Harborough Hustle Podcast

Martin [00:00:00]:
Hello. I’m your podcast host, Martin Robson. Welcome to the Harboroughough Hustle where today I will be chatting with Katrina from Katrina’s Happy Dogs. After the show, you can check us out on marketharboroughbiznetwork.co.uk/podcast, where you can find a transcript of today’s podcast. All the links that I mentioned, posts you can share on social media to spread the word, and everything you need to know if you’d like to find out more about our lovely sponsors and local charities and, of course, our very special guest of today. Before we dive in, let’s hear from today’s lovely sponsor.

Gill [00:00:38]:
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Martin [00:01:03]:
Welcome to this episode of Harborough Hustle, where I am delighted to be chatting with Katrina from Katrina’s Happy Dogs. Hi, Katrina.

Katrina [00:01:14]:
Hi. How you doing?

Martin [00:01:15]:
I’m I’m not too bad. Obviously, mostly this is is on, audio, but, if people do get to see the video, you’ll see that I am practicing standing up. You’d think with the age that I got to, I’d know how to stand up now, but now I’ve gotta stand up and talk. And I am a man, so, you know, that whole multicasting thing could be tricky. What about you?

Katrina [00:01:36]:
Yeah. Doing well. Been out this morning with the dogs, which has been lovely, and then just had some breakfast before this.

Martin [00:01:41]:
Fantastic. What time do you go walking the dogs in the morning?

Katrina [00:01:44]:
So they wake up about half 5 because we’ve got a young pup who’s only 9 months old, and I took them

Martin [00:01:50]:
out about 7 o’clock this morning. Okay. Okay. That’s why I don’t currently have a young pup.

Katrina [00:01:56]:
So they should be nice and quiet for this. They’re in the background. So hopefully, they won’t chime they won’t chime in.

Martin [00:02:01]:
Do you know what? I’ve I’ve done a number of these and and you get the most feedback, where people just want to know, like, what’s the dogs look like? What do they sound like? I’m like, yeah. But but Katrina’s got loads of really fascinating stuff to tell you. Tell us about the dog. So yeah. Hopefully they’ll behave themselves, but if not, no problem at all. So I mean, the first question just to kick off, is just to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. Just sort of basics because we’ll obviously deep dive as we go through it. Along with where do you live and what you like to do besides work.

Martin [00:02:37]:
Four questions. Bang. Go.

Katrina [00:02:39]:
Alright. Okay. So yeah. Already. Everyone knows my name’s Katrina, owner of Katrina’s Happy Dogs. Started the business, in February 2020. Let’s get this right. I’ve already lost the date.

Katrina [00:02:52]:
So, yeah, February 2023 is when we started the business. Okay. I do group classes, 1 to 1 training, but in a fun and enjoyable way for the owner and the dog. And then outside of work, I like to cook. I’m also a member of the Rushton WI as well, so I go I go there with my grandmother. She’s the oldest participant, and I’m the youngest. So that’s quite nice.

Martin [00:03:15]:
Oh, wow. And is Rushton roughly where you live then?

Katrina [00:03:18]:
So, yeah, I live in Kettering. So Rushton is one of the next villages along. I’ve been in Kettering now since me and my husband got married, which is in 2016. So, yeah, I’m originally from Northamptonshire. Sorry. I’m originally from, the West Midlands. I now live in Northamptonshire.

Martin [00:03:36]:
I was gonna say, yeah. Yeah. If you’re from Northamptonshire, that’s not much to move at all, but, what what brought you to to this area?

Katrina [00:03:45]:
So meeting my husband as well. Him being in the military, we’ve moved around quite a bit as well. So we did our first how many years? 1, 2, 3, 6 years of marriage actually overseas. So we spent time over in Cyprus, and then we did Falkland Islands, and then over in, California on the Central Coast.

Martin [00:04:05]:
Oh, okay. Oh, fascinating. Great stuff. Yeah. I I I used to live in Cyprus myself, back in the day for similar sort of reasons. But, my dad’s been to the Falkland Islands, but I never have. So, anyway, how how did you get started with with Happy Dogs? What made

Katrina [00:04:23]:
you launch that? Yeah. Back in 2016 when we were sessioned out in Cyprus, I started working and volunteering at a rescue center called BARC, which is British forces animal rehoming center. I spent a couple of years there helping out the dogs, and we also adopted one of our dogs from there who suffered with, anxiety and reactivity to other dogs and cats in the area. So I started helping her and just noticing how good positive training is for them and how much it built her confidence. And then when we moved over to California, I also helped another rescue center called SB Humane. We’re there for a couple of years doing training with the dogs as well as actually finding them great homes. We would find that a lot of the dogs would come in from different different varying backgrounds, but with different behavioral problems. And what I really wanted to do was rather than getting to the point where the owners have to surrender their dogs, let’s help the owners first and actually try and help the problem.

