Barks and Bubbles Pet Grooming, Boarding and Daycare

On 36th Street in Northport, Alabama, Barks and Bubbles Pet Grooming, Boarding and Daycare runs a facility built around the idea that time away from home should still feel like play for a dog. The business handles three related services under one roof, grooming, daycare, and overnight boarding, from its location on the north side of the Black Warrior River.

The stated goal at Barks and Bubbles is to offer pets excellent care, a safe environment, and complete peace of mind for owners while animals are in their care. The daycare side operates as an open play environment, meaning dogs spend their day in supervised group activities rather than sitting in isolated kennels, with access to pools, sandboxes, and slides scattered around the play areas.

Dogs are grouped by size during the day, which helps keep play safe for smaller or more timid animals sharing space with larger ones. Scheduled nap breaks are built into the daily routine, and by evening, boarding dogs are kenneled separately and fed individually rather than left to socialize around the clock. Because the open play format requires dogs that get along well with others, the facility recommends that new boarding clients bring their dog through a daycare visit first, giving staff a chance to evaluate temperament before committing to an overnight stay.

Grooming is available as a standalone service, with nail trims offered on a walk in basis and other services requiring an appointment. Baths, which include a massage, brushing, blow dry, nail trim, ear cleaning, and cologne, start at $25 for dogs up to 20 pounds and scale up by weight class to $70 for dogs in the 56 to 75 pound range. A full groom, which adds a complete haircut or shave to the bath service, runs from $65 up to $105 depending on size. A partial groom, covering a pad shave and a face and sanitary trim along with the bath, sits between those two price points.

Doodle breeds have their own pricing tier for both full and partial grooms, reflecting the extra time their coats typically require, with an optional $10 add-on for ear plucking. A furminator blowout, aimed at reducing shedding, is priced separately from the standard grooming menu. Additional add-ons include anal gland expression, nail polish, teeth brushing, nail trims with grinding, and seasonal ear or tail coloring, along with a complimentary bow finish on request.

Boarding runs $35 a day and daycare runs $25 a day, with both services requiring the temperament evaluation described above before a first overnight stay. Drop off for daycare and boarding runs between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning, matching the shop’s overall hours of Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Clients can manage appointments, boarding reservations, and account details through an online client portal on the company’s website, in addition to reaching the business by phone or email directly. The team behind the operation, pictured together on the company’s site, works across all three service lines rather than splitting grooming, daycare, and boarding staff into separate departments.

The furminator blowout option in particular tends to appeal to owners of heavy shedding breeds looking for something more thorough than a standard bath, since the de-shedding treatment is priced and offered as its own line item rather than being bundled automatically into a groom. Owners planning ahead for a shed-heavy season, such as the spring coat blow common to double coated breeds, can book the service on its own without paying for a full haircut they do not need.

Because grooming, daycare, and boarding all happen at the same address, a dog already coming in for a bath or a nail trim can be introduced gradually to the daycare side without an owner needing to schedule a separate visit somewhere else. That overlap is part of what the business points to as the reasoning behind evaluating temperament through daycare first, since staff who already see a dog regularly for grooming can flag any concerns before a boarding stay is booked.

For pet owners in Northport who want grooming, daycare, and boarding handled by one team rather than juggling separate providers across the river in Tuscaloosa, Barks and Bubbles keeps all three services under one address on 36th Street, with pricing published openly on its website rather than requiring a call just to get a quote.