About Mio Minn

Mio Minn is an exclusive new pet store, owned and operated by a qualified vet. Our aim is to provide discerning pet owners with high quality, well designed products that look good and improve the lives and well-being of their cats and dogs. We've sourced our stylish range from all over the world and many are exclusive to Mio Minn.

Opened in December 2007, Mio Minn has been an immediate success with Brighton and Hove's animal lovers. In June 2008 we launched our online shop to offer our product range to people all around the UK and Europe.

My Mio
My mother always thought I would grow out of it. Like so many other children, I said that I wanted to be a vet when I grew up. But to my mother's surprise, I never gave up on my dream and I did eventually go to vet school. While studying, I rescued a lovely little Papillion dog. The poor thing had changed owners four times before he was one and a half years old. As a result he had several stress related behavioural problems, but aside from that he was the sweetest little dog who charmed everyone he met. I named him Mio, after my favourite children's book "Mio min Mio".

Through Mio, I got really interested in dog behaviour and training and especially training with positive reinforcement. I found that if I used any aversive training methods, it only made Mio more nervous and stressed. However, using positive reinforcement and clicker training, his confidence increased and he became very enthusiastic about learning new things.

Unfortunately Mio died just before I finished vet school. It all happened very suddenly and the vets never found out what was wrong with him. Although he didn't live to an old age, he managed to teach me so much about canine behaviour and I am just very grateful for the short time I had with him.

How it started
In 2007 my partner, Asberg Jonsson and I had the idea of opening a pet store. We had always had trouble finding pet products that were both practical and stylish enough for the modern home. In fact, Asberg would frequently hide away the scratching post and the cat bed when guests were coming to our house. So, we opened the UK's most innovative pet store, offering the latest designs in pet products from all over the world. We named the store MIO MINN (Icelandic for "my Mio") in the memory of my dog Mio.

Our aim for the store is not only to have the most fabulous pet products but also to encourage responsible pet ownership and spread the word about positive reinforcement in animal training.

With regards,
Freyja Kristinsdottir