Therapy dog specialist on recruitment drive after funded Boost support

Hope’s Therapy Dogs, a family business founded by Alison Colley, is based in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Established in April 2021, the inspiration behind Hope’s Therapy Dogs came from Alison’s daughter Hope, who, when aged seven, benefitted from the support of a therapy dog while receiving treatment for a brain tumour. Sadly, Hope passed away from the illness, but in honour of her enduring spirit, Alison’s vision is to support as many children, young people and adults as possible, with the assistance of her therapy dogs.

Hope’s Therapy Dogs currently employs two people, Alison provides the therapy work, supported by Catherine Wittow who manages administration.

Alison is fully booked for the near future and the business’s income has quadrupled in the two years since she set up the business. Having received helpful support through Boost, she is now embarking on a recruitment drive across the North West and aims to add five to six additional therapists to her team by the start of 2025.

Armed with a growing team, Alison also aims to expand the number of schools that use her therapy dog services and is working towards providing support to the NHS for services that require emotional and mental health support teams.

Alison said: “Therapy dogs is a very niche market, I am in my third year now running my own business, I need more staff to fulfil the growth demands. The roles require people ideally with experience in children’s therapy who own a dog suitable for training.”

Not long after Alison established her business, she recognised a gap in the therapy market for specialists in animal-assisted emotional and mental health support. She expanded her vision for the business to also to create a training school, develop her value proposition and training programmes specialising in dog therapy.

Alison contacted Boost in March 2024. She spoke to Boost business adviser Sue Denver from Boost’s Business Advice Service who introduced Alison to the Boost Growth Catalyst service.

Boost is Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub and is led by Lancashire County Council.

With the help and guidance from Boost’s Growth Catalyst service Alison now has a clear and structured growth plan which includes expanding her service across the North West, establishing central training schools, and appointing local area managers to oversee the programme. With turnover set to more than double in the next three years, the focus now is on recruitment and ensuring the business model's sustainability.

Alison added: “The support from Boost has been brilliant, and I think it’s phenomenal that is it free to the user. What struck me is the friendly, keen, enthusiastic people, that I have met through the Growth Catalyst service.

“I know my job inside out, but working on the business is different. I gained encouragement from the Boost service, talking about business with other people on the Growth Catalyst programme who are in the same situation. This has been invaluable.”