Sometimes a business evolves because we decide to change direction.
Sometimes it changes because life gives us no choice.
My latest guest on The Pet Business Wellbeing Podcast, Kimberly Freeman, has experienced both.
Over roughly 20 years in the dog industry, Kimberly has been a dog walker, trainer, behaviour professional, business owner and city-dog specialist.
Her work has taken her from Dundee to New York City and eventually back to the UK.
She has built businesses.
Started communities.
Worked with countless dogs and humans.
And then had to stop.
Cancer changed the picture.
What I loved about our conversation is that this isn’t simply a story about getting back to where Kimberly was before.
It’s about something far more realistic.
Learning how to build from where she is now.
It Started With One Dog
Like so many people in the dog industry, Kimberly’s career began because of one particular dog.
His name was Riley.
Kimberly was studying at Dundee University when she rescued him, but she was also experiencing periods of ill health and needed to work out how she could continue studying while making sure Riley had the care he needed.
She looked for dog walkers and puppy daycare.
There wasn’t much available.
So she created it herself.
What began as a small dog walking business grew.
And grew.
Eventually, Kimberly was running what she describes as the largest dog walking, pet sitting and behavioural centre on the east coast of Scotland, with several members of staff.
All because one dog created a problem that needed solving.
From Dundee to New York City
Kimberly had another ambition too.
Acting.
So she applied to drama school in New York City and got in.
The original plan was to go for a year.
As often happens with plans, that isn’t quite what happened.
Kimberly loved New York and decided to stay.
Eventually Riley joined her and she found herself living with dogs in a tiny studio apartment.
And that exposed another gap.
Most dog-training advice she could find assumed that people had:
A garden.
Several rooms.
Space.
Quiet.
A completely different way of living.
But millions of people live with dogs in cities.
They may be on the twelfth floor of an apartment block.
They may need to use lifts.
Public transport.
Busy pavements.
Crowded spaces.
And their dog still deserves to thrive.
That experience helped lead to City Dog Expert and later City Sit Stay.
City Dogs Need Different Skills
One of the things I found particularly interesting was Kimberly’s perspective on urban dogs.
The principle isn’t that city dogs need “more obedience”.
Quite the opposite.
For Kimberly, so much comes back to trust.
A small dog stepping onto the Tube has to trust that their human is asking them to do something safe.
A dog walking through Covent Garden, Times Square or another busy environment has to navigate sound, people, movement and unpredictability.
That relationship cannot simply be:
“I own you, therefore you do what I say.”
Kimberly prefers to think about the human-dog relationship as a partnership.
The dog has choices.
The dog has agency.
The dog is communicating.
And the human has a responsibility to notice that.
She still uses the word “owner” when that is the language clients understand, but her philosophy is based much more around relationship, trust and connection.
Then Life Changed Again
After years of growing businesses, working with dogs and continuing her acting career, Kimberly became seriously ill.
Eventually she was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
She underwent surgery.
There were complications.
She experienced sepsis.
Then came chemotherapy.
And something strange happened.
During active treatment, there was support everywhere.
Appointments.
Nurses.
Charities.
People checking in.
A schedule.
A clear priority:
Stay alive.
Kimberly actually described parts of that period as mentally peaceful, despite being physically extremely unwell.
For once, she didn’t have to run every part of the business.
The expectations had temporarily disappeared.
Then treatment finished.
And suddenly, so did much of the support.
“You’re Done. Off You Go.”
This was one of the parts of our conversation that really stayed with me.
There can be an assumption that finishing chemotherapy means someone is better.
Ring the bell.
Treatment finished.
Back to normal.
But Kimberly wasn’t back to normal.
She was still dealing with the effects of surgery.
Chemotherapy.
Neuropathy.
Fatigue.
Brain fog.
Pain.
Changes to her body.
And the mental impact of everything she had been through.
Yet the expectation quickly became:
Get back to life.
And when you’re self-employed, that creates another layer of pressure.
Because nobody is keeping your business running while you recover.
No sick pay appears magically.
Clients still need support.
Messages still exist.
Income matters.
And Kimberly eventually had to stop.
She lost clients.
Her acting stopped.
The businesses she had spent years building changed dramatically.
When Your Capacity Changes
This is something I think more business conversations need to acknowledge.
Sometimes capacity changes permanently.
Sometimes temporarily.
Sometimes you simply don’t know.
Kimberly is now in remission, but the effects haven’t disappeared.
There are still questions such as:
Will I be well enough that day?
Can I commit to this event?
Will I have enough energy for that client?
What if something changes?
And that uncertainty affects business decisions.
