|
We were inspired to open Best Friends Doggy & Kitty Salon when we got our first Siberian Husky. Back then in Singapore, there weren’t many professionals in dog training and grooming, and we saw a potential for this market, so we enrolled in a local kennel club to learn more about the trade.
Later on, our passion for the business took us to the US to further our study in dog training and grooming, where we got certified to train 136 dog breeds. We’ve now been operating for almost 11 years, but I have to say that it was tough trying to build up our business in the early days, as it wasn’t a common thing for dog owners to send their dogs to a certified dog trainer for obedience classes.
 We have now built up a steady clientele through our commitment to providing the best dog training and animal grooming services for our clients’ pets, and also by working closely with veterinarians, who provide us with recommendations.
We get quite a lot of Eurasian and Japanese clients who send their dogs to us for training, and there are also an increasing number of younger generation Singaporeans who are receptive to the idea of training their dogs. It’s amazing how modern technology and research into dog behaviour has really improved dog-training methods. For example, in the past, training a dog correctly, by trial and error, would take around 6 months. But now, by using a new technology called the radio collar to train dogs (which is safe and harmless to the dog), a dog can be well trained in 3 lessons, and that really amazes our clients all the time!
Ivy and me really enjoy interacting with our clients, teaching and sharing with them our knowledge about dogs and also making our clients aware of their pet’s needs, so that they can become better owners too.
We believe in a holistic approach to pet care therefore our services cover many aspects such as –
- Obedience classes – teaching dogs to respond to basic commands such as “Sit”, “Stay” and “Come”.
- Grooming – we provide professional grooming services for both dogs and cats.
- Hydrotherapy – we have a special hydrotherapy pool that helps to rehabilitate dogs with injuries, enabling them to recover faster.
- Therapy dogs – we help to assess suitable dogs that are able to go to hospitals to give comfort to patients.
- Support dog training – assisting visually handicapped persons by performing useful functions such as picking up credit cards and to retrieve things without damaging it, to open doors, turn on light switches etc. It is essentially about bringing the dog’s obedience to the next level of usefulness so as to help its owner.
- Handling techniques - equipping dog owners with techniques to handle their dog in public so as not to inconvenience other people and cause the owner distress.
- Diet and nutrition – we carry the best foods for our clients' dogs and cats so that they will get the best diet and nutrition.
I believe that there are good prospects for the pet grooming and dog training trade, but it’s very important to learn the skills correctly and be truly passionate about helping the animals or else you will actually be doing more harm than good towards your clients and their pets in the long run.
Our dreams for the future are to grow our business by sharing our knowledge about animal training with more people, and to also spread the good word about the husky breed. |
