Why I started a Doggy Daycare

Before founding The Doggy Playschool, I was still working in the City in the South West, balancing long working days, commuting, family life, and two much-loved Spaniels.

Like many owners, I wanted the very best care possible for my dogs. Cost was never the driving factor for me — trust was.

Dogs today are no longer simply pets sitting quietly in the background of family life. They are woven into the fabric of our homes, routines, emotional well being and daily happiness — very much like children in many households, much to my son’s amusement.

At the time, I trusted what I saw online.

The website looked professional, the messaging sounded reassuring, and I believed my dogs would be receiving the level of care being described.

But one unexpected day changed everything.

I happened to be working from home and no longer needed to travel into London. For the first time, I walked my dogs down personally to the collection vehicle rather than leaving earlier for work.

What I saw shocked me.

Dogs were being placed into small transport crates with multiple other dogs before long journeys to daycare facilities I had never actually visited myself. So I immediately requested to see the site where my dogs were spending their days. And once I did, I withdrew them instantly.

That experience stayed with me for a long time — not because I believed all daycare providers operated poorly, but because I realised how easily owners can place trust in businesses without ever truly understanding what happens behind the scenes.

That moment became the catalyst for building something different.

I retrained in canine behaviour, spent months working hands-on with dogs, studying behaviour, group dynamics, enrichment and welfare, and eventually began searching for land where I could create the kind of environment I had originally wanted for my own dogs.

The Doggy Playschool was born from one very simple belief: Dogs deserve thoughtful, emotionally intelligent care — not just management. Everything we have built since then has been centred around that philosophy: that every dog is genuinely understood as individuals.

My ambition has never simply been to run a daycare business. It has been to help raise the standard of care dogs receive and build one of the most trusted countryside daycare environments in the Cotswolds.

Because when owners hand over their dogs each morning, they are not handing over “pets.” They are handing over family.