Privacy Policy
Introduction
Laura Blackledge-Smith trading as Heart Dog Behaviour is a sole trader whose address is 5 Dowling Close, Snodland, Kent. ME65PF (‘we’, ‘our’, ‘us’ in this privacy notice).
Laura Blackledge-Smith is responsible for collecting, processing, storing and safe-keeping personal and other information as part of providing a service and carrying out our regular business activities. We manage personal information in accordance with data protection legislation including the Data Protection Act 2018 and we are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office Registration Number ZC151683.
Any questions regarding our processing of personal data should be directed to us via hello@heartdogbehaviour.co.uk.
Data processing principles
We take protecting online privacy and data security seriously. Please read the whole of this notice carefully as it sets out our approach to processing personal data including what information we may collect from you, how we may use it, store it and protect it, and your rights as a data subject.
Our Privacy Notice outlines our approach to any kind of data processing where we are acting as a data controller or co-controller (including collection, use, transfer, storage and deletion) of personally identifiable information (any information that may be used to identify a physical person, and any other information associated therewith) about natural persons. This notice applies to our processing of data collected through any means, actively as well as passively, from persons located anywhere in the world.
We are guided by the following principles when processing data:
1. We will only collect data for specific and specified purposes;
2. We will not collect data beyond what is necessary to accomplish those purposes; we will minimise the amount of information we collect from you to what we need to deliver the services required;
3. We will collect and use your personal information only if we have sensible business reasons for doing so, such as making available to you our services and products;
4. We will not use your data for purposes other than those for which it was collected, accepted as stated within our policy, or with your prior consent;
5. We will seek to verify and/or update your data periodically and we will accept requests from you for amendment of the data held;
6. We will apply high technical standards to make our processing of data secure;
7. Except otherwise stated, we will not store data in identifiable form longer than is necessary to accomplish its purpose or as required by law.
What information we collect
In accordance with Data Protection Legislation we only collect and process information which we require to meet the specific purposes as stated above. The information we may collect about you could include, but is not limited to:
1. Your name and contact details, including your email address, telephone number and postal address.
2. Payment, billing and transaction information relating to services you purchase.
3. Information about your household, home environment and daily routines where relevant to providing behaviour support.
4. Information you provide about your dog, including their history, health, behaviour and veterinary care, together with relevant veterinary referral forms and records.
5. Information provided through enquiries, questionnaires, consultations and follow-up communications, including your concerns, goals and progress.
6. For the Kids Around Dogs programme, your child’s name, age, relevant experiences around dogs, programme goals and session progress, together with parent or guardian contact details.
7. Photographs, videos or audio recordings you provide to support assessment and advice, which may include images or voices of you or members of your household.
8. Session recordings, where these are made with prior agreement and appropriate consent. With prior agreement and appropriate consent, online Kids Around Dogs sessions may be recorded for study and research relating to delivery of the programme. Recordings may include the image and voice of the child and any parent or guardian present. Access to recordings is restricted to Laura Blackledge-Smith of Heart Dog Behaviour. Recordings are stored securely, are not shared or distributed, and are deleted within three months of the session. Consent to recording is requested separately before recording begins and may be withdrawn at any time by contacting us. If consent is withdrawn, we will stop making further recordings and delete existing recordings covered by that consent.
9. Information about how you use our website, including technical information such as your IP address, browser type and device information.
Occasionally we may ask for special category data if necessary for delivery of a particular service or product, such as medical information. Any such special category data will only be collected with your express consent and will be handled in line with ICO best practice guidelines for special category data. As per our Data Processing Principles we will only ask for information that is necessary to deliver our services, and therefore we encourage you not to provide us with personal data or special category data which we do not ask for.
How we collect, use and share personal data
Most personal information is provided directly and voluntarily by you when you engage with us in order to enquire about, or purchase, our services or products. We will collect information from you when:
Most personal information is provided directly by you when you enquire about, book or use our services. We collect information when:
You contact us through our website, social media channels, telephone or email.
You book a discovery call, behaviour consultation, follow-up appointment or Kids Around Dogs programme.
You complete a questionnaire, consent form or other document relating to our services.
You participate in consultations or programme sessions, or communicate with us during ongoing support.
You provide photographs, videos, behaviour diaries or other information to support assessment and advice.
You make a payment for our services.
You leave a review, provide feedback or comment on our social media posts.
You work with us in a professional or commercial capacity.
