Meet Dr Duncan Houston,
the emergency vet who started WOOPF™

I was working in pet food before I qualified. I studied veterinary science at the University of Sydney, graduated in 2017, worked as a vet in Sydney, found my way into emergency and critical care, and now practise in Hong Kong. Emergency work is a strange education in dog products, because you meet the product at the moment it fails.

You see the dog that backed out of a loose harness at a kerb. The collar that never dried, and the sore neck under it. The toy that was sold as indestructible, now in pieces, and the pieces are the problem. The old retriever who stopped using her bed because the step up hurt. None of that is exotic. It is a normal week.

Nothing goes on sale until it has been through my own house first.

Then there is Bridie. She was born with hips bad enough that both were replaced, at Colyton Vet Clinic, and years on she is doing well. Living through her recovery taught me more about bed height, footing and where a harness strap sits on a healing dog than any lecture did.

WOOPF™ started because I kept recommending gear I did not fully believe in. So I began designing my own, against the failures I see, with one rule: nothing goes on sale until it has been through my own house first. Bridie is the comfort and mobility department. Kiko, our younger golden, is the durability department, whether she was appointed or not. Jess, the border collie, is the standards department, and she is hard to please.

The Woopf Way is simple. If your dog is not resting, they should be moving with purpose: walking well, playing properly, and using their nose and brain in ways that are stimulating and controlled. Every range on this site serves one of those states, and I will always tell you what a product does and what it cannot do.