BusinessPaws: Barks & Recreation Pet Services

Barks & Recreation Pet Services is a pet care company based out of Trail, BC that offers a wide variety of services for the pets in their care. Over their 16 years in business, owners Sarah Dixon & Cameron Dixon have grown their business from humble roots. Initially offering only pet sitting and a few group training classes, they have since become a hub for pet parents looking for training, daycare, and grooming services. They have also opened a retail shop to provide their clients with quality food, treats, and supplies. As they have grown they have brought in even more specialty items such as raw food diets, imported training supplies, and Ruffland kennels. While they have an in-person retail shop available for their clients, they also sell products through their website, shipping orders all over Canada.

Sarah began her dog training career in 2001. Seven years later, she made the transition to professional dog training. She has since earned many training certifications including Certified Dog Behaviour Consultant (IAABC), Certified (Licensed, Training & Working Dog) Family Dog Mediator, Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, Certified Trick Dog Instructor, and Certificate of Canine Behaviour Science and Technology (CASI). She is also a published author in dog training publications such as the IAABC Journal, the APDT Chronicle of the Dog, Better Together: An Anthology of Modern Dog Trainers, Clickertraining.com, and the IACP Safe Hands Journal. 

Throughout her time working with dogs, Sarah developed a true passion not only for training but for animal behaviour and welfare. After moving to Trail, BC, she and her husband Cameron decided to channel that passion into their own pet care business. In 2010, Barks & Recreation came into being, offering pet sitting and group training services. Though it began as a casual lifestyle business, Barks & Recreation quickly grew into so much more. 

Through their pet sitting services Sarah and Cameron came to realize that there was an unmet need for additional behavioural and welfare options for pets in their community. In an effort to meet that need, Barks & Recreation added daycare to their service offerings. This service allowed the dogs they worked with to expend their extra energy in a safe and positive environment. Later, they also chose to add retail sales to their business, making it easier for their clients to access high quality food, treats, and supplies. With Cameron’s extensive retail experience and product knowledge behind them, they were able to ensure they were providing only the best purchasing options for their clients. As their business continued to grow, the Barks & Recreation team worked tirelessly to help pet parents provide their dogs with the healthy, enriched life they deserve.

After only 3 years of business, Barks & Recreation outgrew their original location. In order to support their continued growth, they began the hunt for a larger space that would better suit their needs. In an effort to make their services more accessible to their client base, they focused on finding somewhere in town to move their business. When an old church and funeral home came up for sale, they knew they had found the perfect spot. The extra room provided by the new space allowed them to further expand the retail and training options available for their clients.

As with many businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced Barks & Recreation to temporarily suspend their services. Following the shutdowns however they bounced back quickly, experiencing explosive growth in the subsequent years. In order to ensure they were able to handle the growing needs of their business, in 2023 they applied for a business coaching program offered by the Columbia Basin Trust. This 9 month program helped them to develop a better understanding of the financial side of their business, including topics such as calculating profit margins, methods of upselling, and the benefits of cross-selling. Through the program they were able to solidify their vision for Barks & Recreation and reinvigorate their passion for the business. With their new knowledge in hand, they were well equipped to make more informed decisions for their business moving forward. This included a focus on marketing and effective business processes as well as better ways to balance what customers are looking for with what they wanted as business owners.

2024 marked several important milestones for the Barks & Recreation team. That year they not only reached $1 million in gross sales, they also received a local award for excellent customer service. Within that same year Sarah and Cameron started a podcast for pet owners. This free resource aimed to provide pet parents with more information on how to better meet their dog’s needs and help change their behaviour.

As they look to the future, Barks & Recreation aims to expand their service offerings and help make their skillset even more accessible to their customers. Their plans include looking for even more space for their ever-growing business, and building a new training program. Sarah aims to ensure the program is more affordable for clients that may find it difficult to access standard training options. It will focus on what people really need out of their training, providing them with information in a way that is easy to understand, while still providing them with the results they are looking for.

With any major growth, there are always hurdles to overcome. In their 15 years of business the Barks & Recreation team has faced and worked through a number of challenges. The biggest obstacles Sarah and Cameron describe relate to balancing their life and business while still supporting the needs of their customers and their team. As someone that is very open about being neurodivergent, Sarah has come to understand that sensory overload can present a larger challenge for her. Reaching burnout more easily and more quickly means she has needed to focus on finding a good balance for herself and improving her self-awareness to help avoid overstimulation. By moving away from working directly in their retail store and instead structuring more of her work to occur from home, she has been able to continue the work she loves while still protecting her mental health. She is also making a concerted effort to maintain open communication with her team, making apologies and acknowledging mistakes when that communication breaks down.