Katrina [00:05:18]:
So be proactive rather than reactive. And that’s when I came back to we came back to the UK in, November 2022 and decided I didn’t really wanna work for anybody else. I wanted to have my own work schedule, work life balance. It was really, really important to me that we have that work life balance with having 2 dogs of our own at that point. And I just thought, you know what? Let’s put some of my some of our personal savings into it and let’s just give it a go, and it’s just taken off, and I absolutely love it.

Martin [00:05:45]:
Yeah. That’s fantastic. I mean, we’ll we’ll have a quick explore about why you think it’s it’s taken off as well, in a minute. But, I had to smile when you you you talked about the work life balance because I think all all of us entrepreneurs, that’s one of the motivating factors. But actually getting that how we want it to be, is is a challenge. How are you finding the the work life balance a year into your business?

Katrina [00:06:10]:
So I’ve started to get to a point where I know what my maximum that I want to work with in a week is. And then if people want my services and want help, then they can wait. I do a maximum of 15 clients a week. And then I do one group class a week as well, so I can still get that bit of a balance. To begin with, I thought, well, I’m gonna do Monday to Friday, 3 sessions a day, and then that’s my 15 slots, but that’s not how people’s work life schedules work, depending on different seasons too too. So during the winter, using as much daily light that we can, so working weekends during the week and also early evenings. And then now it’s the summer, it kinda has done the flip side of it. But we’ll work early in the mornings because it’s not too hot.

Katrina [00:06:53]:
Obviously, British weather, we’re not getting too hot just yet, but hope hope it’s a nice warm weather. But then we work into the evenings as well. So I have some sessions that I do at 8 o’clock at night. And then over the weekends, because I’ve got events that I go to as well, I’d I work less with clients but out there promoting my business.

Martin [00:07:09]:
Okay. Alright. So, it it sounds like you’re getting into the the the swing of it. Yeah.

Katrina [00:07:15]:
Definitely.

Martin [00:07:16]:
Fantastic. So I mean, is there something you think that perhaps people don’t think about enough when they are, either dealing with a with a dog trainer or, obviously, you know, with with taking on a dog perhaps for the first time?

Katrina [00:07:36]:
I think training is one of the most it’s one of the most important things as well. Obviously, food being the most important. Some are safe to sleep and safe and warm, but also the freedom for the dog to actually be a dog as well and not to have you need some structure with the dogs, but you need to allow them free time as well, and it needs to be enjoyable. So that’s where I kind of teach people as well and try and change their way of thinking in a way that it’s not just about the dog being able to sit and being able to be right by your side. It’s about them allowing them to actually look at things that may be quite hard for them, but being able to check back in with the owner and actually build that bond, have a really strong bond between you and the owner the owner and dog. Sorry.

Martin [00:08:17]:
And is that, what what kind of inspired the the name of the business?

Katrina [00:08:21]:
It did. Yeah. I having that bond with the dog is the most important thing. Dogs being happy as well. If your dogs are happy, they’re more likely to want to listen to you rather than being so it gets to a point where you don’t have to tell them all the time. They just do it because they want to, because they want to please you.

Martin [00:08:38]:
I I adopt the same, ideas with my wife. Try to explain to her that if I’m happy, then there’s more likely probably what she wants. I’m getting trouble for saying that.

Katrina [00:08:52]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Martin [00:08:55]:
But yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, we we talked before on on some other episodes about, you know, the the parallels between dog behavior and human behavior and and the, you know, do you respond better being shouted at or or being, you know, encouraged.

Katrina [00:09:10]:
And guided. Yeah.

Martin [00:09:11]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Katrina [00:09:12]:
That’s important.

Martin [00:09:15]:
Okay. Cool. So thinking about you now, you’ve been doing your business for, what? Year, year and a half, give or take. Yeah. Something you wish you’d known earlier in your journey that, you know, you know now? You might have told me under Katrina.

