FAMILY MATTERS by Jude Dobson | Auckland Lifestyle News | Health, Fashion, Food and Wine in Auckland

My woofer's new colours have just arrived in the post for another year. I see she'll be parading a soft green for the next 12 months.

After you've broken your fingernails getting the new disc onto the dog's collar there's some very useful information in the envelope.

Firstly, a voucher for $10 off dog food. Very useful, thank you, Auckland City Council, as well as a booklet of interesting info.

I was astounded to realise just how many dogs there are in Auckland City. What would you guess? 2000, 10,000, 20,000? Well, actually, there are 22,000 of them... the registered ones anyway. When the booklet comes next year from the "super-city", I'll have to take note of just how many there are in the wider Auckland area. Seems like a lot of dogs to me for a small city.

There's other useless, but interesting, information on Aucklanders' doggie habits such as our favourite names for the past year: Max, Bella, Molly, Jess and Jack.

I know humans with all those names. Mind you, I had to laugh the other day when I thought someone took the human name too far with their pooch. I was at the off-leash dog exercise area when I saw a rather aloof, recently washed and blow-dried standard poodle trotting along in his own wee world, with selective hearing "on", refusing to come when called. Still, his owners did call him Graeme so I don't blame him for ignoring the call to heel. Surely, he needed a fluffy, poncy name like Alfonso or Chirac.

The top five breeds we like to own in the city are... labrador, labrador-cross, Staffordshire bull terrier-cross, Jack Russell terrier and golden retriever. The most registered dogs live in Remuera with 1994 of them keeping their humans company.

The second most popular spot is Waiheke Island with 1104 dogs and Mt Wellington third with 955.

Apart from the trivia, there's some good reading on how to minimise barking and how much exercise our four-legged friends need. I am most happy to pay my registration fees as long as the council keeps providing designated dog exercise areas where they can spin around running, weeing, bum-sniffing and generally socialising with other dogs and other people in a wide open space.

A quick look at the council's website tells me there are actually many more areas than I thought there were. Some of the parks have a few restrictions about where and when, but looking through that list you don't need to go too far to give your dog a decent run.

The other thing I came across was a behavioural study that grouped dogs into seven different types in regard to temperaments, rating their reactivity, aggression and trainability.

It did not surprise me that German shepherds, dobermanns and rottweilers could be highly aggressive, but, equally, were highly trainable. They also have low reactivity, meaning they are less likely to become over-excited, snappy, bark excessively or demand affection. The perfect police dog.

Handbag fur children such as chihuahuas and terriers are deemed more likely to be snappy, dominant and difficult to train. Small dog syndrome? Our dog's group was average on watchdog and dominance stakes, and was likely to bark, be excitable and possibly hard to train. All pretty accurate.

Of course the family lab was true to form, being noted as a laidback, easy to train dog that was not too interested in barking much or doing the guard dog thing. No wonder so many Aucklanders love having them in their families.

Whatever sort of woofer you have, do remember to register them by July 31. That way, you can find each other if they wander. And go and enjoy those off-leash areas you help pay for!