It’s not just gym jumkies getting in shape for summer – our beloved four-legged mates are also embracing the never-ending fitness craze. Photographer Michael Craig spent a morning at Muriwai Beach capturing the antics of some very active pooches.
It’s not just gym junkies getting in shape for summer — our beloved four-legged mates are also embracing the never-ending fitness craze. Photographer Michael Craig spent a morning at Muriwai Beach capturing the antics of some very active pooches.
They move in a pack, across hills, over dunes and through streams, these city dogs running free in the countryside. It's less doggy daycare and more doggy endurance outing when Nicole "Flash" Haytec and her staff take dogs on cross-country adventures.
Alex Boyd leads the pack over the dunes. Photo / Michael Craig
Haytec founded City Pets: Canine Adventures in 2011, when just four dogs signed up for the adventure walks. Now her four-legged clients number more than 150. Photo / Michael Craig
Haytec founded City Pets: Canine Adventures in 2011, when just four dogs signed up for the adventure walks. Now her four-legged clients number more than 150.
The dogs - sometimes in groups of up to 12 - are collected from their homes around Auckland and driven to rural locations, where they spend at least an hour and a half off-leash, Haytec said.
"I recognised there was this huge need, especially in Auckland, with city dogs never getting the chance to be dogs. Like farm dogs, they're well adjusted and happy, even though they are working hard."
Dogs on her outings - some of whom had been expelled from city-based doggy daycare centres - naturally formed a pack, and staff were trained to "understand dog" so they could manage the pack.
"The dogs are articulate, it's just non-verbal. You see how they behave. What dogs really want is to be in a harmonious pack. It's a beautiful thing to behold."
They move in a pack, across hills, over dunes and through streams, these city dogs running free in the countryside. Photo / Michael Craig
The locations are so remote it was rare to see other people, but when they did, staff were trained to keep the dogs under control. Photo / Michael Craig
The dogs are collected from their homes around Auckland and driven to rural locations. Photo / Michael Craig
What dogs really want is to be in a harmonious pack. It's a beautiful thing to behold. Photo / Michael Craig
She didn't want to say where else other than Muriwai the dogs are exercised - citing commercial sensitivity in the increasingly competitive pet care industry - but permission was secured from owners before land was crossed.
The locations are so remote it was rare to see other people, but when they did, staff were trained to keep the dogs under control, she said.
Haytec, 49, has been working with animals since she began adopting dogs from the pound as a teen. After training and socialising the dogs she would find them permanent homes.
Her latest venture was a perfect fit for an animal lover. "I think it's the best job and it's a very good concept. I think it could go through New Zealand and Australia. "I want this to work because I love what it does for the dogs."
