We treat our Pooch Pack dogs with the highest level of care, they become a part of our family. Our mission is for them to have a great day with exercise, stimulation, fun and learning.
The whole idea is for your dog to have an adventure. A walk for a dog is very special and it's their wild nature to roam and explore. Our trips satisfy these needs and include the following benefits:
learning to walk off-lead in a pack
exercise
socialisation
free time to play
mental stimulation
exploration
close human attention.
Our Doggy Day Trips could take 3 to 6 hours. This includes getting picked up from your home (Hamilton, NZ), a road trip to our destination, a minimum of 2 hours exercise and then drop off, including a quick towel down.
There'll be heaps of off-lead exploring and time to play. Pooches come home feeling relaxed and content, and look forward to a quiet night in when their humans get home.
The trip destination and time frame will vary depending on the day; most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays we take large groups to our very own patch of Maramarua Pine Forest. When groups are smaller, such as our Monday's and Friday's, we'll go to local dog parks.
After every trip, we post a summary of the day on Facebook, including a bunch of photos so you can enjoy seeing the fun too!
If you're keen to join the Pooch Pack whanau, get in touch and we'll send you an enrollment form. There will usually be a wait as it takes time for spaces to come up and for new dogs to settle in. Once we have a spot for you, we will come visit you and your pooch as a meet and greet; here we can answer any further queries, get to know your pooch's personality, trial them out interacting with dogs in the van and warm them up to the idea of leaving with a stranger that smells like 15 different dogs! We also need to know how to get onto your property if you aren't home.
Pack walking takes them back to their roots, reminds them "how to dog" and builds confidence. It's all about moving as a team; exploring, sniffing, covering lots of ground and playing!!
We run 2 packs a day, they range from 6 dogs to 15. We take our large groups to our private section of forest and sometimes catch up to the other, which leads to a big ole play date! Our ratio's are limited to maintain a safe level of observation and we aim for every dog to get the attention they deserve. We find having one designated pack leader helps us build relationships with the dogs and leads to a very responsive and well behaved pack.
We cater to the needs of the whole pack. If your dog needs to 'take it easy' we are mindful of that and look after them. If they are new to socialising, we will do our best to guide them.
Dogs need to be booked in for a weekly basis
Developing a regular pack means dogs can move on from the “ice breaker” period and really enjoy the trip and make friends.
Pooch Safety
There will always be risks in running dogs off lead, having a group of dogs together in a high energy environment and even driving to our destination. Please let us know if you have any concerns.
For the dog's safety and your peace of mind, we don't let a new dog off the lead until we feel they will respond to their name (they are usually off-lead within their first day) and we have GPS collars on hand for new dogs. We pay high attention for possible environmental hazards and watch dog behaviour closely.
Getting dirty is part of the fun! If they get really dirty or wet, we give them a quick rub-down at home time - but chances are they may still need a bath!
We're based in Hamilton, NZ and pick up dogs within the city.
Our favourite and most common spot is Maramarua Forest, where we have our own 70ha of pines to play in, including a small lake to dive into!
On other days, we use all of the great dog parks Hamilton has to offer;
Days park is the ultimate playground for dogs, so many sniffs to sniff, public friends to play with, beach's to run on and fresh water to cool down in.
Resthills and Minogue are our favourite parks, there's a high chance your pooch could come home covered in mud when its wet!
Then there's smaller spots to visit, such as Tauhara park which has an awesome gully next to it, and Acacia Reserve is a really nice spot for a swim!
If you're looking for specific training, you may be barking up the wrong tree..
Pooch Pack dogs will generally learn off-lead recall and how to practice socialising with their new friends. If we feel your dog needs more focused training, we can provide pointers and/or refer you to someone who can help. This may be instead of or in addition to joining Pooch Pack, sometimes a combined approach works well as we provide an avenue to let them really blow of some steam!
Training isn't our purpose. There are specialised people in Hamilton that help with specific behavioural problems, working closely with you and your dog to overcome the issues you're facing. Whatever your issues may be, please contact us as we are more than happy to hear from you and help point you in the right direction.
Keen to sign up? Have more questions?
Check out our pricing below or contact us to register your pooch!
We'll happily take any queries, whether you think this will be perfect for your pooch, or you still aren't sure which option is the best idea, just get in touch and we can have a yarn about it!
