If you are a mature functioning adult like me (haha), how aware are you of all the bits that are involved in driving on a busy road? If you do a fair bit of driving or you drive for a job, you probably do not have to actively think about the hundreds of decisions, movements, rules that you are following and making on any given trip. BUT Do you remember when you first learned to drive a car? Were you thrown behind the wheel in rush hour traffic ? (I hope not!) Or did you get to drive somewhere safely away from everyone, or at home up and down the driveway? Did someone you know and trust teach ..read more

Human children often explore the world by putting their hands all over everything and depending on their age, sticking it in their mouths. Puppies don’t have hands so straight to the mouth it is. Human children start teething around 6 months old and are finished teething by around 12 YEARS old with their 32 teeth – and some wisdom teeth don’t appear until 17-21years of age. Puppies go through teething with ten more teeth and in a much shorter time frame. For them, teeth begin to emerge around 2-3 WEEKS old. The process is usually complete around 7 MONTHS ending with a total of 42 adult teeth ..read more

Welcome! In case you are worried about reaching out, here is a summary of the options TDYH currently offers but you know what? It never hurts to ask, sometimes I can help with random queries so send a message and let's go from there. But back to the standard TDYH services: Classes The Dog You Have classes are divided into age groups: Preschool - from 8 weeks to 16 weeks of age, puppies do not need to be considered as fully vaccinated, but must have at least one vaccination on board. There is some wiggle room so if you are not sure or have a weird question, send it my way! These are held most m ..read more

Take a big breath in your mouth and out your nose. Take a big breath in your nose....and out again. What did you smell? Likely, nothing at all unless you had a strong, new or offensive odour nearby. When you exhaled you pushed all the air out in one direction so if a new scent appeared in that moment, you wouldn't have detected it until the next time you inhaled. We have around 5 million sensors in our comparatively boring human noses. Dogs can have up to 60x that, with 300 million sensors allowing for a much more acute sense of smell. Think of a chocolate cake fresh out of the oven vs being a ..read more

Instead of writing a whole blog, here's a link to some great information on what you need to know before your female dog's comes in to season or if you want to know more about what goes on: https://dundies.com.au/blogs/news/what-you-must-know-before-your-dogs-first-heat To add, in New Zealand there is the Dog Control Act 1996 (https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1996/0013/latest/whole.html) I'm not expecting you to read the whole 'exciting' thing but there is a section relevant to females in heat and that is: 11. Female Dogs in Season 11.1. The owner of any bitch in season must not allo ..read more

In March 2022 I was stationery behind a school bus at a roundabout and got rear-ended by the driver behind me who was on their cellphone. Three months on there were still physical side effects from the whiplash. Other implications from this (totally avoidable) situation: How anxious I was driving straight afterwards. How nervous I felt when cars drove behind me. Holding my breath at roundabouts or intersections in anticipation. How incredibly annoyed I got seeing anyone on the phone while they were driving. Being in a car with someone else driving - couldn't relax. What does this have to do wi ..read more

While out walking, Marley spotted something that concerned him. To him, it was a weird thing in a weird place that didn't make sense. Being an intelligent human, I recognised it instantly as a rock in a car park. Marley however, stopped in his tracks and stared. He didn't growl, lunge, bark or try to run away, no hackles came up. He simply stopped. "Da heck?!" There are many ways I could have dealt with this. For example yanked on the leash because we were "meant to be walking," (another reason to think of walks as outings, sniffaris, adventures) yelled, dragged him along - though if I added t ..read more

The day started out like any other. The sun rose, the sky was a clear blue. Breakfast was enjoyed by all. According to the woofers of the house, it was W-A-L-K time. Bodies dressed, we piled into the car and drove to a remote location. Weekends are for exploring new areas, if only we knew what was to come... Wilson saw something in the long grass. Ears up with alarm, his muscles became tense as he vocalised his emotions. Had lowered and forward, weight on his powerful back legs, front legs stiff and close to the ground, creeping, creeping. Heart pounding, forward to attack or backwards to fle ..read more