The Wild Paws Agility Story!
Wild Paws Agility was established in 2012 when it began to create miniature agility equipment to assist judges, trainers, coaches and competitors in agility. In 2013 the business expanded to begin coaching classes in Nottingham, where Nicola was studying a postgraduate Architecture degree. This quickly became the majority of the business with all classes having extensive waiting lists. Nicola was regularly asked to teach seminars and events at other clubs around the country.
When Nicola decided to pursue both a career as an Architect as well as her passion of coaching agility she moved back to the North West in 2015 to complete her professional certificate as an Architect. She began coaching two evenings a week as well as seminar days both at Wild Paws Agility and around the country. The popularity of agility classes grew and as they did the decision was made to sell the miniature agility equipment side of the business, to Agility By Design, to allow further focus on the coaching side. From this point a 3 years waiting list for classes grew and teaching agility became a larger part in Nicola’s life. Her joy for coaching dogs and humans as well as the Psychology of teaching grew and Nicola is regularly to be found at training events around the country learning as much as possible about all things dog training and agility.
In 2020 Nicola made the leap to use her skills gained as an Architect in creative thinking, problem solving and organisation to transition Wild Paws Agility into a limited company and change her career path to follow her passion in dog agility. Hannah and Becky were added to the Wild Paws coaching family as exceptional dog trainers already and agility students of Nicola’s they had all the knowledge required to help beginner dogs and handlers find the joy in building a bond between dog and human using agility.
At Wild Paws Agility our training ethos is all about positive reinforcement, in order for the dog to confidently decision make they must not fear consequences. The idea of an independently thinking dog is the driving force behind Nicola’s training and handling and part of the secret to her success. Nicola trains all levels of dog from beginners and handlers just wanting to have fun with their dogs to championship level handlers wanting to be the best.
