By NAFISAT ALAO
Knick Knack Paddywhack, a local pet shop in the Beach is the third location in the city for the business. The pet store’s main purpose is to provide pet owners with a broad selection of goods for their pets and create a welcoming environment for them.
Adam Dunning along with his husband Kieran are the owners of all three pet stores. Their first location is in the Riverdale/Leslieville area (161 Withrow Ave.) along with their second location in the Queen Street East and Corktown neighbourhood (481 Queen St. E.) and their third and most recently opened location is in the Upper Beaches (1048 Kingston Rd.).
Dunning and his husband don’t live in the Beach but reside in Riverside in the Broadview Avenue and Dundas Street East area which is in between two of their store locations.
He explained what attracted them to set up their third store location along Kingston Road.
“When we were looking to expand, everyone kept saying you need to go west, but we thought, why not the Beaches? We ended up looking for an area where there is not a smaller independent boutique like us,” said Dunning.
“We got a good feel of the area and we felt like it was being revitalized and we figured it was a perfect spot to have our third set up,” he added.
Prior to getting into the pet store business, Dunning was working in the high net-worth financial services field for 15 years while his husband had been working from home for himself in digital marketing.
“My husband was just complaining about being home all the time. So I asked him if he hates his job so much what would he want to do? And he said he’d like to have a little store for our French bulldog Fred,” said Dunning.
“It was supposed to be a side gig while my husband did his other thing and it just ended up taking off from there,” he added.
After having tried out the business in their first store location, Dunning’s husband left his prior job to run the business full-time and Dunning followed along and quit his job to help run their second location once they opened.
The store provides various types of pet food that are primarily Canadian, along with treats and supplies for pets. They also provide full grooming services, however, that service is only available at their Riverside and Corktown locations and not at the store on Kingston Road.
“We want to offer full delivery at this location, the other two can do the grooming and everything but this location is mainly going to be our delivery hub and coordinate deliveries for all three stores from this location,” said Dunning.
The way in which the pet store got its name stemmed from a funny play on words by Dunning’s husband.
“My husband was trying to be clever and think of some sort of play on words and he made a comment about ‘give a dog a bone’ and I just thought of Knick Knack Paddywhack and from that point, it was just a matter of googling to see if it had been taken,” he said.
Dunning feels that what sets their pet store apart from the others comes down to their products and the way they go about helping pet owners make good choices for their pets.
“We try to not overwhelm people. What we wanted to do is focus on helping people make an appropriate choice for healthier foods for their pets. We also bring in food that is more elevated in nutritional level and offer a variety of food choices,” said Dunning.
For more information or to order from Knick Knack Paddywhack online, please visit https://knickknackpaddywhack.ca/
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