Portraits and reported stories of the people whose lives revolve around dogs — the vets on the night shift, the rescuers who can't stop, and the owners for whom a dog is everything.
The Last Vet on Call
Emergency veterinary medicine runs on love — the client's for their animal, and the vet's for their calling. What happens inside an emergency practice after midnight is a story about the cost of both.
The People Who Won't Stop
Every week, someone in a rescue network says yes one more time — to another dog, another litter, another case no one else will take. The science of what drives them, and what it costs.
A Dog at the End of the Leash
For people experiencing homelessness, a dog is family, security, and the last loyal thing. It is also, too often, the reason a shelter turns them away.
AucklandWhy Wellington Gets Dogs Right
Wellington has 66 off-leash areas, the lowest dog attack rate of any major New Zealand city, and a community so invested in how dogs live here that 3,139 people submitted on a single bylaw. It is the most dog-friendly city in New Zealand. Here is what it did differently.
AucklandThe Hunters, the Hounds, and the Deep Bush
Feral pigs have been in New Zealand since 1769 — before British settlement, before any colony. The 25,000 New Zealanders who hunt them with dogs are carrying on a tradition older than the country itself. And increasingly, they argue they are doing the land a favour.
AucklandDogs on New Zealand Beaches: The Complete 2026 Guide to Rules, Wildlife Zones and Kororā Safety
Thirty-six kororā penguin attacks in the Auckland region alone in the 16 months to March 2026. Seven birds dead at Piha in one month. And most dog owners had no idea. Here is the honest, practical guide to taking your dog to a New Zealand beach — and keeping the wildlife alive while you do it.
AucklandThe park at the end of the lead: how New Zealand's off-leash areas became something more
On paper, an off-leash dog park is just a fenced paddock with a gate. In practice, in cities across New Zealand, they have become some of the most reliably democratic public spaces in an increasingly atomised urban life.
AucklandWho pays when the dog gets sick: the cost of love in New Zealand's unregulated vet market
New Zealand has no fee schedule for veterinary services, a growing specialist sector whose prices rival human private healthcare, and a pet insurance market that is expanding fast but still leaves most owners exposed. The bill, when it comes, is always a surprise.
AucklandNew Zealand's urban dog policy: Auckland, Wellington, and the politics of off-leash parks
Three major NZ cities updated their dog bylaws between 2024 and 2025. What changed, what they got right, and why the national bite-rate data tells a more complex story than the headlines.
AucklandDogs in dense cities: how Auckland and Wellington are adapting to the apartment era
Auckland's NPS-UD intensification programme is pushing dog ownership into smaller dwellings. Wellington already lives densely. What does urban-density dog ownership look like in New Zealand's two biggest cities — and what does the data say about whether it's working?