21/08/2025
New Dog Comfort Visits
At The Bark Inn, Small Dogs Country Retreat, your dog’s comfort is our number one priority.
We are passionate about providing a happy, relaxed haven for small dogs.
The physical safety and emotional well-being of all dogs in our care is a top priority at The Bark Inn, that is why Comfort Visits are built into our new dog procedures.
No two dogs are the same, be it litter mates or house mates, each dog has different levels of social, environmental and emotional stressors they can cope with.
Comfort visits (also called evaluations, readiness checks, trial days, assessments etc.) are performed by daycare and social lodging establishments to look at different areas of your dog’s personality, their likes and dislikes, play styles and temperament to ensure the best friends, safest playgroups, and best daycare day possible.
Some key areas that are assessed are:
1. A dog’s health, history, social behaviour around the owner and previous experience in a boarding, daycare, grooming and veterinary environment.
2. How comfortable the dog is in a new environment, exposed to new people, dog’s and novel stimuli.
Gathering as much information as possible on a dog’s previous experiences will allow the daycare or boarding facility to start building a picture of your dog’s way of coping with stress and what approach to introducing them into a new environment would be in your dog’s best interest.
A dog with little to no previous experience in boarding or daycare would benefit from several short visits or may benefit from being boarded in a home like environment over a kennelling environment, or a dog walker over daycare. Dogs with increased anxiety in loud or large groups would benefit from a smaller facility or a facility that offers small group or individual play.
At The Bark Inn we start your dog's journey with us by gathering as much information about your dog in our new client file.
Reading through all the information and possibly contacting any professionals you have provided will give us a broad picture that we can then ask more targeted questions if necessary to be able to understand what approach would be best for your dog.
From here we set up an on-site comfort visit and then work with you regarding next steps for your dog's best mental and physical well-being.
To book a comfort visit, please visit our website and start a new client file under the ‘book now’ icon found at the top right-hand corner of the page. www.thebarkinn.co.nz
