The Company of Animals | United Kingdom

Beginnings

The Company of Animals (COA) is the UK-based specialist in dog training and behaviour-enhancing products. Animal Psychologist Dr Roger Mugford founded the company in 1979, initially as a vehicle to introduce a science-based approach to resolving behavioural problems in pets. Being the first of its kind in Britain, the practice was an immediate success that attracted media attention and too many clients for a one-man band.

Solving practical problems

The most common complaint by dog owners was that their dogs were too strong to walk on leads. Voila, the Halti headcollar was born to solve this major impediment to happy dog ownership, inspired by the convention of leading farm animals and horses by the head and not their neck. Halti spawned a new category in the pet industry, which has been both copied and refined by competitors and by Dr Mugford himself: Halti is now in its fourth redesigned edition.

A worldwide player

Roger was faced with a dilemma in 1983, which was whether or not to leave distribution of his brainchild to established manufacturers in the pet industry, or to do it as an adjunct to the family business of pet therapy. He chose the latter, and so it is that COA is now a major player in the worldwide pet industry, selling 45 distinct product lines in over 40 countries. But even after 35 years, Dr Mugford remains a ‘hands on’ trainer and behaviourist at his famous Animal Behaviour Centre just west of London, the same farm where The Company of Animals is headquartered as well.

The practical business of training thousands of dogs provides the test bed for all of Dr Mugford’s designs and inventions: COA products are inspired, tested and approved by pets with training and behavioural challenges.