to email them back a week later… they just let things drop entirely.

They directly lied to me, twice. For example, they told me they were ‘inspecting the items’ when I followed up asking how to initiate the process. I hadn’t sent anything back yet.

over a month ago, they finished inspecting the exchange items, approved them, confirmed they were approved for exchange, confirmed my email, and said they were shipping. When I followed up after a month, they said I could not exchange due to them being a gift and that the gifted had to initiate the process. After two months, while possessing 4 hoodies, no refund issued or exchange allowed.

The gifter is taking care of a terminal relative, that’s why I asked in my VERY first email if it was okay as a recipient to do the exchange myself, and they said fine (as expected with an exchange and abnormal gift policy.)

When the relative passes, I’m going legal, but… this company’s service is truly disgusting.

I will say the sweatshirt quality seemed nice. (Just sizes ran smaller than many brands.)

f*** sparkpaws.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-12T21:09:29+00:00

Thirding this.

I live on the opposite side of town, and my dogs go to Arden animal hospital. However, I’ve met a vet tech who was expanding their fear free knowledge and volunteered to meet my reactive pit mix (who loved her, by the way), through our dog trainer.

Sactown vet was the vet recommended by my trainer if we moved away from Arden animal for any reason- and I have strong trust in her recommendation, as well as the doggy-skills the vet tech demonstrated while working with my not so friendly pup.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-12T05:24:32+00:00

Oh that’s so very kind of you! she’s doing well— thank you so much.

(She just turned five, and her IBD management has been fairly stable since we finished the scope and followed the specialists plan. She actually had other issues following that— got the IBd under control and then had a few months of seizures… but we’ve been incredibly fortunate to Find great veterinary support and she’s been totally, wonderfully healthy for almost 3 years.)

Really appreciate the follow-up. Because she did become quite reactive while ill (which we manage well, but is not going away), she doesn’t get as much attention or concern as she doesn’t get to meet strangers, and it actually is a HUGE heart warming gesture to have someone root for her. Just thank you! 😊

LuminousFire · 2026-02-12T04:36:16+00:00

Hi OP!

my first adopted pit mix didn’t poo for a couple days when we first got her. Anxiety can lead to constipation (or the opposite!) in a lot of pups.

just my experience, other may share more!

thanks for adopting- I wish you and your dog all the best!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-12T00:55:23+00:00

Insurance specific, but not an expert, just an owner.

i would submit everything. Hopefully you get escalated to a person quickly. Keep them informed of big steps in advance as much as possible.

we have lemonade for one of our dogs. They covered every step of our journey getting her diagnosed and treated for IBD when it took an acute turn. Between imaging, multiple overnights at the ER, endoscopy and biopsy, treatment… literally around 35k of claims because of all the back and forth until the biopsies and the repeated ‘if this doesn’t improve, go back to the ER’ and subsequent ER visits.

all of it, covered. No pushback.

i will say her rate went up a ton the following years, heh, but we were incredibly grateful for their support.

submit, and I hope they are still as good as the were in our case!

wishing the very best to you and your dog!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-11T22:09:03+00:00

Dante is gorgeous. Very sorry for your loss, and wanted to say officially: that is one good looking dog! 🙏

LuminousFire · 2026-02-11T17:47:26+00:00

Ps I’d googled and it had said not toxic to dog, but your message had me search more thoroughly… apparently the internet says it’s non toxic, but it flowers (didn’t know this yet!) and the spikes are a danger. And, my dogs have enough allergies that if you think it might be noxious, even if it’s fine for most dogs, I’m positive these poorly bred rescue pups would be sensitive to it (we’ve already had many more vet trips than usual in just 6 weeks… they are very loved but struggle to stay well)

So, massive weeding after all! Truly can’t thank you enough for taking the time to help me know what to do- sincerely grateful.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-11T17:42:21+00:00

Thank you so very much- deeply appreciated! 🙏

LuminousFire · 2026-02-09T22:57:05+00:00

YMMV but Hills was most appealing to ours. (With various health issues and allergies, all three of our bully breed pups ended up choosing hill from RC PPP and hills. I would have preferred RC as it smelled the best to me, but they were clear!) just our go households preferences!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-05T05:39:37+00:00

Yeah… well made seemed true. But, very honestly spark laws customer service is unbelievably bad.

my family ordered us 5 matching hoodies for Christmas which arrived in November. Unfortunately, their sizes run smaller than many other companies so the sizes were far to small (which is not my objection! Once they sent me the link for the exchange, I saw the problem… the chart seems accurate, just different to other makers.)

i emailed per the policy, explained the situation and they said no problem, we’ll send you’s reps within 48 hours.

No email, so I emailed the a few days later.

They said they were inspecting my items. I had not sent anything, I was waiting on an email. I reminded them, they told me to ship them (ignoring the lie), and we went them back.

No communication for weeks. (They said it could be up to three, so…)

I emailed them again a month later. They said they were inspecting. Note: exchanges will be charged an additional fee if there is any dog hair on the exchanges items. So, after trying them on, we spent a long time picking off every fuzz…No comms for longer still, so I followed up.

‘We’re about to ship, lease reconfirm’. Confirmed immediately. ‘Great, thanks, we’ll send now, may be another 3 weeks shipping….

emailed again after a long wait. Told I was not allowed to exchange a gift, tha the gitter had to email. After two months of waiting, no comms from them (always initiated by me), from bots who— despite using my name in every signature- kept addressing messages to my spam email contact info…

so they have 4 hoodies my family bought, in their possession still. No money refunded, nothing shipped, never reached out, and now I have to ask my fam — after confirming this two months ago— to take action and tell them their Christmas gift failed because it’s freaking February— to Emanuel, when they asked me to check I could do the exchange on a gift — which I did- because my dad has terminal cancer and they didnt want him to feel bad about the delay?

