It’s 9am in Northampton and the sky is determinedly grey. Shops are opening their shutters in a nondescript business park about 10 minutes’ drive from the rail station. A large hangar-like space is visible from the street, painted in that dank green-grey paint you never actually see on sale. Tucked just inside the cold exterior sits a puppy daycare centre, with pastel pink decor, doggedly at odds with its surroundings. We peer down the adjacent, featureless corridor that leads to the building’s communal bathroom, and pull open the heavy metal door, a term more than appropriate for what’s inside.