Hi there! Thanks so much for visiting our store. Whether you're one of our family or friends, you've discovered us through word of mouth or you came across our products on Instagram - we're excited to welcome you to our website.
We wanted to use our first ever blog to introduce ourselves and to share what Swoof means to us and why we're so passionate about it.
So, here goes... We're Matt and Lauren, hi!
We live in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire and if you've not seen her on Instagram yet, we have a beautiful Cocker Spaniel called Willow. She's almost 3 years old and we've already had some incredible memories with her. We'll share these adventures with you all soon when we start to share some ideas for days out and holidays with your pup but to name a few, she's travelled the NC500 in a camper van, been paddleboarding in the Lake District, won best in show at her wonderful doggy day care and has enjoyed several doggy dinners in some lovely pubs across the country.
Matt's always had dogs growing up, in particular Cocker Spaniels. I, on the other hand haven't and as much as I loved them, could never see myself getting one in the future, especially not such an energetic one!! Oh how I've changed!
After being talked into it slowly over many years, and after doing more research than I want to admit, we decided to bring a puppy into our lovely, little terraced house in Salesbury.
The first couple of weeks were a bit bumpy - I opened the door on day two to my father-in-law to be in tears, handed him the puppy and said I couldn't do it! haha! But since then, she has completely changed my life. It sounds crazy, but I'm much more grounded, happier, more at peace with myself and my life and always look forward to our daily walks and our days out together at the weekend. She's so special and I've joined Matt in being completely and utterly dog obsessed.
We've always struggled to find nice collars and leads for Willow and often muttered the words, 'that one will do!'. We've recently moved house (the main selling point was a bigger garden for Willow!) and started looking for beds, toys and accessories to fit in with our new home - we couldn't find a thing!
This was the beginning of Swoof. We spent hours researching, talking and searching online for beautiful suppliers and messaging around to see if our favourites offered wholesale and luckily most of them did.
We both had the strong opinion that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it with a big focus on great quality rather than quick, easy purchases that get thrown away and bought again over and over. We wanted to be as eco-friendly and as sustainable as possible - even down to our packaging. We're still learning, but we're really enjoying the journey.
We've been live a month today and nothing makes us happier than seeing what you purchase, packaging it up ready for you and your pup to enjoy and most of all seeing photos of your gorgeous dogs with their new products.
We hope this is the start of a really exciting journey and we can't thank you all enough for your amazing support over the last 4 weeks.
We'd like to continue sharing our Swoof adventures with you all - if you've not already, please sign up to receive our emails on our home page!
Lots of love and tail wagging,
Matt, Lauren and Willow x