A WOMAN from Cockermouth has been making the most of her dog walking business.

Naomi Le Voi, who lives in Brigham, started her dog walking and pet care company back in 2014 – and her clients have been wagging their tails ever since.

She said: “One of my best friends was doing home-boarding where the dogs come and stay at your house and do a bit of dog-walking – she was based in Keswick.

“She didn’t want to do it any more and in the back of my mind I didn’t want to be in retail any more either, so I took over the dog-walking side of her business.”

What started off with only a couple of dogs quickly grew into large groups. “There wasn’t anyone else doing dog-walking six or seven years ago, so we were rushed off our feet,” Naomi said.

“We were based in Keswick, however I lived in Dearham at the time and that didn’t help. I could no longer cope with the demand, commute, and the driving. The business was growing beyond my ability.

“So I moved the business closer to home in Cockermouth.”

Naomi realised that, in order to cope with the continual demand from her clients, she would have to downscale the business to make it more bespoke.

In September she will have gone from five staff members to only two, her and her sister-in-law Hannah. She moved to Brigham in January where she runs the business from home.

“I solely do dog-walking at the company now, the dogs will never come back to my house – you need a particular licence and other things for that and I love the outdoors anyway.”

Naomi’s love for being outside is one of the inspirations that made her take over the business, “Being outside a lot is amazing, you get to know the lovely personalities and quirks of the dogs,” the 31-year-old said.

“Every day is different as well and the people you meet while you walk are so friendly.

“It makes the majority of people smile when they see me walking passed with all these happy dogs on a lead. It’s nice to make someone’s day. It’s great fun.”

After lockdown Naomi said her business boomed because of the spike in people buying puppies, “It was like everybody had got a puppy over the last year, so we have plenty of puppies at the moment which was unexpected. We just need to get them settled into pack life.”

Naomi is on the lookout for a local field to use to run some of her pet care sessions on and for owners in the area to use as training. She sorts bookings online through her website and Facebook Page.