Playful Tails > About Us

Hi I'm Abigail...

Welcome to Playful Tails, a small business helping dogs in Berkshire and Kent. The rehabilation of dogs has always been a passion of mine, so i completed a Level 3 Certificate in small animal Hydrotherapy and then went on to gain a Level 4 Certificate in Animal Science along with completing an animal first aid course.

Throughout all of this I also fulfilled my childhood dream of getting a family dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who we named Faith and then a year later along came another addition to our growing family another Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Hope.

When Hope was around two years old she injuried herself whilst out walking, after some investigation and lots of worrying it was diagnosed that she had strained her Hip adductor muscles. Unfortunelty due to her active nature she kept reinjuring herself during the healing process. This lead me to look into therapries that could help her recovery and limit her chances of reinjuring the same muscle or a new injury occuring. During my research i came across Canine Massage. I attend a 1 day workshop and could see the benefits not only for Hope but my other dog Faith who struggled to relax sometimes and could be quite anxious.
After this i fell in love with what the therapy could do for my dogs so embarked on the two year canine practitioner programme with the canine massage therapy centre externally accredited by lantra. During the 800 hours of study we learnt 50 massage techniques including swedish massage, sports massage, deep tissue massage and myofascial release. The theories modules covered looked at the skeletal system, muscular system, lymphatic system, cardiovascular system, neurological diseases, gait analysis, orthopaedic conditions, soft tissue injuries and massage theroy and the law.

After completing the two year course, playful tails was born. Enableing me to rehabilitate, support, and provide great outcomes for all kinds of dogs, fulfilling my passion and dream of owning my own animal business.

Since start playful tails are family has grown even bigger with the arrival of Kaleb another cavalier king charles, who has fitted in incredible well. Furthering my skills is of huge importance to me so i took the big plunge of starting a degree in Osteopathy and hope to be able to add more skills to my skillset and business over the next couple of years.