I think many pet professionals can relate to this even if cancer hasn’t been part of their story.
Chronic illness.
Disability.
Mental health.
Caring responsibilities.
Bereavement.
Burnout.
Life events.
Capacity isn’t fixed.
And pretending that it is can make us incredibly hard on ourselves.
Giving Yourself the Same Grace You Give Your Dogs
Kimberly is now rebuilding her businesses.
And she knows what they looked like before.
That’s part of what makes rebuilding difficult.
She can remember the number of clients.
The achievements.
The pace.
The person she was.
It would be easy to look at today and decide it isn’t enough.
Instead, she’s trying to approach herself in the way she would approach one of her dogs.
With patience.
With compassion.
With realistic expectations.
With grace.
She gave a really simple example.
Perhaps she once had ten clients a day.
Now she might have ten in a week.
That doesn’t mean she has failed.
It means this is where she currently is.
And she builds from there.
There is something in that I think almost every pet professional could learn from.
We understand progress isn’t linear when we’re working with dogs.
We understand thresholds.
Capacity.
Environment.
Health.
History.
Individual differences.
Yet when it comes to ourselves?
Suddenly we expect perfect consistency.
Community Comes Back Around
Another lovely part of Kimberly’s story was what happened when she needed help with her own dogs.
Over the years, she had built communities around dogs, including her Pomeranian community.
When she became ill and was in hospital, members of that community stepped in to help care for her dogs.
Some were people she had barely met.
The community Kimberly had nurtured was suddenly there for her when she needed it.
That matters.
Because business communities aren’t only about leads, referrals or networking.
Sometimes they become part of your support system.
Online Dog Training Can Be About Accessibility
Kimberly is also passionate about online dog training.
And not simply because it’s convenient.
It can increase access.
A disabled person who cannot easily travel to a training hall can participate.
Someone without a car can participate.
A busy professional can participate.
A dog who struggles around other dogs doesn’t have to be put into a room full of them simply because that’s how classes have traditionally been delivered.
And sometimes the dog actually learns faster because they are working in their own familiar environment with fewer distractions.
Kimberly makes an important point:
The trainer isn’t really there to train the dog.
The trainer is teaching the human.
And if good communication can happen online, then meaningful training can happen online too.
Twenty Years In – And Still Learning
Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Kimberly what advice she would give someone newer to the dog industry.
After 20 years, her answer wasn’t:
“Become the expert who knows everything.”
Quite the opposite.
Keep learning.
Science changes.
Our understanding changes.
Dogs teach us.
Clients teach us.
Experience teaches us.
And sometimes professionalism means saying:
“I don’t know.”
Then either finding out or referring that person to someone whose expertise better fits the situation.
Kimberly knows city dogs.
Give her a studio apartment on the twelfth floor and she knows exactly where to start.
Give her twelve acres, horses and fields?
She’ll happily acknowledge that somebody else may be better placed.
I love that.
Expertise doesn’t require pretending to be everything to everyone.
And Don’t Forget to Have Fun
Kimberly also finished with something wonderfully simple.
Have some fun.
Teach silly tricks.
Create enrichment.
Change things up.
Enjoy the relationship.
One of Kimberly’s dogs has even learned to jump into her arms because there are days when she physically can’t bend down to pick him up.
That’s training.
But it’s also adaptation.
Connection.
Practicality.
And love.
Kimberly’s career has changed many times over the last 20 years.
So has her life.
And right now, she’s building the next version in real time.
Not trying to perfectly recreate what existed before.
Learning.
Adapting.
Listening to her body.
And continuing.
Perhaps that is what sustainable business really looks like.
Not creating something that can never change.
But creating something that is allowed to change with you.
Listen to the Full Conversation
🎧 Watch or listen to my full conversation with Kimberly Freeman on The Pet Business Wellbeing Podcast here
Content note
This conversation includes discussion of cancer, chemotherapy, disability, chronic illness and the ongoing physical and emotional effects of serious illness.
Please listen with care.
Find Kimberly:
London Pomeranians Facebook Group
City Dog Expert – Instagram
City Sit Stay – Instagram
A Little More Support for Your Own Business 🌿
If some of Kimberly’s reflections around capacity, wellbeing and running a business through life’s changes have resonated, you’re very welcome to join my free Pet Business Wellbeing Circle.
It’s a supportive Facebook community for pet professionals who want to talk about the person behind the business as well as the business itself.
You can also download the free Pet Pro Rescue Plan, designed to help you think ahead about what happens when you need time away from your business:
Wellbeing isn’t a luxury. It’s part of the business plan.