As Barks & Recreation has continued its growth they have learned to move away from making business decisions based solely on instinct. Instead, they have adjusted their focus to be able to make more informed decisions based on data. While such decisions can sometimes be more challenging emotionally, they have seen the difference it can make in the long term. Like many businesses, Barks & Recreation struggled with the idea of having to raise their prices to match inflation. Though it was a tough decision, in the end the team knew it was the right choice. By raising their prices they were able to help ensure that their team members were able to make a living off their wages and their business was able to stay financially stable. This in turn helped them improve their staff retention over the long term, which ultimately benefitted their clients as well. More experienced, knowledgeable staff help customers to make more informed decisions about their pet’s welfare.

Barks & Recreation is also working to bridge the gap between what dogs need and what their families often expect from them. In recent years they have seen an increase in cases where working dogs end up in homes that expect them to be able to simply hang out on the couch. They are likewise seeing a number of families whose dogs have grown up without any training or boundary setting. Understandably, these kinds of cases often result in challenging behaviours for families that often don’t have the skills to manage them. The Barks & Recreation team works to provide services and support to families so that they are able to not only better understand their dog as an individual but to also change their own behaviour to meet their dog’s needs. They recognize that meeting a dog’s needs is always the first step in helping to change behaviour, even before focusing on any more structured training.

Over their 15 years in business, Barks & Recreation has helped many dogs achieve more enriched, fulfilled lives. Through their programs, they also aim to help families not only better understand their pets but also live more comfortably together by meeting their needs. An excellent example of this is a longtime client with Barks & Recreation named Rhonda. Though Rhonda had previous experience with a small companion breed, she found herself in over her head with a new puppy she had rescued from a dire situation. The puppy turned out to be a large working breed whose temperament was not well suited to most normal puppy training programs. Fortunately, Rhonda was able to start work with the Barks & Recreation team right away. Through a lot of dedication and training, Rhonda and Sarah were able to help the pup grow into a well-adjusted dog. Private training allowed them to target specific behaviours, and starting in dog sports helped ensure they were able to channel the dog’s energy in a positive and enriching way. Rhonda can now take her 3 year old dog, who previously could not function in a group training environment, to a variety of group classes. With their ability to be relaxed, calm, and comfortable in a public environment, they are even able to make visits to their local farmers market together.

Barks & Recreation also works to help improve dogs’ lives through their grooming and daycare programs. Through their grooming services they work with many dogs that have had negative grooming experiences in the past. With grooming clients coming from many backgrounds, their experienced team is trained to provide low stress handling for the pets in their care. This allows them to work with dogs to get them more comfortable in a grooming environment. Their daycare program is likewise structured to provide pets with a safe, positive experience every time they come to visit. Structured play is combined with dayschool training to help support the welfare of each daycare client, and all dogs get regular breaks throughout the day. A dedicated trainer assigned to daycare as well as two supporting staff help ensure each dog gets what they need to have a safe, comfortable, and enriching daycare experience.

With many years in the pet care industry, Sarah and Cameron understand the ups and downs that come along with owning a business. Though they truly love what they do, they recommend that anyone looking to get into pet care acknowledge that the industry comes with its challenges. They state that it’s not enough to simply love working with animals, you must also be able to work with people. While it can be fun to play and train with pets, that is far from the whole picture. Any business that works with animals comes with its own dangers, so it’s important to ensure you have safety training and protocols in place to protect yourself, your team, and your clients. Clear communication between team members can go a long way in ensuring that everyone is able to stay safe.

They also stress the importance of developing an understanding of what your client base truly wants. While pet professionals may find certain products or services to be highly interesting that does not always match up with what the average pet parent is looking for. In a similar vein, they recommend that anyone looking to get into dog daycare take a look at what dogs truly need to be fulfilled in a daycare environment. A larger space often offers a more biologically fulfilling experience. At the same time, ensure that you have a robust screening process for new clients. By implementing a mandatory approval process, you can help reduce aggression in your daycare program which will keep pets and team members safer.

With two very different backgrounds the Barks & Recreation team has found a wonderful balance in their business. Sarah’s extensive skills in dog behaviour and industry knowledge is complemented wonderfully by Cameron’s understanding of people, customer service, and the financial side of the business. As owners of such a dynamic business, they are always looking for new opportunities for growth. While their retail store has a smaller profit margin than the rest of their business, they recognize that the lead generation through retail has made a significant impact on the growth of their other services. Moving forward, they hope to help modernize their business practices while still providing the services that their clients are most interested in. 

To learn more about Barks & Recreation, check out their website at www.bnrbc.ca. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram at @barks_and_recreation.

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Barks & Recreation Pet Services is a valued client of BusyPaws, making use of our booking, CRM, communications, and payments systems. We’re pleased to share a small part of their story with the pet care community.