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Kate Soames, Founder of Moment to Paws, tells her story.
The evolution of Moment to Paws over the last seven years has taught me lots of lessons, not least of which is the fact there’s huge potential for workplace dog therapy and I’m proud to be leading the way. Here’s how it all started.
I grew up as a farmer’s daughter, so I’ve always had a deep respect for animals. Growing up we had Border Collies on the farm, and I would spend as much time as possible with them; stroking, grooming, walking and playing with them. At 13 years old, I was lucky enough to get my very own Collie, Whin, from Cumbria who I trained over the following few years. We did quite well competing in sheepdog trials, but then I went off to university and followed a career in marketing.
For 12 years I climbed the corporate ladder, reaching the senior leadership team at an agency and supposedly ticking the box for ‘success’. Yet as many people will know, the office lifestyle brings with it plenty of stresses and strains. All the deadlines and meetings can be exhausting and I needed an outlet. As it happens, that agency allowed employees to bring dogs into work, and I started noticing something fascinating.
On the days the dogs were there, the entire atmosphere changed.
Everyone felt so much happier and lighter. Being able to come out of a heavy meeting and have a quick cuddle with a dog who was always happy to see you, and never going to judge you or your opinions, was a really amazing thing to be able to do – like an instant reset button.
So the seed of an idea took root. I wondered: “Can I bring this feeling to other workplaces?”
At first, I did what most people do with a wild dream: I completely dismissed it. I told myself I was crazy and it was just my obsessive love for dogs talking, not a real business model.
But the more work took its toll on my mental health, the more I realised the potential for my idea.
A year and half after first thinking about it, the real work began.
The research
I needed to see if the science backed up my gut feeling.
So I dived into the research on the benefits dogs bring to humans. Back then, there was surprisingly little data available specifically regarding corporate environments. Almost all the existing studies were focused on hospitals, care homes or schools, where the value of therapy dogs is now well-established.
As I looked closer though, I realised the underlying psychological and physiological effects reported were so relevant to the workplace in terms of stress reduction and boosting feel-good hormones.
One particular study caught my eye because it had been conducted with stockbrokers, and we all know the pressure that comes with that job. The data showed that having a dog present drastically reduced their cortisol levels, which are directly related to stress.
There’s also the social aspect. The research from care home environments showed that dogs are incredible "conversation catalysts", a phrase I love. Put a dog in a room, and you’ve instantly got something in common you can’t help but chat about. It totally removes the awkwardness of small talk, taking the focus off the people and kickstarting natural interactions.
Every single piece of research pointed in the same direction - this was something the corporate world desperately needed.
I looked at the market and saw a couple of companies pioneering this concept down in London. But up north? In Yorkshire? There was absolutely nothing.
I sat down, mapped out a proper business proposal, and pitched it to my husband. I had the working name of Moment to Paws, but it stuck because it captures exactly what I wanted to achieve: an intentional, brief step away from the grind of work life.
My husband said ‘do it’, so, I did!
An unexpected opportunity
I handed in my notice in the January, taking us right up to March 2020, and we all know what happened then.
The corporate world locked its doors and everyone went home.
Rather than the worst possible timing though, it turned out to be the absolute best thing that could have happened to me. Up until that point, I had a lifetime of hands-on, practical experience with dogs, but I lacked formal qualifications in canine training and behaviour.
Lockdown handed me the gift of time.
I threw myself into intense studying, earning my dog trainer certification and completing a mountain of courses with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT). But I didn't stop there. I pushed all the way through to achieve a Level 6 Advanced Diploma in Applied Animal Behaviour, which is the equivalent of a degree-level qualification.
My best teacher
Lockdown also brought another major milestone into my life: a new puppy named Ruby.
Now, I have to be completely honest here. If I knew then what I know now as a qualified behaviourist, I would never have chosen Ruby!
Bless her, she doesn’t have the right temperament to be a therapy dog at all, and she suffers from chronic illnesses. She is simply not bred for that kind of high-stimulation work.
But from the perspective of my own education, Ruby has been an absolute masterclass. Because of her unique challenges, she has been the perfect teacher for understanding complex canine emotions and reading body language.
She displays signs of discomfort, fear and anxiety so clearly that she has made me incredibly well-versed in picking up subtle shifts in a dog's emotional state. She taught me how to recognise when a dog isn't feeling particularly happy in a situation, which is crucial for what we do at Moment to Paws.
By the time the world began to open up again in 2021, I had used that entire lockdown period to learn, pivot, and apply my marketing expertise to define what we wanted to do.
We were ready.
Event One
Our very first official event took place in 2021 at a financial services firm called Progeny in Leeds.
The way it came about was the perfect example of my past career colliding with my new passion. We were the only business offering workplace dog therapy in Yorkshire, and because of my background in digital marketing, I had optimised our website to rank well on Google. Progeny happened to be proactively searching for a workplace therapy dog service, we popped up at the top of the search results as the only company offering what they wanted, so they reached out and booked us.
That first event was a sharp learning curve. Fortunately, it was a shorter session, but it taught me probably my biggest lesson: the sheer amount of sensory stimulation from interacting with dozens of excited people takes an enormous toll on the dogs. As relaxing as it is for the humans, and as much as the dogs enjoy it, they get very tired!
Clients often say "oh, I wish you could stay here with the dogs all day!", but the reality is, we can’t. After a couple of hours, the dogs are ready for a sleep and their welfare is the top priority. I always use the analogy that if we were lucky enough to be massaged for two hours straight, we’d fall fast asleep too!
The work you don’t see
Five years on and we now run multiple events each week. We passed the 200 mark a while ago and I’ve now got the process and systems down to a fine art.
As well as organising suitable spaces and planning the timings, I have to give a lot of thought into who we have on the teams for the day - deciding which dogs complement each other, assessing their personalities and making sure they are genuinely happy to be there. The people who attend our events don’t see any of that logistical heavy lifting, but that’s entirely the point. Everything just works smoothly.
And all the hard work is totally worth it. For me, the rewards of this journey are beyond anything I ever experienced in the corporate boardroom. The moment people walk into the room and see the dogs, you can see their shoulders drop. Their faces completely light up, and the feedback they give afterwards validates everything I ever wanted. Seeing the impact it has on people, and also how much our therapy dogs genuinely love doing the work puts a smile on my face too and never gets old.
What next?
In terms of where I want to take Moment to Paws in the future, the key thing for me is keeping the quality and level of service in what we do.
So I simply want to keep doing exactly what we are doing, but do more of it.
I want to bring four-legged joy to more workplaces while continuing to support the incredible team we’ve built. It’s a way for our handlers to do something purposeful and joyful which is a key pillar of good mental health, so literally everyone in the room benefits at Moment to Paws events and I’m looking forward to sharing that message as wide as I can.
