Haywards Heath dog trainer's services recognised with two awards

A dog trainer from Haywards Heath has been regionally and nationally recognised for the quality of her service, having recently won two awards.

Rachel Pocock runs Enriched Dog Training UK and was presented with the South East Prestige Award for Dog Training Service Of The Year and Animal Starr’s Animal Trainer of the Year earlier this month.

Rachel was first told she had been nominated for these accolades back in November.

She said: “They [Prestige and Animal Starr] rang me as I was on my way to see a client, I pulled the car over and cried. I have always felt like a small fish in a massive ocean. These things don't normally happen to me. I got a feeling of imposter syndrome, a sense that you are not good enough or that you are able to achieve this level. So it was overwhelming.

“For someone to take the time to nominate us is huge. That’s a massive privilege. To even be in a category on the training side of things and to make finalists. I had already made it as a winner at that point.”

Rachel first started Enriched Dog Training UK as a canine day-care centre after she left the police in 2017.

Whilst running the company, she started a dog training course to become a fully qualified instructor and assessor.

Rachel said: “I grew up with dogs all my life, I left the police service because of my kids. I had a dog and went to dog training and loved it. I felt alive again, there was a burning desire to learn more about it.

“I started off running a day-care for dogs from my home and it went crazy. We were full all the time and had over a year waiting list for holidays. Whilst doing that, I was trying to get credited as a dog trainer, to get experience.”

Just before the start of the pandemic, Rachel passed her Dog Trainers and Behaviourists exams and turned the business into a training facility.

Rachel continued: “We came out of the pandemic and started doing more training and really due to the home life situation it was time to change. We closed the day care and it was full go with the training and I have never looked back. It’s the best decision I have ever made.

“I love helping owners and seeing that magic come alive. It’s not about dog training, it's about supporting owners and helping them train their dogs. “

Currently, Enriched Dog Training UK offers 1-1 dog training and Canine Hoopers classes – a sport in which dogs navigate a course of hoops, barrels and tunnels with the help and support of their owners

Rachel said: “For me, it’s not that you have to book a certain number of courses, it's about an individual journey. You have to look at the dog on its own, as well as the families and find out what they want from the training.

“Most people want a calm, polite dog, but we will tailor it around what they need to make it work. It’s not one rule fits all and that’s why I love what I do.

“When the pandemic hit and we couldn’t do Hoopers and it felt really weird. Even with the owners they were like, this is awful. We were all so desperate to get back in that field. Because it's like a community, we all support each other, we support each other's wins and we are always looking to strive for progress not perfection.”

The Corporate Livewire Prestige Awards recognise small and medium-sized businesses that have proven to be the best in their market over the past 12 months, with companies shortlisted based on customer nominations.

Rachel said: “The nominations were not based on how many you got, it was what was written about you. Someone has taken the time to write something, it makes me speechless.

I think it's about having that really caring side in the dog training industry. Sometimes I will charge a client for an hour and the session will run out and be 90 mins long. It’s about understanding the client and that is really important to me.

At the national Animal Starr award ceremony on March 5, Rachel was one of 14 winners on the night.

Rachel said: “Competing against people who had done this for years. To win that just doesn't feel real if I'm honest. It’s just me, I love what I do and I don't expect anything more from it. I love it so much, so to be awarded with something to credit for what we do. It feels like we are properly living the dream.”

To find out more about Entriced Dog Training UK, click here

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