Colourful Canines New Zealand

12/01/2025

⭐️ Welcome to our page! We are Mel & Leighton - the founders & co-owners of Colourful Canines in Cambridge NZ 🐾 We dedicate every day to enriching the lives of all the dogs in our care, including our own - Sammy the Border Collie, Elsie the Greyhound & newly adopted Louie the Labradoodle! We also have a very clever farm cat named Kitsu & twin babies Tommy & Theo 🥰 Let us know how we can help your pooch! ⭐️

11/12/2024

We did an interview with Jo from Waikato Times about our wonderful Elsie & hope it encourages a few families to consider adopting a greyhound ! ⭐️

If you’re not exactly a greyhound yourself, you might consider adopting one as your next pet.

10/12/2024

Leighton & I absolutely love our Greyhound Elsie, and we would encourage you all to research the breed, maybe one could be right for your family?

In all honesty, it’s unlikely that all 2900 greyhounds will be up to adoption standard, and some will have to be pts… but many will be much like our Elsie - a sweet-natured, easy going, trainable, cat-friendly, baby-friendly, sociable, pack walk loving couch potato 🥔

We’d recommend greyhounds as a breed; to active, relaxed, busy, chill, multi-pet, petless, young children, no children, elderly, young, renting, home owning, rural, urban & even cat homes - it’s all about finding the RIGHT greyhound for you! Our Elsie had all the right qualities for our lifestyle & by all means not all greyhounds are the same, but the right one could be out there for you 🏡 Of all the breeds we’ve worked with, greyhounds are the most easy going & need minimal time & energy (compared with common breeds such as labs, retrievers, collies, pointers, bullies, spaniels, terriers, doodles). We aren’t saying greyhounds are all easy, but generally speaking they’re the easiest we’ve met !

Common issues people CAN come across with greyhounds are:
•Corns
•Dental issues
•Sleep aggression
•Lack of world socialisation (fearful)
•Prey driven (towards small fluffy creatures)

Quirks WE have experienced:
•The need for pet insurance (Elsie grazes easily as greyhounds have thin delicate skin)
•Yelps over tiny things like standing on a pebble… greyhounds are known to be big woosies 😂
•A dental diet - we feed frozen raw meat & bones as this keeps the very back back teeth in their long jaws clean and free of soft food build up which can cause tartar and calculus build up.
•A high calorie diet - greyhounds have a high metabolism so they need to eat well
•Fussiness - Elsie has always been a fussy girl, and while usually we wouldn’t play into this attitude in her case she needs the calories, so we feed frozen raw as it keeps her well fed, teeth clean & not looking too lean.
•Dry skin: we occasionally feed coconut oil in her food to help her dry dandruffy skin
•Very friendly with people & friendly to neutral with dogs
•Could care less about the cats we have had
•Very trainable; knows all her basic obedience & impulse control commands
•Indifferent towards our baby boys
•Loves her pack walks but sleeps the rest of the day
•Loves chasing rabbits but leaves them when we ask (training)

Check out Greyhounds As Pets NZ (GAPNZ) for info on adoptable greyhounds in your area 🩵

| Greyhound racing to be banned in New Zealand.

📸 Brett Phibbs

03/12/2024

🌈 Ivy 🐾 Crossed the rainbow bridge last week after a long battle with her health. She was the spunkiest little Frenchie & we miss her terribly, as do her family & big Labrador brother Leo 💔 We hope she’s running through cloud fields with doggy friends now ☁️ 🌈 Rest peacefully Ivy ✨

20/11/2024

📌 🎄 Closed on Christmas 🎄: No Pack Walks Monday 23rd - Friday 27th December 🐕 Pack walks resume normally from Monday December 30th 🐄 Normal schedule over New Years !! ⭐️