Welcome back readers, I am so glad you clicked this page as I get asked this question a lot - what inspired you to start your business?

It’s kinda like when you’re in a relationship and people want to know how you met! Language warning - I swear a lot in real life, so I might when I write, especially as I'm sharing some personal stuff that I haven't shared before.

Koda, my little bundle of inspiration with my bigger bundles of inspiration, Sean and Kirsty

When did it all start, Katie?

16 years ago. Picture this. I was working in the civil service full time, with two young children. I never saw them and when I did I was exhausted from early morning drop off at the childminders, to sitting in traffic for 1.5 hours, full day in a stressful job then commute home, collect from childminders, then cook and see to their needs! But I was trying to be a good mum. We had also recently lost our Jack Russel Terrier, Rocky and I missed the comfort he brought me, as a single parent. We had cats and a large selection of other tiny creatures. But missed a dog.

Lego and Tallulah…I loved how she would knead her front paws…

I had ALWAYS wanted to have a Bull Terrier. Right from watching a movie called The Incredible Journey (the 1963 version), which starred a Bull Terrier and I wanted and wanted and had done tons of research. I had approached breeders, read books, spoke to other owners. They had all told me they were hard to live with and handful and not easy to train so I felt ready when I was finally accepted by Koda’s breeder. I’ll tell his story another time.

But Koda was ace! Well, he wasn’t angel…I mean he ate the boot of my car including my new speakers and me new sofa. I knew he was struggling with me working, and he was teething and turning into an adolescent dog…and I had tried really hard to find someone I not only trusted with my dog but the house too. Just a council house nothing fancy, but it was our home! Back then there weren’t many dog walking professionals. Not like now!

Believe me I searched. There were 4 in the yellow pages (yeah I’m old enough to have had one of those). One person I remember being so rude to me about my puppy, I put the phone down on her. Wow what a bias against bull breeds. To be fair, I met with that a lot, yet Koda was lover not a fighter, he quickly became a teacher and had an uncanny knack of helping other dogs gain confidence around dogs…all my dogs, even Ren now, have gentle, sweet souls.

Yet truthfully, having had 6 months off work with PTSD related depression that year I was done with that job (inner city job center and it truly fucking sucked), I was ready to leave. So I negotiated working term time, had the summer off and I never went back.

Why what happened, Katie?

I started my new job - self employed dog walker and pet sitter!

Very PETicular Petcare was born.

And guess what? I spent that summer wisely and went on courses for learning how to do tax returns and how to set up a business and did a business plan for the bank to open and business account. But that was it. I didn’t have a clue other than that, what I was doing.

No start up capital (I was a broke single mum who had been working for the lowest paid department of the civil service), no prior knowledge except previous pets and an uncle who bred Irish Wolfhounds and no clue. I HAD to make this work or we’d starve! And I like eating so no kidding it was do or die at this point.

Except I wanted to provide the service I felt was missing from the pro pool at the time. Someone who would solo walk the dogs, get to know them then introduce to group walks if appropriate, remain solo if not . Someone who would spend quality time with client’s pets, love and care for them like my own and follow their instructions to the letter. Funnily enough I met just the right person AFTER I set up in business and we became friends!

I got my first client the very same afternoon I had put a business card in the window of a local vets practice. A little Staffy called Cherry. And it went from, there, in fact it snowballed and before I knew it my books were full but honestly I don’t know how or why because I made mistakes and had to learn as I went along on how to mix dogs safely, how to walk them with behaviour challenges, how to deal with the humans. I’ve literally been there, done that, did it again, bought the t shirt, moved on, done that.

I did all this, with disabilities

Something you may not know, I have learning difficulties and disabilities, and I found the people bit hard sometimes and pissed off a lot of people without meaning to.

I wanted to be liked and accepted, but I may have got involved in online disputes and got carried away with what I thought was right. So over time I've let the social media bit slide and lost an online following and some of the bridges may have burned. I'm OK with that now, I'm not going to let it stop me doing my best version of me for my clients, the community and my loved ones.

I'm not a natural business person and I’m not ruthless, gaining a thick skin has taken me almost 50 years. And man the inter professional politics was and still is so bitchy! More and more competitors sprung up and before I knew it dog walkers and pet sitters were EVERYWHERE. So I figured I had to stand out better from the crowd, my decades of customer service experience wasn’t enough clearly…so I flung myself into learning dog training and behaviour. And I was still in my first year of trading!

Plus side though, I could spend more time with my children and support them in their endeavors and tribulations. I also decided to bring home another dog for us…and Cassini the ex puppy farm Bull Terrier came into our lives…amazing dog, she was incredible. I’ll tell her story another time.

And watching how she learned to be a dog from Koda, and how she grew into her new home blew me away and I learned so much just observing them. We fostered dogs, including an amazing Bull Terrier named Solo, whose adopters stay in touch.

Is that why you have done so many courses, Katie?

Shit yeah I did loads but most were pretty useless at first as I couldn’t afford to do the ones I should have done as they involved spending time at university or college campuses, and I couldn’t do that as a single mumsy. My kids were pretty independent but they were too young to leave home alone!

So I did what I could with what I had (and still do I love learning and continued professional development is vital, so this list wasn't all in the first year!)…a dog psychology diploma, dog training qualifications and courses, animal behaviour qualifications including 3 under grad degrees the latest I passed last year and behaviour courses, human counselling courses and qualifications, puppy training courses, gun dog courses, dog first aid instructor, trick dog courses, husbandry courses, aggressive dog courses, cytology, scent work instructor, TAGteach instructor oh and horse care and stable management…I joined organisations (most of which I also left) oh and and I won NARPs Pet Sitter of the year in 2009!