We may also receive relevant information from your veterinary practice, such as referral forms and veterinary records, or from another professional or rescue organisation involved in your dog’s care. Where appropriate, we will obtain your permission before requesting this information.
We use this information to respond to enquiries, arrange appointments, assess your needs, provide and review support, communicate with you, process payments and maintain appropriate business records.
Where necessary, we may share relevant information with your veterinary practice or another professional involved in providing support, with appropriate permission or another lawful basis. We may also use service providers to manage bookings, communications, payments and secure storage of records.
We may also collect personal information about you from third party sources, such as when you choose to connect your social media accounts with our Site or log in through a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram. However, we will only use this information where these third parties either have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted or required to share your personal information with us.
We collect this information in order to make available to you our services or products and to communicate with you in relation to our services or products. We may use the information collected to:
Process bookings and payments for discovery calls, consultations, follow-up appointments and programmes.
Create and maintain client records, including questionnaires, consultation notes, support plans and relevant correspondence.
Respond to enquiries about our services.
Assess your dog’s behaviour and develop, deliver and review tailored behaviour support.
Plan and deliver the Kids Around Dogs programme, adapting sessions to individual needs and recording progress.
Communicate with you about appointments, practical guidance and ongoing support.
Liaise with your veterinary practice and, where appropriate, other professionals involved in your dog’s care.
Operate and maintain our website and ensure its content works effectively on your device.
Notify you about changes to booked services or relevant changes to our terms and policies.
Request feedback about the quality of our services.
Maintain financial and business records and meet applicable legal obligations.
We do not sell or lend your personal data to third parties, or share it with third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
Where necessary, we share relevant information with service providers that support bookings, communications, payments and storage of records. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these providers have appropriate data protection and security measures in place.
Where appropriate, we may also share relevant information with your veterinary practice or another professional involved in providing support. We do so with appropriate permission or another lawful basis. We may disclose information where required by law.
We will not give consent to third party service providers or platforms to use your information, including audio and video recordings, for purposes other than those for which the information was collected and which are necessary for the delivery of our products and services. We will not give consent for your information to be used by third party service providers for the training and development of AI modelling software, or similar purposes.
How we store and transfer your information
We have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security, confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal data we control. Your information is stored in our cloud storage services, including Google Drive. Client records are not publicly accessible. Access is restricted to Laura Blackledge-Smith of Heart Dog Behaviour and, where necessary, authorised service providers supporting the business. Access to our storage accounts is password protected.
Your information may also be stored on our third party email marketing platform, e.g. Mailchimp/ Active Campaign, our third party payment platform, e.g. Stripe, and other authorised third party consultants who support our business. Our third-party providers have their own privacy policies which you can view on their websites.
We may store or process your data on cloud based platforms or service providers whose servers are based outside of the UK/EEA which may constitute a transfer of data under GDPR. We will only use such third party service providers where we are confident that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure that any personal data transferred outside of the UK/EEA is subject to an equivalent level of security and protection as required under UK Data Protection Legislation, such as the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. To learn more about the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, visit the U.S Department of Commerce’s website at: Home (dataprivacyframework.gov)
We also have in place appropriate procedures to handle any potential Personal Data Breaches, in accordance with Data Protection Legislation. Any such breaches will be reported to the relevant supervisory authority and notified to the affected data subjects where we are legally required to do so.
We will only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary to meet the requirements for which it was collected. This will vary depending on the nature of the requirements and the processing, but apart from in exceptional circumstances where longer retention is necessary we will only retain your personal data for 5 years. After this period of time we will delete your personal data unless there is a legitimate business reason to retain all or parts of the data we hold.
Legal basis for processing your data
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides that processing of your data shall only be lawful if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:
1. You have consented;
2. For the performance of a contract;
3. For compliance with a legal obligation which we must perform;
4. To protect the vital interests of your or another person;
5. It is in the public interest;
6. It is in the legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party.
We collect data for the purposes set out above. All personal data is managed to ensure that it is either erased from our system when it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected, retained for legal reasons or minimised and retained.
Any special category data collected from you has special protection and is limited to that permissible by law. In all instances where special category data is collected we will obtain your express consent.
