Soft play for pooches helps boost 'pawconomy'

Natalie Humphries is one of a number of female-led businesses making up the so-called "pawconomy" - firms servicing the boom in dog ownership since the Covid pandemic.

She took the lead on creating a child-style play space for dogs and opened the Dug and Bone in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, after struggling to find somewhere to take her cockapoo Peggy.

Natalie said: "I was looking for somewhere indoors where I could take her and we could have a play and a hot drink, because when we go to cafes, she wants to speak to everyone.

"There was nothing really in the local area that had that, so I thought, let's try it".

There are ball and sand pits, hoops, tunnels and jumps and, of course, other dogs to play with at the Dug and Bone.