A WREXHAM businesswoman has celebrated after being shortlisted for a national award.

Sabine Pawlig and her partner Ralf Klischies, from Brymbo, are among the finalists for the category Best Pet Related Business in the Animal Star Awards.

Sabine runs Pawlig’s Pet Care - a Dog Walking/Training, Pet and Horse Care business in Wrexham and she says she is delighted to have been shortlisted for this year's final.

She told the Leader: "We feel absolutely honoured to even been mentioned. This nomination really boosted our confidence and we know that we are going the right direction with our business.

"We genuinely love what we are doing and wouldn’t change it at all."

Pawlig's Pet Care was established by Sabine and Ralf in 2015. They offer a premium dog, pet and horse care service covering the Wrexham area.

Their services include dog walks, dog training and puppy classes, pet care home visits, and horse care and are constantly improving their animal behaviour and care knowledge by attending courses and studying literature.

Throughout the last year, they have been supporting their clients and their furry families in any way they can, from walking key workers and vulnerable persons dogs and supporting lockdown puppies with online dog and puppy training.

The duo provided 121 private training sessions under COVID safe conditions whenever this was possible or offered a helping hand with cat or horse care.

Sabine added: "Our days are never the same.

“When lockdown started, like most of us, we were grounded at home and felt a bit overwhelmed by the whole situation. We had so many bookings cancelled; it was really scary. But there were plenty of key workers and vulnerable people that would have been lost without our services.

"We provide a COVID-safe dog walking and pet/horse care service. We collect the dogs with social distancing applying, walk the dog(s) locally and return them home.

"We were already focusing mainly on 121 dog walks before lockdown and this allowed us to continue throughout the pandemic. We passionately believe that providing private dog walks as opposed to pack walks is a very safe way, especially in these difficult times.

"The dogs get our full attention at all times while they are in our care. There is no risk of infection because we do not mix dogs from different households.

“Although we weren’t able to run our training sessions in the usual class environment, we changed to zoom sessions and 121 private coaching sessions with strict social distancing rules applying – if COVID restrictions allowed the latter to take place.”

To find out more about Pawlig’s Pet Care and all the services they provide or to get in touch, please head to: https://pawligspetcare.com/

Sabine said: "We are also passionate about dog health and nutrition as they play a key role in having a happy and content dog, so we extended our business to supply our clients with high quality dog and cat food from Eden Holistic Pet Foods.

"This was so well received that our dining room had to be turned into some kind of storage to keep some stock ready for when the clients need their next food order. We also stock other suppliers’ healthy treats and chews and make fleece tug and enrichment toys. There are days when orders are just flying in.

“We are more than happy to deliver to our client’s doorstep, which means that we often get a socially distanced catch up with our clients as a ‘treat’.”

Animal Star Awards was founded by Mary Burgess in 2016 and gives recognition for animals and humans alike for the extraordinary things they do. The online, virtual awards night takes place on Saturday 28th March 2021.

Sabine and Ralf own 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 horses.

She went on to say: “We are so excited to have been shortlisted for this award; we really have worked our socks off to help our community and deliver our expert services in really challenging times.

“Our own dogs, Emma and Karlchen, are an integral part of the Pawlig's Pet Care Team. Karlchen is a Jack Russell terrier and Emma is a Goldiedoodle (Golden Retriever x Standard Poodle). We are incredibly lucky to say that they are the perfect match for each other! Always full of fun and mischief but never any bother! They love socialise with our two rescue cats or to help out at the horse yard.”

Sabine can be contacted by emailing pawligspetcare@hotmail.com or call 07868 8121160.