About Us
Helen's Story
Having grown up in Dorridge with cats and a horse, Zaki, Helen spent many years working in London making programmes for the BBC. After changing careers in 2008, she fell in love with dogs whilst doing voluntary animal rescue work in India, China and Thailand where she rescued street dogs and fostered and rehomed puppies. On returning home, she and Chris rescued Macca, a Staffy-cross-American Bulldog from the RSPCA (see gallery, below). He became a star of our online classes during the pandemic, and a doggy character bearing his name even featured in That Night, a novel by bestselling novelist Gillian McAllister, one of our clients.
Macca had a wonderful home for 6.5 years, is sorely missed but left a wonderful legacy as the canine star in the Animal Kind training videos, along with Luna (right), rehomed by us in 2021.
Helen has worked with dogs full-time since setting up Animal Kind with Chris in 2010 and has become an accredited dog training instructor with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT). She teaches Animal Kind’s Group Classes journey, as well as working with clients Personal Puppy Training packages. Helen also runs Dorridge Dogs (https://dorridgedogs.co.uk), offering dog walks and pet visits to about 50 weekly clients since 2010.
Chris's Story
Chris enjoys meeting new clients and dogs, and is happiest when training and playing with Luna, their rehomed Labrador, who might just turn out to be the most trainable dog of all time!
Chris has always had dogs in his family from Caesar, a Sheltie who he begged his parents to have when he was five, to Blue, the Whippet and Skye the rescued Greyhound. After leaving his career in journalism in London, he found his calling, rescuing street dogs whilst volunteering at International Animal Rescue in Goa and trained as an accredited dog training instructor with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) on his return. Over the years, Chris has studied Animal Behaviour and now has a Masters degree from Newcastle University and is striving towards becoming a top-level Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist, a qualification held by less than 100 behaviourists in the UK.
