How a move to Bryncrug led to Sally barking up the right career tree

When Sally Friswell brought her first dog, a border collie called Bob, she took him to puppy training lessons, then enrolled him onto agility classes "as a way of keeping his brain occupied and as a hobby for me". Twenty years on, that hobby has turned into a flourishing career, with Sally running one of north Wales's most successful dog training clubs.

Dysynni Dogs, which has just celebrated its tenth anniversary, provides classes in obedience, scentwork and agility. The agility training is to Kennel Club (KC) competition standard - owners and their dogs regularly achieve wins at the highest level, Grade 7 - and its monthly club shows attract canines and handlers from miles around. Any time now, Sally is expecting to hear the club has been awarded full KC accreditation. 

It hasn't always been plain sailing, though. In the early days, Sally had to take on cleaning jobs to make ends meet; then in February 2020 Storm Ciara destroyed the club's shed and equipment at its previous base in Arthog. A month later the Covid pandemic hit. But enthusiastic fundraising by the newly formed Friends of Dysynni Dogs to replace the ruined equipment, creative ideas of how to train dogs at home and a move to the field at Y Ganolfan Bryncrug saw the club not only survive but boom.

"Once the Covid restrictions eased, we hit the ground running," recalls Sally. "That was mostly thanks to the ganolfan (community centre): we had a hard-standing car park and flushing loos - it was somewhere to call home. Also, so many people had bought dogs during the pandemic that business kind of exploded. We had puppies coming to us for training from all over the place, and we had all these dogs that were rather a challenge because they were lacking socialisation due to the Covid restrictions."

Although her family kept dogs, as a child growing up in Leicestershire horses were more Sally's thing. "I had a couple of horses and took part in show jumping, three-day eventing and cross-country. So, for me, jumping animals over obstacles has been there since the year dot really!

"As a child I was always happiest being in a field covered in mud! I've never been a townie: I don't like shopping and I don't like being with masses of people."

Sally on horseback

After studying applied biology at university in Stoke-on-Trent, Sally settled in the Staffordshire town, soon meeting her partner Ian, a former National Hunt jockey, when they both worked at Mecca Bingo. Ian's childhood holidays had been spent in Tywyn and he took Sally down for visits.

When his mum died, leaving them some money, the couple were working long hours in retail management. After several years running pubs for Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries, Sally was training shop managers for bakery chain Greggs. 

"Work was crazy, but at the same time we could also see that the high street was in decline, so we said, 'let's go'! Neither of us was from Staffordshire - Ian's from Chester - so we had no ties to the area."

And so in 2014 they gave up their careers and moved to Bryncrug.

"The only stipulation I made was that I definitely wasn't going to work in catering again. I knew I wanted to do something with dogs, but I imagined myself becoming a dog walker."

Back in Stoke, Sally had become increasingly involved with a dog club - first with Bob and then with a "bonkers" rescue collie called Poppy that needed obedience training. "Then I was asked to take the beginner's agility class at the club, so I did that; after which I obtained a qualification - and it grew from there."

Once they decided to move to Wales, Sally looked for somewhere she could continue to train her dogs, "but there was nowhere - and that's when the idea for Dysynni Dogs was born."

Sally completed her dog training qualifications, at Reaseheath College in Nantwich, and set up a Facebook page offering classes. "The first one I took had three Debbies enrolled on it - I wasn't sure if it was one person or three! It turned out to be three, and they're all still with the club today."

The first few years were "challenging", recalls Sally, who now has four dogs of her own - three working cocker spaniels and one working border collie. "The mindset in rural areas is different from that in towns and cities; people don't as readily think it's necessary to take puppies to classes. For the first five years I was cleaning holiday cottages as well. There were a couple of times when I thought, 'is it worth me doing this?', but then someone would win a rosette and you couldn't take the smile off their face. That made it worth it."

Dysynni's Mini Moo competes at the Warrior Agility Easter Show, 2024

Gradually, however, the puppy training - which takes place indoors at Arthog Village Hall - became popular, as did the agility classes. And despite the hardships caused by Covid, the pandemic led to the club introducing new types of training - scentwork and "hoopers", low-impact agility training for dogs or owners with limited mobility - which people could do at home.

Following the pandemic, the club launched its monthly club shows, "which have really brought the agility training community together. We have people who come from as far away as Anglesey in the north and Aberystwyth in the south, because otherwise the nearest show would probably be Shrewsbury".

Both Covid and the club shows have highlighted the importance of the social side of Dysynni Dogs, observes Sally.

"We have people who no longer have a dog but are still involved, and there are ladies in their 70s competing with their dogs who possibly wouldn't get out and about so much if it wasn't for the club. Some people come just for the fun of it, while others regularly compete in our club shows as well as independent shows, with some competing across all the grades."

The club now has three qualified KC judges and for the past nine years has entered animals into Crufts' Good Citizen Dog Training Scheme. "It's something you have to be selected for - and we've never had anyone fail it yet."

Running daytime and evening classes, along with hosting and attending weekend shows, plus making bespoke rosettes for dog shows across the UK, means Sally never gets a day off. But she's not complaining.

"This is more of a life choice than a job," she says. "It would be nice to have a day off sometimes, but running the club is fun and I enjoy it, and when the weather's good, there's nothing better than being here in this field and looking at the mountains all day."

Sally puts Dysynni's Mickey Moo through his paces

Sally's four dogs

Judging at Warrior Agility Easter Show, Bolesworth Castle

On home turf: the field at Y Ganolfan Bryncrug

Dysynni dogs and their rosettes