Admittedly, I got a bit big headed at first and thought I knew like everything and took on behaviour cases that I should have referred out, but I really wanted to do them and that was so wrong of me…

I later discovered it takes years and years to gain enough experience and skills and knowledge to be a behaviourist…and I didn't need to spout verbatim what my tutors taught us to clients. My desire to do and be better led me to come away from some of my teachings - I had to learn and learn hard. So I did learn.

My original dream team, Jellybean Lollipop, Koda, Cassini.

Somehow though, I managed to remain in business. I took on staff to help, trained them up but found this quite stressful, I like managing people but I also liked being liked, it was hard when we clashed and I had to fire one. I ended up with 5 full time walkers and sitters and 2 part timers and it was OK for a couple of years.

I pushed myself too hard though and burned out a few times, got serious compassion fatigue after working at Holly Hedge while suffering another bought of depression. It ain't easy being your own boss and dealing with shit on your own!

I rarely advertised, it was all word of mouth and referrals from vets, my own vets were very supportive of me and I’ll always be grateful of that - shout to Emerson’s Green Veterinary Centre but found myself being the victim of undercutting, bullying and bad mouthing from other pro’s. It really brought me down at times. Especially as I take things to heart, not so much now but back then I'd be sleepless for weeks worrying.

Sounds like a pain in the arse Katie!

Yes it was.

But I diversified, I started offering to board dogs, and that service went from 0 to 100 in 60 seconds flat. Boom I was booked for 2 years ahead regularly thereon in.

I looked into shops to sell the equipment I'd recommend people to buy and tried online shops for the business, but didn't quite figure out how to fit it in with being a parent, and then looked at getting my own venue to run classes and workshops but again I never quite got that far.

But my business was regularly shared on social media and I had an engaged audience but I still knew I was not quite hitting the mark as far as the human end of the lead was concerned, or my industry colleagues and competitors. I tried to learn from those who I saw could engage with people better like my friend and colleague Roz Pooley the Mutty Professor and Dr Michelle Lord of Co-Evolve and learn from them all to help my business, my clients and even how I connected with my loved ones. My friend Marie Yates has also been a big inspiration to me, she’s amazing.

I've been on BBC Radio Bristol a couple of times, was interviewed by BBC Points West (that was good fun!) but the clip never aired, I wrote regularly for Bull Terrier Monthly magazine, I was on the Think Tank at Bath Dogs and Cats Home, I've presented several schools with bite prevention workshops, and been in the local papers a few times. Oh yeah nearly forgot I've also presented a couple of webinars, been on a podcast and helped film a dog first aid instructor DVD.

Flipping heck I done loads didn't I, no wonder I was always knackered!

Pub class was always popular for some reason

Sorry I am good at digressing! Back to the story. I kept changing my mind about stuff like business names so Very PETicular Petcare became Very Pets. Koda featured in all the logos, after all he was my inspiration for starting in the first place. I adopted another 2 beautiful Bull Terriorists in this time also, we welcomed Jellybean Lollipop and then Tallulah. I’ll tell their story another time.

I've been mentored by a Jean Donaldson, author of loads of books like Mine! and Train your dog like a pro. It was her guidance that gave me the confidence to run puppy classes and I never looked back.

I was running specialist classes including reactive dog classes, training workshops and masterclasses, basic agility, scent work, pub classes (the pub photo is my reactive dog class students polishing their social distancing skills), pet first aid, walk and talks, rescue workshops and all sorts.

Then I decided to concentrate soley on dog training and behaviour so I went from 5 staff to me and my part timer and a couple of class assistants, stopped pet sitting, walking and boarding and ta dah, Love Dog Training was born.

I taught puppy and dog training classes and workshops here and Ireland and USA. I was running 10 classes a week, workshops, behaviour consultations, I was successful despite not doing business quite right, although always busy, yet I was also always broke somehow! WTF!

Did loads of collaborative work and seminars over the years, including a dog walker's one and a dog play one with Roz, hosted loads too, and met loads of amazing people…some of whom became dear friends to me. I'll always be thankful for that. Even more so that I'm crap at maintaining relationships!

I was honoured when other pet professionals attended my classes, some went on to form friendship groups which is lovely. I did enjoy doing them, have to admit.

So what’s the dealio now Katie?

Then I decided my passion lay in the human side of things, after all it’s the human behaviour change that the key to animal behaviour modification. And let’s face it, people are really interesting!

So I concentrated on behaviour and human behaviour and did even more courses and eventually stopped running classes and now I only offer behaviour consulting. 3 years ago I started to work for a global dog welfare and rehoming charity, as an online behaviourist working from home advising adopters, and I haven’t looked back.

My behavioural journey continues, I've reinvented my business again to what you see today and I do what I love every single day and love what I do; helping people and animals.

Oh and I finally learned how to do business right! I'm trying to mend bridges, focus on the good things I do do and be the best version of me and my business I can be and do, whilst maintaining my integrity. I'm excited to see what the next 16 years will bring!

One of the few media evidences that survived the 4 house moves since this was taken!

Thanks for reading, hope this answered the question. And thank you to every single one of the clients, colleagues, teachers, experts, mentors and animals that made all this possible, my vets and most of all, my amazing children, Kirsty and Sean who supported me along the way. You rock my world.

Are you or have you been a client? I’d fricking love to hear from you, some say hi!

Katie

How and why I started my business

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