Your legal rights as a data subject
You have a number of legal rights in relation to the personal data that we hold about you and you can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details at the end of this notice. These rights include:
the right to obtain information regarding the processing of your personal data and access to the personal data which we hold about you. If you wish to access your personal data please email us at the address provided in this notice;
the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data at any time. Please note, however, that we may still be entitled to process your personal data if we have another legitimate reason (other than consent) to do so;
in some circumstances, the right to receive some personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or request that we transmit those data to a third party where this is technically feasible. Please note that this right only applies to personal data that you have provided to us;
the right to request that we correct your personal data if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
the right to request that we erase your personal data in certain circumstances. Please note that there may be circumstances where you ask us to erase your personal data but we must retain it;
the right to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. Again, there may be circumstances where you ask us to restrict our processing of your personal data but we must refuse that request;
the right to lodge a complaint with the applicable data protection regulator, in the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
when we are processing on the grounds of legitimate interest, you have the right to object to the processing and we must stop unless we have an overriding reason which will be communicated to you.
Links from our website
Our Site contains links to and from other websites which are operated by individuals and companies over which we have no direct control. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy and terms of use polices. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We advise you to check the policies for third party sites before you submit any personal data to the website.
Marketing emails
We may send you marketing emails and communications when you have opted in or otherwise given consent for us to do so. We will make it as easy as we can for you to opt out of unwanted processing, providing it does not restrict our ability to provide you with the primary service you have requested.
Please note if you wish to unsubscribe from any marketing emails that you have signed up for, you can do so by emailing hello@heartdogbehaviour.co.uk or clicking onto the unsubscribe link on the marketing email that was sent to you. It may take 24 hours for this to become effective.
Cookies and website analytics
We use website analytics to provide the best user experience and service to you and to evaluate and improve our site. We utilise third party data analytics service providers to improve our visibility and to monitor website browser behaviour and navigation across our site.
These third-party data analytics service providers collect this information using cookies on our behalf in accordance with our instructions and in line with their own privacy policies. Our service providers may collect the following data about the way you use our Site, which will almost always be anonymised and aggregated before reporting back to us:
Number of visitors to our Site;
Pages visited whilst using the Site and time spent per page;
Page interaction information, such as scrolling, clicks and browsing methods;
Source location and details about where users go when they leave the Site;
Page response times and any download errors;
Technical information relating to end user devices, such as IP address or browser plug-in.
From time to time we may use the information collected about you to present you with targeted advertisements using platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Google and/or Instagram.
If you wish to limit or reject cookies associated with our website you can do this in your browser settings. Please be aware that by choosing to limit or reject cookies from our website may you may not be able to use or benefit from certain features, particularly the features designed to personalise your experience.
Making a Complaint
If you believe that we have infringed data protection legislation because of the way that we have handled your personal information (or the personal information of someone who you are acting on behalf of), you have a legal right to complain to us.
In order to submit your complaint please email your complaint to hello@heartdogbehaviour.co.uk with the subject line “FAO: Laura Blackledge-Smith - Notice of Data Complaint”.
Handling your Complaint
In accordance with relevant legislation, if you make a complaint we will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days. On receipt of your complaint we will begin investigates into the issues you raise. As part of our investigation we will need to gather information, assess the facts and any information that we hold, as well as consider any information that you have provided. We may need to speak to relevant members of staff or team members.
It may be necessary for us to obtain additional information from you so please ensure that you provide and maintain up-to-date contact information.
We will handle your complaint as efficiently as possible. There is no timeframe set in the data protection legislation by when we have to deliver a response to you, as each case will vary in its nature and complexity. However, we will update you periodically to keep you updated on the progress of the investigation.
Once we have concluded our investigation we will respond to your complaint and provide you with our response, “the outcome”.
If you are unhappy with the outcome, you can ask us to provide more information or clarification.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). There is no requirement for you to wait for our review and outcome. You are legally entitled to complain to the ICO at any point.
Changes to our policy & future processing
This Privacy Notice was last updated on 05/10/2026 and is reviewed every 6 months, or upon changes to relevant Data Protection Legislation being published, whichever is sooner.
We do not intend to process your personal information except for the reasons stated within this Privacy Notice. We reserve the right to update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Where appropriate, we shall contact you to notify you of any material changes to the Privacy Notice. You should also refer to our website periodically so that you may access and view our updated Privacy Notice. This will ensure that you understand how we are using your personal data and your legal rights around our usage of such personal data.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our data protection or privacy policies, please contact us at hello@heartdogbehaviour.co.uk and we will be happy to respond to any concerns. You can complain to us as outlined above.
Should you still have concerns about the way in which we manage your personal data then you can also complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office: Contact the ICO