Head teacher at pet school

Moving to the Parisien suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine with her French husband Michel gave Sam Pyke the chance to do exactly what she wanted - work with dogs.

After taking correspondence courses with the UK’s Animal Care College while living in Malaysia and Holland, Mrs Pyke returned to France, where she had lived from 1996 - 2001, in September 2005.

“I began my working life as a human resources manager and then as a teacher before an enforced ‘career break’ thanks to an international move with my husband's job,” she said.

“In 2006, I was accepted onto the prestigious International Dog Trainer's School run by Sheila Harper, one of the leading dog trainers and behaviourists in the UK. Learning about Sheila's unique approach to working with dogs was nothing short than a life changing experience,” she said.

“During my time studying, I also accumulated plenty of practical experience. I ran a dog activity group called ‘K9 Kapers’ while in Malaysia and worked with Bernice Muntz at the Hondenschool Vlietstede for nearly three years while in Holland. In 2006 she set up her own dog training school Dog'sCool in Paris.

How long have you
been in business?
Since October 2006

Why did you choose to do it?
I knew I wouldn't be able to work for another dog training school in France. The training methods here are rather “traditional” and so I knew I would find it difficult to watch dogs being punished.
I also wanted to offer people a different choice, a gentle way of training their dogs without resorting to shouting, hitting or using pain inflicting equipment.

What type of business are you (Sarl, micro etc) and how much did it cost
to set up?
I set up as an entreprise individual, registered with the MSA [for health payments], a regime agricole, so I'm a farmer - probably the only one in Asnières (Paris). For tax purposes I'm currently a micro enterprise. It didn't cost me anything to set up my business. The only thing I had to get was public liability insurance for working with people and dogs which cost around €350.

What was your expected income?
I'm quite lucky in that, thanks to my husband, I am financially secure. My business has very few overheads as I work at my clients’ homes or in the streets or parks nearby.
Therefore my only target was not to lose any money and be able to pay my social security, pension and insurance costs. However the first year my turnover was about €9,000 and so far this year I can see a 30% increase in turnover.

What were the hurdles?
As probably everyone knows, the main hurdle is the bureaucracy. Dog training is not a very popular profession in France. First of all they didn't know where to put me so I spent some time going from the chamber of commerce, to URSSAF and finally the MSA before someone would agree to give me a siret number. The other hassle was getting a certificat de capacité to work with dogs.

You need to have this to work legally with dogs but one of the requirements to qualify for the certificate is to have your business up and running, so it’s a typical chicken an egg situation. It was quite hard to find insurance to work with dogs and unfortunately I'm not insured to work with category 1 or 2 [dangerous] dogs.

What would you have done differently?
Nothing.
During the set up I was aided by an association called Coup de Pouce run by the city council. They assign you a mentor who helps you put together a business plan.

My mentor also had lots of friends at the chamber of commence who could give advice and an accountant checks the financial viability of your project.

Because you are being helped and gently encouraged, you stay motivated and keep on moving forward. The support from Coup de Pouce was invaluable and it would have taken me much longer to get there on my own.