World Vision youth ambassador teaches dogs new tricks for 40-Hour Challenge

World Vision youth ambassador Paige Catlin-Maybiry, 19, visited Timor Leste last year.

They say you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, but that’s not the case for Paige Catlin-Maybury, who taught several to not only some dogs, but also their owners.

The 19-year-old World Vision youth ambassador, originally from Midhirst, Central Taranaki, spent two weekends teaching 40 new tricks to dogs and their owners.

“I was in Onehunga and I met a group of people and their dogs earlier this month. The following weekend I was at a beach in the North Shore, teaching people how to train their dogs and teach them new tricks. There were a lot of dog breeds, ranging from border collies, kelpies and shih tzus. They were all amazing.”

Training dogs was her way of taking part in the World Vision 40-Hour Challenge, a fundraising initiative in which people sign up to spend 40 hours doing something, or doing 40 things, to raise money for World Vision. Catlin-Maybury said deciding on her challenge was easy.

“Being able to integrate something I love was an awesome experience. Seeing others light up about something I’m passionate about, giving them the knowledge to train their dogs and teaching them about dog behaviour was special to me. I moved up to Auckland last year, so being able to do something I haven’t done for a while ... it’s pretty cool.”

She said she started training dogs when she was 9.

“My mum and I love dog training, getting the dogs ready for agility competitions. I started when I was about 9, teaching my mum’s dogs, and then I got my border collie Tyme.”

The Junior Dog New Zealand training member is so good at training dogs that she has won awards for it, winning the national dog agility competition for her age group with Tyme a few years ago.

“That was pretty amazing.”

This year’s 40-Hour Challenge theme was climate change, and Catlin-Maybury said she had seen first-hand why something needed to be done.

Paige Catlin-Maybury, 19, and her dog Tyme. Photo / Brya Ingram

“I went to Timor Leste last year and saw what climate change is doing to our Earth. It was very eye-opening, so being in a space where I can help, that’s important to me.”

Catlin-Maybury said she was passionate about inspiring others to make positive changes, with her role as World Vision youth ambassador giving her the ability to do so.

“I speak to a lot of schools in the upper North Island. This year, I spoke to them about the 40-Hour Challenge and climate change. In this role, I bring in the youth aspect - it’s a lot easier for kids to talk to someone closer to their age and I’ve been in their shoes quite recently.”

She said climate change could be overwhelming.

“It’s hard. So my job is to talk about what’s happening and what we can do to help. One of the things we can do to regreen is take part in the 40-Hour Challenge and raise money. There’s so much that can be done with money, so every bit helps.”

She said it was important to support youth and help regreen the Earth.

“Let’s all work together to positively change our Earth.”