MEET JEMMA
Bark Bus is one dog person, a small team, and a fleet of vans.
We started because nothing in Preston quite fit. Day-care meant a kennel run. Group walks meant pavement and a tangle of leads. Driving to a field meant driving — and the dogs that need it most have owners who can't.
We built the thing we couldn’t find.
The shape of the day was the part nobody was solving. Owners didn't want to drive their dog to a field. They wanted their dog collected, walked somewhere real, and brought home tired — without the trade-off you make when life gets busy.
So Bark Bus is a bus and a curated calendar. The bus picks up door-to-door across the PR-postcode area at launch — Chorley, Leyland, Bamber Bridge, Penwortham, Eccleston, Brindle, Croston, Mawdesley. The calendar rotates: coast on Mondays, forest on Wednesdays, fell on Fridays. The day is supervised by qualified handlers, capped at ten dogs, and every dog gets approved before they ever step on the bus.
The rest of the operation — the photos, the live tracking, the end-of-day note — is just what we'd want as owners. Bark Bus is built by people who own the dogs, run the bus, and walk the destinations. It's small on purpose. When we open in another region in 2027, it'll be small there too.
FOUR LINES WE WON’T CROSS
The values, in four sentences.
The dog comes first.
If an adventure is wrong for your dog, we say so. Even if it costs us the booking.
Cap the pack.
Ten dogs maximum per adventure is not a guideline, it's a hard limit. We turn away rather than overfill.
Real places, not pavements.
Beach, forest, fell, country park — we drive your dog to somewhere worth the trip.
Tell the truth.
Every end-of-day note is honest. Even when the day didn't quite go to plan.
THE TEAM
Small team, real specialism.
- ALT — Headshot — Jemma
Jemma
Level 3 qualified, twelve years at this. Started Bark Bus because every other day-care option around Preston was either a kennel, a back garden, or a pavement loop.
- ALT — Headshot — TBC
TBC
Joining ahead of launch. Canine first aid certified, two years at a Chorley training school before this.
- ALT — Headshot — TBC
TBC
Builds the morning loop and runs the bus. Calm with everything from spaniels to mastiffs.
EXPANSION
Lancashire first. Then the rest.
Bark Bus is designed to be replicable. Every region is run by someone who walks those beaches, woods and lanes themselves — against the same Operations Manual that runs the launch region. Year 2 opens an adjacent region; Year 3 takes us to three or four. The marginal cost of opening up is one van and one local handler.