Author: carodactyll

Photos With Santa 2022

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Our most festive Bark dogs got a special holiday visit from Santa Paws herself this year. Click on a thumbnail for the full resolution photo.

Doggy Daycare Picture Day

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All Bark dogs were invited for doggy daycare picture day in August at our Dog Park in Knoxville, TN. We are pleased to present our doggy daycare Class of 2022. All of the dogs are so special to us and we love getting to know all their unique personalities and watching them play together everyday.

Doggy Daycare Class of 2022

Click on a thumbnail for full resolution photo.


The turn out for doggy daycare picture day was HUGE! We had such a fun day taking their doggy daycare pictures. The Barkrangers tried their best to photograph each and every dog. If your dog was present for doggy daycare during picture day but is not pictured, send an email to office@barkknox.com we will check their past reservations to confirm they were missed and get their photo during their next visit to The Bark doggy daycare. Thank you for being a part of our picture day and choosing the Bark Dog life!

Did your dog miss picture day? Don't worry next year is right around the corner! We can't wait to plan next picture day and 2023 Dog Prom! Our Doggy Daycare class of 2023 is already filling up. Is your dog ready to call themselves a Bark Dog? Check out our Doggy Daycare and you aren't going to want to miss the Dog Park and Beer Garden Signing up is really easy using our pet portal!

Why Does My Dog Need A Harness At The Bark?

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While dogs look so adorable in a little harnesses, it's not just a fashion statement here at The Bark. It's a huge part of our safety protocols designed to keep your dog and our staff safe. If your dog has been walking on a normal collar, this might seem unnecessary, but we have some very good reasons why they improve safety here at The Bark.

1. It reduces the risk of choking and neck related injuries.

Tags on collars can easily get caught on each other or on fencing or play equipment. Dogs can also unintentionally hurt each other by pulling on other collars in the playgroups.

Dog with harness

Every year in the US there are an average of 26,000 injuries and deaths related to our precious dogs wearing collars around their necks. We don't want a single one of those to happen here at The Bark. While we absolutely support you walking your dog however you choose to when you're coming into the building, once dogs are entering a play space we don't want anything around their necks.

2. It gives us a safe way to separate and move dogs around when we need to.

Sometimes dogs become overstimulated, scared, or simply don't know that they are playing too rough with others. While owners are responsible for watching their dogs behavior at The Bark, our Bark Rangers are also in the play spaces. They have a very important job to maintain safety and notice problems before they escalate. Sometimes all it takes is walking away from a situation for a dog to calm down.

Smiling dog with harness

Our rangers will gently grab a dog's harness to walk them away from sticky situations. In the event that dog behavior could escalate into a dog fight, it's important to separate the dogs quickly and efficiently so no one gets hurt. The last place you want to try to grab a dog during a fight is around the neck. A body harness allows our staff to get ahold of the dogs around the waist instead.

We really value all the great benefits of harnesses in our playgroups and hope you do too! If you are without a body harness for your visit, we have harness rentals available and we have harnesses for purchase in our pet store. We can't wait to bark with you!