Barx Parx requires behavior assessments of every dog before any services may be provided at the Barx Parx facility. Assessments take approximately twenty minutes per dog. Common practice for many day care and boarding facilities is to simply put your dog into the play area with other dogs and see how they do. That sort of “trial by fire” assessment isn’t fair to your dog and doesn’t provide the level of safety that we are committed to offering for our two legged and four legged guests. At Barx Parx, we understand what safe canine play means and we are committed to ensure that dogs that we allow into the park are comfortable around both humans and other dogs. Once our assessor establishes a level of comfort with your dog’s social skills, we will introduce your dog to other dogs in our play area. As we go through the assessment we will communicate many of the behaviors that we see along with pointing out many of the communication indicators that your dog is trying to express.

No. Every dog does not pass our assessment. About ten percent of dogs that we assess don’t pass and that is totally fine. Barx Parx is a great environment for a great many dogs but some dogs will thrive better in large open spaces and some dogs simply wouldn’t be great candidates for dog parks in general. They aren’t bad dogs, they simply may be lacking social skills that would prevent them from having a safe time. A private training session with one of our Barx Parx trainers would be an excellent option if you want to work on improving social skills.

Not passing the assessment is not the end of the world. If your dog doesn’t pass, we are more than happy to do another assessment at no charge. This is a new environment and everyone has an off-day. Sometimes it isn’t a black or white pass or fail. We may approve your pup for the park while accompanied by you but because of owner separation concerns, we may not approve for daycare or boarding services.