diff --git a/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_dataset_10x.py b/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_dataset_10x.py
index c0cf468c0e..e316e9eaae 100644
--- a/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_dataset_10x.py
+++ b/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_dataset_10x.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 from scvi import settings
 from scvi.data._download import _download
+from scvi.utils import dependencies
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -74,6 +75,7 @@
 }
 
 
+@dependencies("scanpy")
 def _load_dataset_10x(
     dataset_name: str = None,
     filename: str = None,
@@ -83,10 +85,7 @@ def _load_dataset_10x(
     remove_extracted_data: bool = False,
     **scanpy_read_10x_kwargs,
 ):
-    try:
-        import scanpy
-    except ImportError as err:
-        raise ImportError("Please install scanpy -- `pip install scanpy`") from err
+    import scanpy
 
     # form data url and filename unless manual override
     if dataset_name is not None:
diff --git a/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_loom.py b/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_loom.py
index f35e1f91d8..7fdcc4b6e2 100644
--- a/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_loom.py
+++ b/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_loom.py
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 import logging
 import os
 
-import pooch
 from anndata import AnnData, read_h5ad
 
+from scvi.utils import dependencies
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
+@dependencies("pooch")
 def _load_retina(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     """Loads retina dataset.
 
@@ -14,6 +16,8 @@ def _load_retina(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     and 13,166 genes coming from two batches. We use the cluster annotation from 15 cell-types from
     the author. We also extract their normalized data with Combat and use it for benchmarking.
     """
+    import pooch
+
     save_path = os.path.abspath(save_path)
     adata = read_h5ad(
         pooch.retrieve(
@@ -27,11 +31,14 @@ def _load_retina(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     return adata
 
 
+@dependencies("pooch")
 def _load_prefrontalcortex_starmap(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     """Loads a starMAP dataset from the mouse pre-frontal cortex :cite:p:`Wang18`.
 
     Contains 3,704 cells and 166 genes.
     """
+    import pooch
+
     save_path = os.path.abspath(save_path)
     adata = read_h5ad(
         pooch.retrieve(
@@ -45,7 +52,10 @@ def _load_prefrontalcortex_starmap(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     return adata
 
 
+@dependencies("pooch")
 def _load_frontalcortex_dropseq(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
+    import pooch
+
     save_path = os.path.abspath(save_path)
     adata = read_h5ad(
         pooch.retrieve(
@@ -62,6 +72,7 @@ def _load_frontalcortex_dropseq(save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     return adata
 
 
+@dependencies("pooch")
 def _load_annotation_simulation(name: str, save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     """Simulated datasets for scANVI tutorials.
 
@@ -75,6 +86,8 @@ def _load_annotation_simulation(name: str, save_path: str = "data/") -> AnnData:
     save_path
         Location for saving the dataset.
     """
+    import pooch
+
     if name == "1":
         fileid = "51086192"
         known_hash = "5d604adce93b3034885646605c2e9a72f5ccf8163caffb2930485f93a9fcb3a3"
diff --git a/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_smfish.py b/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_smfish.py
index c6f646cc52..b5233a296a 100644
--- a/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_smfish.py
+++ b/src/scvi/data/_built_in_data/_smfish.py
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 
 import anndata
 import pandas as pd
-import pooch
+
+from scvi.utils import dependencies
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -41,7 +42,10 @@
 }
 
 
+@dependencies("pooch")
 def _load_smfish(save_path: str = "data/", use_high_level_cluster=True) -> anndata.AnnData:
+    import pooch
+
     save_path = os.path.abspath(save_path)
     adata = anndata.read_h5ad(
         pooch.retrieve(