All About Me

Hi! My name is Sian and this is Riggs, my dog and the Shire Hounds mascot!

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Funnily enough my story starts when I was a little girl and I was actually terrified of dogs! Who would have thought that a person like me who can roll around on the grass, wrestling and playing with pooches could have feared them once upon a time in their life...well that was me! It was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and an Old English Sheep Dog that helped me overcome my fear of dogs and ignite a complete fascination instead. Throughout my childhood and teenage years I was infatuated with animals of all kinds, and that brought me to my very first job working in an exotics pet shop where I handled a variety of animals ranging from Meerkats to 16ft Burmese Pythons. Although I always loved my job (and the animals I had purchased and rescued creating a collection of 25 animals in my own little bedroom) it never quite filled the dog shaped hole in my heart!

It was my own mother (who is still terrified of dogs!) that suggested I study Dog Behaviour as I had always found them so fascinating. A few weeks later I had signed-up with The British College of Canine Studies to start my first bit of coursework on how dogs work. At this stage, I had not been around dogs as much as I would have liked so in order to change that I started my very first job walking dogs in Regents Park. Safe to say that was the best job I'd ever had at that stage of my life, walking dogs for a living - it was the dream!

As I progressed in my adventure in working with dogs, my love for them only increased. I moved from Regents Park to Hampstead Heath with a new pack of dogs, which later led to me moving to a Doggy Daycare where I became the Supervisor for the Large Dogs Field; I was in my absolute element! Over the years of building my experience with dogs and also completing my Dog Behavioral course, I went on to work in a two more Doggy Daycares. And although these were jobs which I absolutely adored, I've always felt it was my true calling to walk dogs and explore with them, which brings us to the present day! I decided to venture back out on my own and start Shire Hounds Dog Walking Services so I could get back to doing what I've always loved doing - walking, exploring and adventuring with dogs.

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Dogs are fantastic creatures in my eyes and life wouldn't be worth living without them!