Katrina [00:09:32]:
Woah. Definitely. So looking at how long it takes you to do a task, when I first started the business, I thought to myself, you know what? I’m gonna do everything myself. So website, accounting, bookkeeping, social media, but actually thinking about actually how much you charge as an hourly rate and actually how much time it would actually take you to do that task. For example, for bookkeeping, for me, for a month, it would probably take me about 8 to 10 hours a month, probably a bit more than that because I’m a little bit slow with numbers. But then looking at how much time then I would lose with clients where if I hired a bookkeeper, I’d only lose 1 to 2 hours a month. So, actually, it’s more beneficial to do it that way. So I’ve learned now so I do my own website because I enjoy doing that anyway, and I have a background because I used to work in IT.

Katrina [00:10:19]:
I do the social media. It’s not always a post every single day, but when I get the chance to. And I’d spend the time with the dogs. But everything else now, I outsource.

Martin [00:10:30]:
Yeah. That’s that’s a a great thing to hear. I think we all go through it exactly like, I’m still going through bits and pieces myself where I think, well, I know I can do it, but, actually, somebody who’s a professional in that field will do it faster than me, and and that frees me up to do what my business is is actually about.

Katrina [00:10:50]:
Exactly. And have that work life balance. Otherwise, you don’t

Martin [00:10:53]:
have that

Katrina [00:10:53]:
balance if you do it all yourself.

Martin [00:10:55]:
No. No. It’s, it can be a challenge at times. That’s that’s that’s for sure. And it’s really interesting you talk about the the book coaching thing. It’s great that you do your own, website as well. You know, it’s something that that people can do if they’ve got that kind of, bent. But I had a really interest I mean, obviously, I think everybody knows I am a website designer by trade.

Martin [00:11:17]:
But, I I had a client come last week who who just had their website finished by me and she’s like, I spent 4, 5, 6 weeks building it myself. And then I looked at it on my phone and it was, to use her own words, shit. You’ve just done it all in, you know, less than 2 weeks and it looks great. But it was still that step, you know, to pay someone to do something that you can do, But, you know, it just takes you a lot longer. And like you say, you’re in business to do things related with dogs, not to do things related with bookkeeping. So, you know

Katrina [00:11:59]:
Exactly. And I think it’s really important that we also support other local businesses as well to keep local businesses really important.

Martin [00:12:07]:
Yeah. I think that’s a great point. And, I mean, I I met you through the Market Harborough Business Network. And and I know fairly recently, you know, there was another business lady who who in the time it was for her to actually, promote her business said no. No. I’m I’m I wanna talk about Katrina. I wanna talk about what she’s done. And, you know, to get praise for your business in front of loads of other business people is such a powerful thing.

Martin [00:12:35]:
I thought it was amazing.

Katrina [00:12:36]:
It is. And it’s actually really, really it just it it tugs at the heartstrings just that little bit. And when I work with some of the owners, when they say that genuinely that I’ve changed their lives, that makes the the job, It make it builds my confidence. And it also builds their confidence to do things as well. And one of my owners the other week, she was literally in tears saying, you have changed my life. I now feel that I can actually do so much more and take my dogs out at different times. I don’t have to be hiding away all the time.

Martin [00:13:04]:
Yeah. And, you know, obviously, when we have our own business, we need to make an amount of money to, you know, to live. And and people have different motivations, but I think for a lot of us that being able to help other people and then see the effect you have on them is is worth so much more than, you know, just the the standard sort of measures that you see of, you know, is profit going up blah blah blah. Yes. I mean, that’s nice. But, yeah. Being able to help is is something special.

Katrina [00:13:39]:
Yeah. Do you have a a mentor? Any part of your your journey? So no one specific, but when I was looking at different dog training techniques and stuff, I definitely looked at Victoria Stillwell. Again, she’s a positive trainer. She is English. She does a lot of stuff in the US now as well. And then there’s another trainer called Zach George. He does a lot of fun type training, which is where I got the fun kind of element from from him as well. We’re literally giving the dog a task to do, but in a fun way.

Katrina [00:14:09]:
Even if it comes to things like the dog is pulling on lead, well, pulling back on the lead every couple of seconds, the dog’s not gonna get frustrated. They’ll start pulling more. So what we do is we start to do games where they get rewarded by your side a lot more so they understand that when they’re by your side, you get rewarded. So they then start to focus on you and look at you all the time asking seeing what they want you to do. So yeah. Those 2 have been really, really helpful through learning. I mean, I learn all the time still. I’m still doing courses online because science is forever changing.

