How I literally fell into dog walking and setting up my successful pet business.

I’m not going to lie it’s a pretty tragic story but, I want to warn you, it has a very happy ending.

I have always had a huge love for animals and considered a career as a Vet when I was in high school. But science was not my strong point, and a few weeks working at a boarding kennels on work experience actually ignited a fear of dogs during my late teenage years. Looking back it was a very weird fear in reaction to a fearful dog coming into a very strange and uncomfortable environment for itself, shall we say in a very vocal way.

One of my first jobs was to then walk this dog, and to do so I needed to use a slip lead to put over this head. Now I know dog psychology and physiology on a completely different level, I completely understand how anxious he was feeling, and not being used to other dogs, he was reacting in the best way he knew how. Rewind back to my teenage self, completely crapped myself!

So I backed away from working with animals and went down the route of teaching children with Special Needs. I was in my 4^thyear when I fractured my hip in such a bad way that I could not walk on it for nearly a year! I had to make the hard decision to give up my job, my amazing pay, and focus on learning to walk again.

I didn’t know how long this would take from beginning to end. Similar to this lockdown, it was just getting extended out and out. If someone would have told me at the very beginning how long it would take, I may have had a mental meltdown.

But if anything, I am positive, my work ethic is strong and I had a strong family base around me to keep pushing me.

Walking, without any support from crutches, took me 10 months.  After 22 months, Paula’s Pet Services was born in 2015.  So something really positive has come out of something pretty tragic.

“How can she walk dogs when she is so scared of them?” You may ask. Well it happened that I grew out of that fear as the years went on and didn’t feel it at all.  I am actually a little bit gobsmacked that any teenager, unqualified and untrained, would be asked to do the jobs I was asked to do. Knowing how wrong it could actually go, and how dogs completely feed off energy. At no point was my fear enhanced or consolidated from ages 16 to 36, when I started my business, so it hasn’t lingered one bit. In fact, it’s the opposite. I work with all breeds, all sizes, and varying levels of sassiness and nervousness.

I’ve always been intrigued  and interested in why dogs behave the way that they do and wanted to learn and understand more about all dogs and their triggers and loves. That is why in 2020, I took the plunge and studied and trained to become a Certified Pro Dog Trainer and set up Paula’s Puppy Club Southport.

Alongside my group walks, my Cocker Club Adventures and my Puppy Trails, I also work with owners with training walks, recall, loose lead walking, excited dogs and jumping up behaviours, barking dogs and much more.

I’ve always had a huge empathy for humans and animals and wanting to help in anyway to have a happy and healthy life.  Now I’m lucky enough to work closely with both.

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