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Does your dog have a New Year's resolution to behave better? How about enrolling in one of our training courses?

Fenway Bark believes that our training should be effective, humane, and most importantly fun!  Our training is completely reward based, which is focused on building desired behaviors to replaces the ones you would rather live without!  Check out our class descriptions to see what best fits you and your dog!  If you have any questions or not sure what class you might need, please contact Trisha (trisha@fenwaybarkonline.com) or Tenley (tenley@fenwaybarkonline.com) for more information!

Little League 

Having a new puppy is exciting, fun, but can also be a frustrating time!  Don't worry, we are here to help!  This class will introduce all of the basic training cues, such as: sit, down, stay and come, along with addressing basic household manners, such as: jumping, chewing and leash manners.  In addition to weekly training, your puppy will develop their social skills with supervised off leash playtime.  This is a 7 week class for puppies, 10 weeks to 5 months of age, with no previous training!

Farm League

This 7 week class is perfect for graduates of puppy training or dogs over the age of 5 months with little to no previous training.  Our farm leaguers are introduced to cues, such as: attention, sit, down, stay, come, and loose leash walking.  Once these behaviors are taught, we will then work on proofing thse cues to make the behaviors reliable in any situation.  We will also introduce more advances cues, such as: heel, leave it, and stay with both distractions and distance.  This class will also help you and your dog prepare for the Canine Good Citizenship test.  

Major League

This class is for dogs with previous training or graduates of a basic obedience class.  In this class, we will add distractions to the cues previously taught and add hand commands, in order to give you a new way to communicate with your dog.  We will also add more advanced cues to our heel, including, return to heel, easy and hurry.  This class is a must for anyone thinking about competitive obedience.

Private Coaching/Lessons

Sometimes you just want to work on certain behaviors a bit longer, or maybe your schedule is a bit to hectic to fit into a class we already have running, no worries!  We will also be offering private training lessons for your and your dog.  These sessions will be offered by the hour or by 4 hours, that you can spilt up and use how you like.

We are excited to help you and your family have a well behaved dog and have some fun together, too!

A Message from Jane

As the sun begins to rise in the East over Fenway Bark and the Blizzard of 2010 becomes fully visible from our enviable view on the Boston harbor, I have had time to reflect upon the Fenway Bark vision, our effectiveness so far meeting that vision, and where we need to go from here.

The mission for Fenway Bark has been public and unchanged since we were founded over a year and half ago.  How well are we doing toward our mission with our first Holiday guests on board, the first blizzard and travel challenge, and a array of medical and individual specific needs for our guests as part of our every day agenda all in our first 5 days of boarding guests?

I'm happy to report that we I am delighted with the outcome.  Let me give you some examples of how the mission played out:

• When our veterinary technicians identified an allergy skin issue with one of our guests, they proactively worked with the pet's veterinarian and parents to improve our guest's comfort while in our care and following her departure.  With her veterinarian ordered medication change, our team carefully followed her condition and worked together to improve her comfort level throughout her stay.
• When one of our senior citizen guests had some, well, issues with incontinence, our team understood both the condition that comes with age and how to handle a senior citizen to keep him both hygienically safe, comfortable and loved.
• When one of our young energetic boarders needed regular exercise because he typically runs with his mom daily, we developed a fun, exhausting retrieval game on each shift to wear him out and keep him exercised.
• With a little bit of separation anxiety noted, our staff took turns curling up with the sweetest little Golden/Chow mix and sleeping next to her on her dog bed until she was OK on her own.
• And when a blizzard hit Boston, our team pulled together to make sure that there was coverage of all key positions while ensuring the staff was able to travel safely, a warm area to play and walk in our indoor park, and where established, continued their pledge to take public transportation to reduce Fenway Bark's carbon footprint.

I guess one of the best testaments I can personally give is that given the blizzards imminent arrival, I personally chose to bring my Senior Citizen, Corky, to Fenway Bark because it was a better place for him than home where he would have otherwise had to go out in the blizzard with his arthritis, restricted vision, and unstable legs.  In making that decision, I achieved one of my goals:  to build a dog hotel where I would board my own dogs.


So where do we go from here? 

There is still work to be done to finish the construction of Fenway Bark, add some special offerings we will tell you about in January, and launch most of our key services in the next 6 weeks.  We will resume taking daycare and overnight guests once our main luxury boxes are completed in the last week of January and will be ready to have your pet as our guest for Valentine's Day weekend, winter break, and spring break.  However, we recommend you register now and make sure your reservations are in place soon.

We continue to plan two important events:  1)  Puppy Love on February 12 which brings together a number of rescue organization at one time at Fenway Bark with the hope of helping some fine dogs and cats find their forever home.

We will have some special guests that day including a book signing by Larry Levin, author of Oogy:  A Dog Only a Family Could Love.  Copies of the book will be available for sale in the Fenway Bark boutique.

Tours, a raffle to raise money for the shelters with some coveted donations made from generous local contributors, entertainment, and refreshments will be available, as well.  Please plan on attending and maybe bringing home a new family member or at least help raise some money to help out the dogs and cats until they find their forever home. 

On February 27 we plan on having our official Grand Opening all day.  We hope you will mark your calendars to attend.

On a more basic note, events aside, we, as a team, are creating something that feels really right, that is working well, and we can be very proud of what we accomplished so far.

We will continue to listen, improve, launch new services, and hopefully delight you as Boston area pet owner.

We look forward to your visit and meeting your furry family members soon.

To register or make reservations, please go to our website through the link.

On behalf of the entire team, health and happiness in the New Year!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas from the guests at Fenway Bark!

Happy Holidays from the Guests at Fenway Bark!

Opening Day!

We are excited to share with you that all the features of Fenway Bark will be opening by the end of January 2011 (except hydrotherapy which will be April). 

Our retail store will be open prior to the holidays and we will be offering some terrific deals on holiday toys, bedding, and treats for last minute shoppers. Stay tuned for more information!

Our hotel/boarding facility, including luxury suites, will be available after January 17, 2010.  Our daycare is anticipated to start approximately the same time.  S


Training classes will begin in earnest on January 17.  See the prior entry blog for more information about training classes.  If you are bringing a puppy into your home for the holidays, we highly encourage you to engage your pup into a positive method, small class training program for puppies like Fenway Bark offers starting in January.  We are booking these classes now and look forward to filling the last few spots in the next week.

On January 16 we will be having a Pet Tech First Aid course at Fenway Bark.  The course is $99 and is a great gift to any responsible pet family member.  We are taking reservations for that course, as well, right now.

Finally, mark your calendars:  we will be having a "Puppy Love" adoption event on February 12 and a Grand Opening party on February 26!!

Stay tuned for more information about our very special soiree for pets and their families!