Katrina [00:14:39]:
I’m always learning new techniques to help the dogs.

Martin [00:14:44]:
It’s it’s so interesting, isn’t it? Because, you know, there there’s a lot of both learning opportunities and advancement as you say in in all sorts of fields. So it’s really interesting to see both as as well, you know, within, our relationship with dogs that, you know, there’s there’s still things moving forward and new things coming out.

Katrina [00:15:04]:
Yeah. It’s brilliant.

Martin [00:15:07]:
Anybody you particularly admire now?

Katrina [00:15:11]:
So no. I think other small business owners as well. The fact that the hard work that they put into their businesses. And I admire people because I thought to myself, oh, I’ll start my own business. And I get to do lots of dog training all the time, where actually, I probably only spend probably about 15% of my time actually actually doing the physical training part. Everything else is all in the background. So I really admire other small businesses sticking at it and keep going because it’s really tough. It’s really hard not to go, do you know what? I’m gonna just stop because I’m not getting anywhere.

Katrina [00:15:43]:
When I first started out, obviously, you write a business plan as to what you want to achieve for your 1st year. And I don’t know if anybody else had the same kind of thing, but you sit there going, it’s quiet. There’s nothing going on. What’s happening? So you keep trying and keep trying. And sometimes you think to yourself, am I doing the right thing? And then all of a sudden, it was last year in November, the phone just started to ring, and it clicked. And I’ve just been getting busier and busier since then, which has been really, really good. We’ve had some slow times as well. So in those slow times, as I said, I do the extra studying.

Katrina [00:16:16]:
And then when it picks up and it’s busy, I’m like, okay, I haven’t got time to do that other stuff now, but I’ve had a chance to do it earlier. So yeah, it’s about so, yeah, for me, other small businesses sticking at it and keep going.

Martin [00:16:26]:
That’s good to hear. That’s good to hear, and so true. I mean, obviously, you know, besides my own business, I’m I’m involved with, the the business network. And and so yeah. Like you say, a lot of small businesses and and like you say, things that go on behind the scenes that perhaps people don’t get to see, which is, hopefully, for anyone listening to this, we’ll we’ll get a little bit more of a feeling about, you know, some of the stuff that that goes on. Oh, what else I want to ask you? Is there anything in in particular that that you still want to learn?

Katrina [00:17:02]:
So I would love to be able to teach dog agility. Something I took my dogs to and I absolutely loved and my dog absolutely really enjoyed too. So it’s something that I would like to learn to a professional standard that I can actually teach. So I know how to do it myself, but actually to learn the proper cues and also to help other dogs with that. Again, agility type stuff, hoopers, scent work, all that kind of thing that’s fun for the dogs. I’d really love to learn to a professional standard.

Martin [00:17:29]:
Okay. You mentioned hoopers. What’s that?

Katrina [00:17:31]:
So it’s where you actually have hoops on the ground, so there’s actually no jumps and stuff, but they’re actually running through hoops instead. So it’s actually good for dogs that are younger as well because then there’s less pressure on their joints, so they’re not jumping up all the time. Because, obviously, when they’re young, they’re still growing. You don’t want them to be doing agility. So I’ve seen and hoopers is quite new over here in the UK, but I’ve seen it a couple of times being done, and it looks really fun.

Martin [00:17:52]:
Mhmm. Okay. And one thing that I haven’t asked you that that I know, you know, people listening will be the thing they wanna know is, you mentioned your dog and and agility. Tell us what what breed? What’s the name? Us about your dog.

Katrina [00:18:06]:
So my current dogs that I have right now, so I have Django. So he is now almost 9 years old. He is a Cyprus special as we call him. So he is a bit of a mix. So he is a retriever, German shepherd, rough collie, miniature poodle. And our youngest dog who’s now coming up for 10 months, who’s already bigger than our eldest, she’s already about 27 kilos and taller than him, she is a Macedonian rescue, so she’s a shepherd mix.

Martin [00:18:35]:
Right. And any particular reason that you you went for those dogs?

Katrina [00:18:41]:
So with Django, it was more that we saw him in the shelter, and he was only about 4 months old. And I went, this is not fair. I wanna take him home. And he got on really well with our other dog who sadly she passed last year, but they got on really, really well together. And then when she did go, it was really, really quiet in the house. He was really sad. So we decided we would we have another young dog come in. And actually, they both love each other and they play around a lot.

