Dog daycare celebrates milestone

A dog daycare and hotel specialist is celebrating 10 years in business with a £250,000 birthday present to itself.

K9 Anytime, which was formed by friends Tom Haynes and Luke Bird in 2015, has launched its second facility at Upper Brockhurst, near Weston Park, as demand for its five-star canine service grows across Shropshire and Staffordshire.

Three traditional barns have been transformed with two expansive outdoor paddocks and play equipment, indoor barn spaces, dedicated relaxation rooms, and an extensive pantry offering Nutriment raw foods and nutritious single ingredient natural treats.

A state-of-the-art grooming studio has also been curated to take care of your dog’s beauty and wellbeing needs.

K9 Anytime’s approach to ‘rethinking dogs’ is proving a huge hit with dog parents and, just a few months after opening, it is already 65% full with its original Higford site nearly at capacity.

“When Luke and I launched K9 Anytime a decade ago, we wanted to create a challenger brand for our space that rethought conventional canine care,” said Tom, who is joined in the business by his wife and head of marketing Isobel Allen.

“Since then, we have been uprooting antiquated tradition and rewriting the rule book when it comes to giving dogs what they need to live their happiest and healthiest lives. This is a space that stimulates them physically, mentally and socially through safe socialisation, unbounded play, fulfilling exercise, impeccable nutrition and impactful training.

“Our original daycare and hotel at Higford has been such a huge success and we’ve been continually asked if we would open a second facility. The tenth year seemed a perfect time to do just that.”

Working with Bradford Estates, K9 Anytime has invested £250,000 into the Upper Brockhurst Farm site, taking the blueprint of its first location and applying it to create a daycare, grooming, training and pantry offer.

The new hub has created five full-time jobs, taking the total workforce to seventeen people, including five highly skilled groomers across the two locations.

Luke said: “Since we started in 2015, we believe we’ve looked after and hopefully improved the lives of more than 3000 dogs. Each one has had a different personality, and we’ve reflected this in the way we care for them and the type of day we tailor for them. Every dog is different and that suits our way of doing things.

“When we laid out our approach, there was a lot of traditional operators who said it wasn’t possible. Hopefully, we’ve proven them wrong over the last decade, and we’re delighted that we’ve been able to replicate what made Higford so special here at Upper Brockhurst.”

K9 Anytime enjoyed another birthday present recently when head groomer Abbie Mackintosh placed second in the country at the Master Groom 2025 Salon Freestyle competition.

Working with Freddie the cockapoo, she impressed global grooming champion judges Costin Stoica and Joanne Angus with her outstanding skills and superb finish, building on her Best in Show Award at last year’s English Groomers Competition.

Abbie said: “I was really pleased to bring a trophy back home to Shropshire and Staffordshire. We’ve got some amazing groomers here at K9 Anytime and we’re showing what we’re capable of on the national stage.”