Checkers Dog Walking - Christchurch

10/04/2025

It was a gorgeous afternoon at Spencerville today. The nudists were out in force, making the most of the sun with a bit of yoga on the beach. Thankfully the only downward dogs I saw were Murphy and Bruno playing.

10/04/2025

Morning walk along the stop bank north of the Waimakariri. This was Little Ivy’s first outing with the Thursday morning crew and it was so lovely to see Big Ivy (who usually takes a while to warm to new crew members) fall in love with her immediately. Big Ivy was so curious and gentle with her tiny new BFF, it made me laugh so much I almost swallowed a bug.

I stopped by my favourite takeaway coffee place, Flick the Bean, situated just North of the old Waimak bridge, and introduced Little Ivy to the very friendly team there.

09/04/2025

Afternoon walk in the Avondale red zone with a happy pack of pooches.

09/04/2025

Morning walk at Southshore. What a beautiful
day at the beach.

08/04/2025

Afternoon walk at BLF with a predominantly black and brown group. What the walk lacked in colour, it certainly made up for in energy.

08/04/2025

Boris’ little sister Ivy came out on this morning’s walk to see what all the fuss is about. She started and finished her walk in the pup-pack, but much preferred scampering around after the other dogs, who were all very gentle with her. I think she now understands why Boris is so happy to be “abducted” by me when I “break into” her home each week.

07/04/2025

Afternoon walk at Coutts Island. I had my hands full on this walk trying to keep the energy in this group from boiling over. I’m happy to say it was almost all good, consensual, reciprocal play, and I was able to quickly put a lid (aka a leash) on things when this looked like changing.

07/04/2025

The Bellbirds and Magpies were going nuts in the forest this morning, maybe gossiping about their weekend activities or perhaps asking each other where the smoke was coming from. We took some new-ish paths through the recently trimmed pines and the dogs seemed to enjoy the rougher tracks.

03/04/2025

Betty asked me to remind you about the end-of-season Pooch Pool Party at Waltham Pool tomorrow. We’ll be there from around 1 pm onwards for the big dog session and the mixed dog session. Checkers clients, come hit me up for a coffee and/or dog icecream voucher.

It’s paw-ty time for the canine community! To celebrate the end of the summer pool season, we’re un-leashing the fun at Waltham Summer Pool!

03/04/2025

More rain this afternoon = bigger, splashier puddles = more fun.

03/04/2025

Here’s a bunch of un-edited, steamy, and blurry photos of wet dogs in a damp forest on a rainy day. You’re welcome. 😉

02/04/2025

Daisy delivered a masterclass in downhill roly polys this afternoon. Stopping for a belly rub on a slope when you are perfectly barrel-shaped is just asking gravity to take control.

02/04/2025

Morning walk with the white, blonde, and orange gang at BLF.

01/04/2025

Afternoon walk in the red zone. I started with some brown, black, and white dogs, but for a while in the middle of the walk I turned my back for a second and they were replaced by a pack of muddy grey dogs. Thankfully I found the original group swimming in the freshwater stream and dropped them off home almost (?) restored to their former cleanliness.

01/04/2025

Morning walk at The Groynes. These good boys and girls stuck with the ‘look but don’t touch’ rule when we came across a fairytale-like cluster of mushrooms.The stream is still off limits due to potentially toxic algae, but there was plenty to explore around the perimeter of the park.

31/03/2025

Afternoon walk at Spencerville with a leg through the forest and a stroll on the beach. These dogs were all rrready to rrrumble!!! and I was kept busy dampening some of their enthusiasm with some leash time for the ring leaders.

31/03/2025

Our morning walk at BLF was a nice big loop through the forest, over some dunes, past the lakes, and back through the forest. These dogs made the most of the diverse terrain.

27/03/2025

So cool to have Bruno back today after his de-sexing operation a couple of weeks ago. Louis and Bruno spent the first 15 minutes of our walk arm wrestling over who was Top Spaniel, but after alternating time on leash for both of them they settled down. Bruno then switched his ears off and spent the rest of the walk in the undergrowth or on the wrong side of fences, and was very reluctant to finish his walk when we got back to the vehicle. He is such a teenager now!