Katrina [00:19:03]:
As I was saying, she’s bigger than him now. He can actually run underneath her without ducking. So he does that when he’s playing. So she he can escape her quite quickly.

Martin [00:19:14]:
Brilliant. And they’re both being really good at the moment?

Katrina [00:19:16]:
They are. They’re both actually sleeping, which is really, really nice. Okay. Alright.

Martin [00:19:22]:
Let’s not disturb them now then. Alright. Flipping back to you there, Katrina. What would you say is one of the biggest mistakes you’ve made in business, and did you learn anything from it?

Katrina [00:19:36]:
So when I first started, I was like, right, I need to have an accountant. And I went off one person’s recommendation. And, actually, I wish that I’d looked at other things as well and met other people first. I have now since changed my my accountant, which is great. But, again, reading the small print, reading reviews, all that kind of stuff, I think, is really, really important. Again, as I said, small print. I at the start, I was creating QR codes. I thought I was on a free site and actually turned out I wasn’t on a free site.

Katrina [00:20:06]:
So it came to the end of the year, and then they wanted to start charging me. So all my promotional material that I created and printed in my banners all became obsolete, and I had to replace them. So again, not too expensive, but it’s a cost that I would rather have not had to fork out again.

Martin [00:20:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Costing is obviously, as we alluded to before, a time element to Yeah. Putting that alright, etcetera. So, okay. Alright. Not too big compared with some of the work that some people have made, but, you know, it’s it’s everything’s good to have a

Katrina [00:20:40]:
I think because I started out networking pretty much from day 1, because someone said to me, you know what, doing networking is really good. And you can learn from other people’s mistakes because you talk as a group. And that’s been really great, to then not make the same kind of mistakes other people have made.

Martin [00:20:57]:
Yeah. No. That’s really smart. I mean, one of the things you you know, there there are a variety of, business networks in this area as as you know. And, particularly for, like, market harbor business network, we’re always trying to say to people that don’t just pitch up and try and sell yourself straight away, you know. Give back before you even have taken and, and that’s how you’ll get, you know, more benefit at networking. I know you’ve done that and, and had, you know, benefit from it as well. So so that’s great.

Martin [00:21:31]:
Let’s flip it around then. Let’s flip it around and talk about your proudest business moment.

Katrina [00:21:36]:
Oh, okay. So this year, I was nominated for an animal star award. So I have been and I’m also now a finalist as well. So as best dog trainer in the northern region of the UK, so I’m a one of 10 finalists, and we find out those results in November. That was really lovely to be nominated. And, I went along to the awards last year with a rescue that I work with, which is Redhead Rescue Animal Sanctuary. They got highly commended last year. So this year, they can’t actually win because once you get a highly commended, you have to give a year’s gap before you then you can win the following year.

Martin [00:22:12]:
Mhmm.

Katrina [00:22:13]:
But I am taking along the, the owner of Redhead Rescue with me along to that event. I donate 5 hours of my week a month, 5 hours a week to the the fosterers and the fostered dogs in their care care just to help with some training and just a bit of guidance. So because, obviously, working at rescue centers before, I absolutely loved it, but I still wanted to give back and help.

Martin [00:22:38]:
Yeah. So you are one of 10 finalists in the whole of the North of England?

Katrina [00:22:44]:
Yes.

Martin [00:22:45]:
Wow. Congratulations. That that is Yeah.

Katrina [00:22:48]:
I was not expecting it. I was obviously put through for it, and I thought, oh, I’m not gonna get to be a finalist. And then the phone call a couple of weeks later came and, I couldn’t believe it. I was gobsmacked. Just that I’m actually making a difference and people are noticing, but I’m making a difference in helping people.

Martin [00:23:05]:
That’s fantastic. And when’s the final?

Katrina [00:23:07]:
It’s in November, middle of November, and it’s gonna be hosted in Nottingham. So I’m hopeful. Keep fingers crossed. But anyway, even to become a finalist, I’m absolutely ecstatic.

Martin [00:23:19]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s that that’s amazing itself. And and let you let you say, fingers crossed, we’ll we’ll circle back around in November and and find out how it went. Yes. So yeah. Good luck. So one of the things, that we we we steal this idea from, Stephen Bartlett because his podcast is doing okay, is one where guests get to set a question for a future guest.

