Barkside Detroit — Restaurant in Detroit

Tl;Dr this is an amazing place to bring your furry friend. There are refs in the yard to make sure safe play is possible. They have super fun events weekly and monthly. It is a great place to work remotely too.

In depth: Atmosphere: Absolutely 10/10 no questions asked. Everyone is extremely nice. The staff go out of their way to talk to you and know your name and your dogs. They begin to know each dog temperaments, or in my case, my dogs love to play with little dogs (he's 42 lbs and doesn't get it). They have great Internet, so I have been able to work remotely there while my puppy plays. The yard is pretty well picked up of dog poop and marked areas get sprayed down pretty quickly. The yard outside is mainly wood chips but the chairs and picnic tables provide a lot of fun tracks for the dogs to take. The inside is warm and pretty chill but a great place for trivia night with the dog.

Drinks: they have a great selection at the bar, while also having sodas and coffee for the non drinkers. They have special mix cocktails and a wide selection of different beers. You can order from the counter or from the app which will be brought to your table.

Food: they partner with amazing Detroit based companies!! The pizza looks really good (yet to have it) and they often have a taco truck that comes on Tuesday during trivia. I recommend the chicken and pork tacos.

Events: this group goes way out of their way to make fun and enjoyable events for both the dogs and the people. They had a singles night, which they had bingo to be an ice breaker. Trivia and themed trivia on Tuesday. I will admit I went to the Friends trivia thinking I was pretty good at facts from the show. They completely stumped me. Photo booths and tennis ball nights. It's always something new and exciting. It's really helped me as a person to make new friends and to talk to other dog owners. My dog even met his best friend (Mister) at an event and now me and their owner chat while they play.

Dog safety: this is my number one worry. Dog parks aren't really my jam anymore due to other owners not watching or knowing their dogs temperament. I was sick of constantly stepping in poop at public dog parks. Here at Barkside, they clean and rack the outside yard, it's all fenced in. The refs are always out there looking after the dogs and helping the owners. They have rules in place to keep dogs safe like vaccines. The clean atmosphere prevents dogs from eating trash. No snacks are allowed, which helps monitor what is fed to your dog. They also don't have toys, which is sad in my book, but it's meant to prevent territorial play from happening.

Suggestions: I wish they would put in a $5 pay for people who don't have dogs. That way people having a rough day but can't own a dog themselves could come and pet the puppy's and get that dog...

The short version is this:

Barkside is a wonderful community center masquerading as a dog bar.

The longer version:

We moved into the neighborhood in the middle of winter and kept passing Barkside, wondering what was going on in there. Finally I looked into it, a bar where dogs are allowed! This was exciting because our dog hates being left alone, so getting a drink with my wife required either a dog sitter or decent weather and a bar with a patio.

It was easy to get registered, and we were made to feel very welcome the first time we went in. It can be overwhelming at first; we had never frequented dog parks, so the off-leash part took a little getting used to.

Our dog is a basset hound, so he isn't very high energy. For the first several weeks, he would just walk in, do a lap to get attention from all the people, and then immediately walk to the door to leave.

Over time though, we all started feeling more comfortable at Barkside. Our hound will now occasionally get involved with the higher energy chasing and playing. On the human side, we've gotten to know just about the whole staff, and they're either genuinely glad to see us when we come in or they're all exceptional actors. (They even smile while they're picking up your dog's poop!)

The bar is well-stocked with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, hot and cold. If it's busy or you don't feel like waiting in line, all of the tables have QR codes on them so you can order your drink on your phone and they'll bring it to you.

For health reasons there's no kitchen, but you can bring in whatever food you like; for convenience they've partnered with a restaurant across the street so you can order delicious tacos and have them delivered to your chair. You really don't have to get up for anything.

The rufferees do a great job keeping the dogs happy and safe, they let dogs play, but are quick to break it up if the dogs are getting too aggressive.

Their many events--trivia nights, breed meetups, movie nights, yoga, et cetera--are great for meeting new people and having some fun with your dog.

If you're thinking about it, I encourage you to stop by and try it out, even at the busiest, the staff makes sure to help first-time visitors (and their humans) get acclimated in a fun and safe way.

We're looking forward to many more afternoons spent...

Victim Dog Banned After Being Attacked — Owners Beware

I attended a special event at Barkside Detroit with my double-trained service and therapy dog. As a service dog, he is specifically trained to perform tasks that mitigate my disability. He is also a certified therapy dog who works with the public, highly socialized, extremely well-trained, and with zero history of incidents. Because he is a big dog and can be unfairly judged based on appearance, I have always kept detailed behavior, training, and dog interaction logs at my trainer’s encouragement to document his temperament and history. I can prove he is safe and appropriate in group settings.

At this event, there was no staff greeting or regulating dogs as they arrived. All dogs were simply put together in the same space with no behavior evaluation or temperament checks. I do not know how their daycare operates during the day, but their policy for events, allowing any dog in without evaluation and mixing high-energy with low-energy, large with small, without separation, creates a higher risk for conflict and allows previously aggressive dogs to slip in undetected. This also means your dog could unknowingly be placed in with an aggressive dog.

While some risk is inherent with open doggie play events, this incident shows how real that risk is without proper safeguards. Another dog bit mine without warning. My dog instinctively defended himself to stop the attack, something any dog might do in that situation. Owners intervened immediately and separated the dogs. Despite the clear instigation and my dog’s warranted response, Barkside’s policy is to ban both dogs in any altercation, regardless of fault.

This one-size-fits-all approach punishes the victim equally with the aggressor. It has cost us access to a place we enjoyed and left my well-trained working dog hurt, scarred, and excluded. The other owner has not responded to Barkside’s outreach, which makes me question whether this behavior has happened before.

I am sharing this so other owners understand the risk: without proper supervision, grouping, and dog behavior screening, incidents are more likely to happen here, and even the victim may face the same penalty as the aggressor. It happened to us, and it could...