Dog gone ... Carl Bryan and Ruby take a spin. Photo / Peter McIntosh
Who wants to go for walkies, when you can be a bikie?
Jack russell terrier Ruby loves nothing more than donning her leathers and going for a spin.
The love of the 10-year-old tearaway's life is a gleaming blue Kawasaki 1100.
Owner Carl Bryan, of Dunedin, decks her out in her own biker jacket, Harley-Davidson bandanna and leather flying helmet and goggles.
"We had the helmet specially made for her. It even has wee flaps for her ears," Mr Bryan said.
"She used to sit on the tank, but we got a bag for her, so she can have a lie down if she wants. People just love her; especially the kids. Whenever we stop at traffic lights, people start pulling their phones out to take photos."
Mr Bryan is a long-haul truck driver with Arnott's Inter Island Carriers, regularly transporting furniture the length of the South Island.
"She's on the truck with me every day. She was brought up on the truck and the bike since she was six-and-a-half weeks old," he said.
"She is known from Auckland to Invercargill. Arnott's have even supplied her with work uniforms and her own high-visibility T-shirt."
Mr Bryan's wife, Amanda, said Ruby would never go for a walk when she could go for a ride.
"She's been all over the South Island on the bike. She's done many, many trips from Christchurch to Dunedin on the tank," Mrs Bryan said.
"The distance doesn't faze her, even now at the age of 10. She likes the bike much more than I do. She's travelled that way all her life and she loves speed."
Ruby was very much a petrol-head breed of dog, Mrs Bryan said.
"We had a tandem mountain bike with a trailer for a while and we'd pull her along in the trailer, but she didn't like that very much.
"She loves the motorbike and she loves going fast."
Hawke's Bay hosts Christmas lunches for those seeking company and support.