Tuesday was our first family dog.  A German Shepherd with the biggest paws I’d ever seen! I was a little over eleven years old and yet she taught me invaluable lessons about kindness, loyalty and finding true happiness in simple moments. My kind of luxury has always been velvety ears and cold, wet noses.

A few decades later, I reminded myself of this when the classic juggle of maintaining the work/life balance led me to leave the corporate world and take a leap into starting my own business. Recognising those lessons I’d learned in being a dog owner and the huge benefits I felt from the responsibility, it felt natural to embrace what made me happy and weave in the creative side of me that I had only been able to enjoy in the limited spare moments I could afford.

And so, in 2016 I set up Bark & Hare, which combined three of my favourite things: being a pet owner, creating beautiful, sustainably-made things and my love of Scotland. The name is an ironic reference to a piece of Scottish history dating back to the 1800s - the infamous grave robbers and lovers of bones, Burke and Hare!

At the beginning, I ventured into hand-making organic dog treats using gentle dehydration techniques to retain the natural vitamins and minerals. Something my cocker spaniel, Macy, very much approved of! Soon my creativity led me to crafting collar accessories. And with a family and friends size helping of support, we’ve grown Bark & Hare into what it is today – a brand dedicated to designing high quality, thoughtfully handcrafted collars, leads and accessories.

Every piece we create is made with purpose, celebrating the special bond between pets and their owners.  Because at the heart of it all, our pets bring out the best in us – and we want to help you do the same for them.