SAM

Founder at CIK9 & Critical Impact Flyball Team, Passionate Dog Lover & Artisan

As fifty draws ever closer, wow nearly half a century 
I often think, what put me where I am today. I suppose we should really start at the beginning. I was born into a family that loved dogs, as you can imagine all my early memories involved dogs in some shape or form, be it hanging around the house or family days out the dogs were involved. I never understood at the time the effect that would have.

At the tender age of 18 having recently moved into my own place I found Dotty, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier with an attitude. She was a rescue dog but now, looking back I think we rescued each other, Dotty didn't take too kindly to other dogs you see, so we had a lot of work ahead of us. I learned so much from her, over time she settled and eventually lived happily with a number of other dogs.

In time I met my wife Ellen, she too came from a family of dog lovers, her parents breed and show Blood Hounds to a high level. Ellen and I went on to have 4 children, Madison, Reece, Neve and Xander we began showing with our Dogue De Bordeaux's and did have some success.

As the kids got older they wanted to join us in our adventures, so along came Kizzy a Border Collie and the families first flyball dog. We've raced and trained with a number of flyball teams over the years but had the most success when we started our own team Critical Impact, we have a number of dogs now, we're dedicated hardworking but understand that fun is the secret ingredient for a high performance partnership between you and your pet.

When it comes to fun and interactive play you can't get better than a good old game of tug, dogs just love it!!The way a relationship can be enhanced with daily structured play, the enjoyment for both handler and dog as you both learn new skills, the ease of training when you have a good solid reward system and fun did I mention fun. So as you can imagine with a history like this making the decision to start Critical Impact k9 Supplies wasn't a difficult one, if your going to make products it makes sense to do something you not only understand but love.

We've been doing this now for over 5 years, handmade tugs collars and leads with a little bit of love in every one of them. To see so many of our products used on the green carpet at Crufts last year gave us such a sense of achievement, as we watched our friends compete, some won some lost and we felt those emotions with them, as a little bit of Ellen and myself were there too.