Martin [00:23:45]:
So, and I’ll be asking you off air, you know, if you’ve got any. But the one that I’m gonna ask you is is one from, Betty Betty Whittaker, who asked is there one habit that’s changed your business?

Katrina [00:24:11]:
That’s a hard one. Yeah. Thanks, Becky. I know you’re excited. Thank you, Becky. I would say that making lists, daily lists of what you want to do, and help to achieve, actually, and then crossing them out as you do them and then looking back at the end of the day of what you’ve actually achieved. It kinda keeps you motivated to keep going. Whereas if you get to the end of the week and you go, well, I didn’t achieve this and I didn’t achieve that.

Katrina [00:24:38]:
And if you’ve not made a list, you haven’t seen all the things you have achieved. So it’s about small wins, not about the big picture. It’s about those little wins that get you closest to that big bigger bigger task.

Martin [00:24:48]:
Do you know what? I think that’s a brilliant answer. I’ll I’ll look at, you know, myself personally. I I I have a list here with stuff crossed out at the moment and, and there’s a load of stuff that isn’t crossed out. I’m thinking I haven’t done that but then I look at all the stuff I have crossed off and let you say, like, okay. I did do that. I did do that. It’s so easy to focus on the stuff we haven’t already done, isn’t it?

Katrina [00:25:11]:
Yeah. Just trying to think positively rather than negatively as much as we possibly can is I think it’s really important just to change the way our brains think.

Martin [00:25:18]:
Mhmm.

Katrina [00:25:19]:
We naturally go to the negative. We all do.

Martin [00:25:23]:
Good point. And and like you say, I mean, you are a positive trainer for for the dogs. So, you know, why would we do it differently for for ourselves?

Katrina [00:25:33]:
Yeah. And that’s exactly. And I try to change peep change owners’ perspectives because they focus a lot of the time on those negative things. And I say to them, okay, but look at this. Look how they’re doing this and how they’re doing this. And and after working with them for about 4 or 5 weeks and then saying, oh, we went here yesterday, and we did so well doing this and this. And it’s really nice to hear the owners changing their perspectives too.

Martin [00:25:55]:
Yeah. No. That is fantastic. Fantastic. So I mean, if if you weren’t, you know, keeping owners and and dogs happy, is there another career you’d like to attempt?

Katrina [00:26:09]:
So that’s quite difficult. So I’ve had lots of careers over my life anyway, and there’s some things that I wouldn’t wanna go back to as we all have those kind of things. I worked in hospitality for over 10 years, which I loved, but it’s the stress and the amount of hours that it actually takes. I mean, I love to cook for family members and friends and host dinner parties, so maybe something like small event planning. So small dinner parties and things like that. I think that might be something that might be quite enjoyable.

Martin [00:26:37]:
Yeah. I should, I should introduce my wife to you. She’s an amazing cook and toys with those kind of ideas, but it’s always nice to talk to somebody else who’s who’s got the same thinking. Yeah.

Katrina [00:26:49]:
Because a couple of years ago, I bought a green egg barbecue when we were out in the states. It’s like a smoker. So we’ve learned how to do smoked meats like beef brisket and pulled pork. And I did a whole fish on there a few months ago, did a whole turbot. And that came out really good as well. But, yeah, learning new recipes, and I think it’s more like it’s it’s more of a theatrical way of cooking as well. It’s something different.

Martin [00:27:10]:
Sounds brilliant. I’m I’m now scribbling down on my list to make sure exactly where Rushton is, so I can just pop over there. Anythings left on on the bucket list?

Katrina [00:27:24]:
Yeah. It’s quite a few. Quite a few things on the bucket list. I’ve got one that I’m doing this weekend on Saturday. So I’m doing an abseil down the Northampton lift tower, which is about 400 feet.

Martin [00:27:38]:
Mhmm.

Katrina [00:27:39]:
I’m doing that for a charity called FND Action, which is functional neurological disorder. It’s a charity that’s quite close to my heart. And because I’ve got, our neighbors, their daughter, she has it. So I’m just trying to make people a bit more aware of it. So abseiling, I’m ticking that off this weekend, so that’d be great. And then there’s a big one on the list, and I don’t know when I’m gonna get to do it, but I would really love to walk the Camino de Santiago, which is a 500 mile hike, adventure, spend time with people you don’t know, eat beautiful, amazing food, drink amazing wine, just and sit in a lovely scenery doing it, I think it’d be an absolutely incredible way to live life.

