They can’t quite believe it but its true – Barking Mad are 10 years old and have successfully provided over 62,000 dog holidays. The Barking Mad family is now some 20,000 strong and growing by the day.

Celebrating a decade of Barking Mad Success at the Barking Mad Conference recently the network from around the UK set tails wagging in the Lake District with a conference packed full of fun (and a few celebratory drinks). Their Chief Executive, Bronte (nearly 11 and the inspiration for the original business) was joined by her spotty trainee Lotti, as they posed for the photo on the banks of Lake Windermere. The theme this year was Wacky Races and it certainly brought out the creative, fun and passionate sides of everyone. The Barking Mad conferences are always a bit crazy and 2010 was no exception and congratulations to Russell & Cate Court, of Oxfordshire who won Barking Mad Franchisee Business of the Year 2010.

Barking Mad was created in May 2000 with an aim to provide a new kind of pet-sitting service, and have now expanded across the UK and overseas. It has been an amazing success and has even featured on TV. Right from the start, Lee Southern the Managing Director knew it was a great idea, “Because we’ve all been there. If you have dogs, and you just can’t leave them in boarding kennels or impose on your family or friends once again, what do you do?”.

And so, Barking Mad was set up. A home-from-home pet care service: pet sitting with a difference, or dog holidays as people call them. Based on owner-operated franchises around the country, Barking Mad arrange for dogs to stay with loving host families who can match the sort of environment and routine the dogs are used to.

To learn more about using their home-from-home pet sitting service as an alternative to kennels, to find out about becoming one of our host families offering dog holidays – or even to discover how you could soon be running a Barking Mad franchise yourself – visit http://www.barkingmad.uk.com.