A doggy daycare and overnight service in Grantham has tails wagging from both their dogs and their owners.

Absolutely Barkers was created in 2017 when the then 23-year-old Marie Barker created the business at her Rushcliffe Road home on the Manthorpe estate.

For the dog-lover, who has a pet of her own, the venture was something of a dream occupation. It followed previous roles at Charterwood Kennels and the Kennelgate Pet Superstore in the Grantham area, as well Marie having her own dogwalking business.

Marie told Nub News: "I was always hearing at the pet shop customers saying they returned home from holidays to find dogs in a poor state of health from kennels for overnight boarding, people wanted a home from home for their dogs that provided a structured 24 hour care routine with socialisation. This is what gave me the idea."

Absolutely Barkers Daycare and Overnight Boarding offers 24 hour care for dogs, with the pets never left unattended which is ideal for dogs with health issues or suffer from anxiety.

Marie said: "We have a very large property which has received glowing reviews from the council with regards to safety and smaller numbers of dogs to provide special attention where required.

"We have a swimming pools in summer, Astroturf areas, we provide all bedding, crates and toys owners only provide food and walking equipment its classed as luxury care."

The business also has received 5-star reviews on Facebook and elsewhere.

But like many businesses, the pandemic and its related lockdowns have affected its operations.

Marie said: "Dog training has suffered and dogs have become less socialised.

"The rules state we are to work from home and my business is from home, but for others to use my service, it has been very difficult as they are not meant to travel."

It meant the business taking some pets where they could and focussing on renovations to offer improved play spaces, new activities and new forms of mental stimulation.

Marie continued: "The pandemic has also caused a lot of issues with disruption to licensing inspections and planning permission so a lot of our normal processes have taken longer than required. This has been very frustrating and has caused the business to suffer in different areas. Things that should only took a few weeks to over a year to process."

Like many businesses, online sales have become increasingly important, with an online shop created to help customers save money at a time of need.

Marie said: "As a business we have access to trade accounts with pet companies and we cannot always hit the minimum order cost so we offered our customers the chance to save some money and we can all get what we needed for the dogs.

"We didn't charge any extra cost, only the trade + vat prices we were shown.

"For a lot of our customers this made enough savings to cover extra cost of bills going up for being at home more."

As yet, the country's third lockdown in ten months has yet to affect the business as much as the first.

Marie explained: "Over summer we were lucky to have a massive increase in custom and a lot of those people are key workers, we are still suffering but not by as much.

"For 2021, we are planning to renovate the rest of the garden to Astroturf and create another play area."

She added: "We have been licensed by the council for 3 and a half years, working with the council and updating procedures when the guidance for animal care changes. We live and breath dogs in our household and we do everything we can to ensure they have a safe fulfilled fun stay with us. We also work with local trainers and we take training courses to help your dogs develop and grow correctly."

Details of Absolutely Barkers can be found here on Facebook.

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