Martin [00:28:21]:
Yep. Yeah. I know it’s, it’s an aspirational thing for for a number of people. And because you you’re gonna be able to set aside, a certain amount of of time to complete that because quite clearly that’s not a sort of 1, 2 day challenge thing, is it?

Katrina [00:28:36]:
Definitely. They’re the same say roughly about 30 days, but I probably wanna take a little bit longer and just absorb a bit more of the culture. So, yeah, it’s definitely something I really want to do.

Martin [00:28:47]:
Brilliant. Yeah. Sounds fantastic. And and good luck with the the upsell. As we always say, you know, we we put links over on the website of the stuff that we’ve discussed on on the podcast. So yeah, if you can let me have the the link to that charity, we’ll make sure that we, we promote that as well and, you know, good luck raising funds for for your neighbor, your neighbor’s daughter. Yeah. Any

Katrina [00:29:13]:
hidden talents that you’re prepared to share with us? So, obviously, got to live down in the Falkland Islands, which was incredible. Got to see penguins out in the wild and other animals too. And I took up photography and was told by my husband that I’m really good at it. Even though I just point the camera and shoot, and saying that my composition’s really, really good. And sometimes it would take him hours to get the same shot. So he said, definitely, that’s one of my hidden talents. And I love taking pictures of animals, just flowers, scenery. Obviously, we were in California.

Katrina [00:29:51]:
We lived on the Central Coast. So going up and down route 1, taking pictures up of there, it was really, really enjoyable. Really, really good. So, yeah, that was, an amazing opportunity.

Martin [00:30:02]:
Brilliant.

Katrina [00:30:04]:
Photography. Yes. And I I don’t get to do it as much as I’d like to, but I’ve I need to do more of it.

Martin [00:30:10]:
There there I mean, there’s lots of things obviously that with practice you get better and and you can learn how to do things, But there are certain things that if you’ve got an innate ability, it gives you an advantage. You know, I mean, we we we talk about art and drawing and I’m the world’s worst artist, I believe.

Katrina [00:30:29]:
Okay.

Martin [00:30:30]:
So I can do stuff, you know, if I really really put my mind to it and it’s very, very basic. But, yeah, there are other people who just pick up a pencil or a pen and boom boom boom boom boom and there it is, you know, like, oh my goodness. So, yeah, if you’ve got something that you’ve got innate ability to and then you can build on it as well and you enjoy it, happy day.

Katrina [00:30:50]:
Exactly. So I’m part of a camera club as well in Kettering. So that it’s a really, really good group.

Martin [00:30:56]:
Great. Okay. So, it’s very nice. I’m sure people know, you know, even if they weren’t before, we’re, like, very keen. We wanna know more about you and and find out more about you. So, I mean, in terms of websites, socials, etcetera, how can we get hold of you?

Katrina [00:31:10]:
So Facebook is great. That’s one of my main socials that I do use. So it’s just Katrina’s happy dogs. Just literally type that in all one word, and it’ll it’ll pop up. You can also visit my website, which is, www.katrinashappydogs.com. Again, quite simple. Those are the two main places that I do a lot of my advertising. And then also just come along to any, I I go to a lot of events.

Katrina [00:31:36]:
Redhead’s hosting 1 on the the Saturday 27th July, a dog show over at Woodford near the Duke’s Arms pub. Again, that could be a really, really good event just to support a really great charity as well.

Martin [00:31:48]:
Fantastic. Alright. Final question. Is there anything else I’ve forgotten to ask?

Katrina [00:31:57]:
Don’t think so.

Martin [00:32:01]:
Good.

Katrina [00:32:02]:
I don’t think so. No. I think Alright. That’s good. And yeah. I mean, if anybody needs again, anybody knows anybody that needs help with their dog, please send them my way because I love working with new clients all the time.

Martin [00:32:14]:
Fantastic. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been listening to Katrina from Katrina’s Happy Dogs. As I say, check out the website for all of the links, all the things that Katrina’s talked about. And please do interact. Let us know what you think. Katrina raised some really interesting issues there. Love to know what you think.

Martin [00:32:34]:
So, for now, that’s the end of this episode, and we’ll see you soon in the next one. Take care. Thank you very much, Christina.

Katrina [00:32:41]:
Thank you.

Martin [00:32:42]:
Bye.