Meet the team

Melissa Kitchener
Founder and Owner

Hair of the Dog was founded by Melissa Hair (Mel) in February 2016. Mel has been dog walking since 2014; she got into dog walking because of Buster, Buster was a rescue dog at a local rescue shelter that Mel was volunteering at. During her time there she became close to Buster and started to foster him, Mel decided to leave a career in hairdressing to become a professional dog walker and adopt Buster.

She worked for a dog walking company in London and Essex before starting up ‘Hair of the Dog’ in Harlow.

‘I was thinking of opening a dog walking business and someone suggested to me I call it ‘Hair of the Dog’ because of my maiden name at the time was ‘Hair’. I thought it was a great name and without hesitation called my business ‘Hair of the Dog’. The theme colour of the business is yellow dedicated to a dear friend of mine who passed away from cancer some years ago, she was passionate about rescuing dogs and always had dogs, her favorite colour was yellow.

If it wasn’t for recusing Buster and spending a lot of time with him when fostering him there would be no ‘Hair of the Dog’. Owning a dog is an honor, not a privilege and it’s a pleasure to be able to provide a service to care for people’s animals when they need a service. To gain someone’s trust with their valued family member is a very fulfilling role to have and always on hand to give any advice and guidance people need with their dogs. I am currently doing a level 3 Ofqual qualification in canine behaviour and home boarding to be able to provide more services for people and their beloved dogs. 

 

Madison Babbs
Dog Walker

My name is Madison Babbs (Maddy) and I am one of the team members here at Hair of the Dog! 

I work for Mel part time alongside my full time job as Cabin Crew for British Airways. I have always had a big passion and love for dogs since being small, and getting my own first dog called Hudson. Hudson was a Springbatt (Basset Hound and Springer Spaniel mix) and I had the honour of having him until he was 13 when he unfortunately passed. 

As well as having my own pet, I also volunteered at the RSPCA getting to spend time with the dogs as well as walking them. There I got the chance to walk and play with many types of breeds from all different backgrounds. 

Working for ‘Hair of the Dog’ is a pleasure as I love getting to meet all your fury family members!