Hi, I'm Emily, the owner and founder of Emily's Canine Crew; a solo dog walking specialist and canine enrichment enthuaist. I've always loved animals, and I guess I was heavily influenced from an early age, growing up with family who farmed and having many pets of my own.
The many pets I've owned include dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, and of course the traditional pet gold fish! When I was around the age of 10, I can remember telling my mum and dad that I wanted to be a vet, but that soon changed.
Growing up, the first dog in my life was Daisy. She was a Tri-coloured Border Collie (shown to the right), where my dad rescued/rehomed her from the local RSPCA centre.
She lived with my dad, and he worked on the family farm, so she became a good farm dog. I can remember dad telling me stories about her including the day she caught 16 rabbits, and the day she ran in front of the combine harvester! Although she was rushed to the vets, luckily she was ok after some TLC.
When I was at primary and secondary school, that's when I had my gold fish, cats, rabbits and hamsters.
The cats that I have at the minute are Jake; he's a very old grumpy one eyed cat, and then sisters Maisie & Pippa.
When I was at secondary school, I kept asking my mum if we could have a puppy, and she kept saying no. Then one day my uncle suggested we looked at the Oldies website, which is where you can find older pets needing new homes. I knew I wanted my own Border Collie; I don't quite know why I wanted a Border Collie, but I've always been attracted to the breed, so I kept looking at the collies/collie crosses that they had available.
Then one day I found Shakespeare (Shaky for short) on their website. He was needing a new home due to his previous owner's circumstances changing. Shaky did a trial living at her parents house, but he didn't get on with their dogs. I'm glad it didn't work out for them; that may sound selfish, however Shaky brought lots of joy and happiness into mine and my mum's lives. He became my best friend, and helped me throughout some rubbish times at school and college. He's pictured below.
With Shaky being an older dog; he was 9 years old when we rehomed him, we knew we wouldn't have all the time in the world with him. We shared 4.5 years together, and in that time we managed to get a lot of weight off Shaky, he came to us overweight and when we had to make the heartbreaking decision to help him cross over rainbow bridge, he was at the ideal weight for a Border Collie of his age.
As most people know when you're at school and college, they ask you to do work experience so you can try different job roles before you leave education and try to get a job. My work experience was working at the local Dog Grooming Salon and local Boarding Kennels and Cattery. I enjoyed both, as they allowed me to work with animals, however after I left college I ended up working part time at Sainsburys! After a mini health scare, I decided that life was too short, to be stuck in a job that I didn't enjoy, so after a lenghty chat with my mum, I decided to find a different job.
I've always enjoyed trying various crafting projects, and I got out my sewing machine and started to make bags, cushions and other textile items. One day we were at a local craft fair, and a lady walked in after recently moving to the village to be with her husband and their 4 dogs. She came to our stall, and asked if we knew anyone who looked after dogs. I said I'd grown up with animals, and have always had a passion for them; after a lenghty chat, I arranged to pop round, to meet her, her husband and their dogs properly.
On January 4th 2018, I started visiting the Snufflehog Crew; 2 Boston Terriers (Lola & Beatrice) and 2 Pugs (Elmo & Dottie), all older dogs ageing between 7yrs and 13yrs old. I loved my new lunchtime visits to see the Crew, all full of character and after a few weeks, a couple of other villagers saw me, and asked if I could help them, by walking their dogs. I said yes of course! I was enjoying helping other dog owners with their dogs, being outside more and also having extra time with my own two fur babies; Floss & Merlin.
Photos below include the Snufflehog Crew, Floss & Merlin and my two first clients Dudley & Harry.
After 3 months of taking the pawsome pooches above for walks, I decided I really wanted to push this full time, and so Emily's Canine Crew was born! Thanks to the Snufflehog's parents; Alison & Tim, they suggested the name of Emily's Canine Crew, and I just loved it, so I had my logo created, and then I made some flyers to go and deliver around the local villages. After delivering hundreds of flyers door to door in 5 villages, I started to receive enquiries for my dog walking services, which was amazing.
In 2020 when the world pandemic of Covid-19 hit, and we went into a Lockdown, I temporarily paused my dog walking services, whilst I put Covid protocols in place, and I also trained to become a Puppy Training Specialist. After gaining my Level 3 qualification and with restrictions easing, I started to offer puppy training to new puppy owners; the lockdown increased dog/puppy ownership... Massively!
3 years since starting in 2018, I couldn't imagine doing a different job. They say when you've got a job you love, you never do a day's work and although sometimes the weather AND the dogs can be challenging, I really do LOVE my job! So that's a bit of background on me and how Emily's Canine Crew was born. Here's to many many more years of walking dogs, training puppies, visiting pets and who knows what else yet! Thanks for reading, Emily.
Comments