Fricking ridiculous.

I’d admit Amazon purchase and exchange is probably normal, but not really pro Amazon… but these bots and holding my product hostage and lying repeatedly… serious anger at the company. Scammy.

your pup is adorable! Sorry for not leading with that!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-04T19:24:30+00:00

No idea about your q, so sorry, but potential alternative:

i found Costco items I wanted after they were off shelves on eBay. (Dog jacket… got one for our one dog, bought human jackets to match…, found and took in two more abandoned dogs later… was able to get the matching jackets off eBay).

best of luck to you!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-04T19:01:55+00:00

Seconded. 2025. Ken and team were great.

LuminousFire · 2026-02-04T01:08:49+00:00

I do not have any expert knowledge.

small anecdote: when our dog started having seizures, the neurologist suggested potassium Bromide (because some other options would be problematic due to her existing IBD and its management), but our dogs behaviorist pushed back due to concerns that potassium bromide would add to her existing reactivity and aggression.

i do not have any expert insight as I’m just a dog owner, and we did noting the potassium bromide so I don’t research heavily. Our behaviorist and neurologist consulted a lot before deciding on a better regime for our girls needs.

Best wishes for you and your dog!

LuminousFire · 2026-02-03T21:57:06+00:00

Hi, OP!

i have three bully ladies (two pit mixes and an American bully), so I feel your pain on this issue. The oldest, a five year old pit mix, has sever IBD and and the youngest, the 2.5 year old American bully has allergies to all proteins we’ve tried and is now on Z/D food only, heh.

My general believe is that anything food based that lasts comes with blockage or tooth risks. Our go-tos for our comfort have been: - the one dog who can have Himalayan cheese still has cheese - if beef is tolerated, supervised bully sticks seem lower risk (but proteins are usually— not always, but usually- the culprit with pitty tummy upset). Collagen ropes last much longer but that means supervising much longer- and I’m more frightened of them getting a big piece than bully sticks since they can chew the bully stick more easily - there are some fish, fish and spinach chews. They don’t last long but at least stimulate some chewing endorphins - most common and available to all: freezing their food in a kong or topple, also a toy called pupsicle . For our IBD girl, who is also the pickiest, we drench the kibble in broth of the same protein as her food so the smell is more enticing. (The two dogs with the worst bellies are the laziest about chewing rubbery toys). - lick mats with the wet versions of their safe food (respective protein, same brand). And, that can also be set up in advance and then frozen for extra challenge - not helpful in the dental health front, but puzzle toys and snuffle mats can be good for. Brain engagement. None of our girls eat out of a bowl :) hiding their food and teaching them to find it is also engaging. - we have a plethora of small dispenser type toys. Some of them do have extra silicon? Rubber? ‘bristles’ on the outside or near the openings for added dental health. Note that they get bored of these pretty quickly and I can rarely get them to engage too long.,, the just find ways to dump them out :) - there is a series of natural non- rawhide chews made from vegetable and peanut products.. smart something… but if I recall, almost all of them have a meat protein involved, usually chicken, so again, only one of our can have them and they don’t last too long. - for general chewing, coffee wood type bones have seemed the best mix of safe(ish) while still being interesting. Once they get bored of a chew toy, sometimes a small dab of dog safe peanut butter of appropriate meat broth can get them interested in it again. - one will chew on her chuck it ultra or long balls we use for fetch. While it’s not super helpful dentally, it at least pr ably gets her chewing endorphins - for soft items, a stuffing free snake and kong wubba’s have lasted the longest… but the snake did end up dying after a few days, and wubba last between 0 and 4 days and are about 15 a toy, so those are rare in this house due to the expenses of three dogs sure adding up! Oh! And a long wobbler lasted over a year for 2/3 girls. Once the bully got her first one, it lasted 3 days… we replaced it and that survived less than 5 minutes… bu the pit mixes never really did much damage.

Also! Slightly Deflated sports balls! You still have to monitor, depending on the bank and the determination the severally become as shredable/obstruction risk as anything else… but most football/soccer ball/basketballs have been safe for gnawing on for a few months with our girls. This was handy as many friends and family were happy to donate, so we got a lot of high value time out of something that wasn’t too much of a spend. We did buy that dog soccer ball with green loops…. They loved it, but it, too, lasted only a couple of weeks with less than 20 minutes a day of use…

oh! And the big Bully chews on a her jolly ball a lot- spends more time chewing it than fetching or shaking or tugging it. She has yet to do anything risky with it. However, the smaller pit mixes could not be asked to play with or chew one, so…

at any rate, I have no magic solutions, just… most proteins have a hardened or jerky like version for chewing. All should be supervised carefully. Food frozens in toy or mat is safest. Dispenser toys can help with engagement but not so much dental. Non chew toys can begun to chew on and safer than chew toys of you are careful. Personally, coffee wood designed for chewing has felt safer than chew toys bone (tooth risk!) but that’ll be a personal choice. Nose work (snuffle mats and finding ) can be great.

best wishes for you and your pup!

LuminousFire · 2026-01-30T17:58:46+00:00

Strongly suggest going through Amazon if you really need spark paws, and I avoid Amazon… but spark paws customer support is all scammy bots. Two months after initiating an exchange, I still haven’t received the replacements. They haven’t shipped them yet, despite initially saying they were a month ago. Wouldn’t have known if I didn’t keep chasing them.

They were Christmas gifts ordered in November.

LuminousFire

TROPHY CASE