Dog Almighty - Sue Walsh

22/06/2026

I am hiring dog walkers! One, or two, depending on availability. This role starts and finishes in Motueka so you should live within an easy drive. Please apply using the Google form (link in post below).

Sue 🐶❤️

19/06/2026

❤️🐶😇

god is a dog
not metaphorically
not in some poetic
kind of way
I mean literally
panting
drooling
wiggling
grace with paws

god doesn’t sit up
in some cosmic control tower
judging your calories
and catastrophes

nope

god is under the table
hoping you’ll drop
a potato chip

and when you do
she doesn’t say
“too bad that’s trans fat”

she says

“holy wow thank you
that was delicious
I love you
I love you
I LOVE YOU”

you stumble
in the door
after screwing up everything

again

and god bolts toward you
like you’re the best thing
that ever happened to Tuesday

she doesn’t care
that you yelled in traffic
or forgot to return the call

or ate the entire pint
of Ben & Jerry’s
with a spoon
that still had peanut butter on it

she just wants
to sit in your lap
and sniff your face

and listen
I don’t know about your theology

but mine’s built on
salty snacks
dark chocolate
and the unshakable truth
that mercy wears a collar
and chews socks

when you’re crying
in bed at 3 a.m.
when you feel like
a burnt piece of toast
that no one wanted anyway
god jumps up beside you
licks your tears
and falls asleep with her nose
in your armpit
not because you smell good
'cuz chances are you don’t

but because
that’s where you are
and god always
wants to be where you are

she’s not interested
in your five-year plan

she’s not keeping score
she doesn’t care if you meditate
or hydrate or
know the number
for your senator
she just wants to be with you

god is a dog

and love
real love
has fur on the furniture
and forgiveness in the eyes

that’s all the theology I need

************

Poem © Angi Sullins my book "The Fragile and the Fierce” SHIPPING FREE HERE: https://angisullins.com/shop-3-2/

Times are dicey out there, friends, and free speech has gotten quite expensive. Please stay in touch with me by joining my mailing list here https://angisullins.com/get-your-muse-letter-2/.

15/06/2026

The first clip is Holly on Day 1 of bootcamp learning a down using a food lure. Fast forward a few weeks and she's responding to verbal cues, holding a down stay and confidently going to her bed when asked.

Your dog doesn’t need to win competitions to be a good dog. For most pet dogs, a small number of well-trained behaviours can make a huge difference to everyday life.

One of the things we're working on here is stimulus control—helping Holly understand exactly what each cue means so she can respond quickly and confidently when asked. At this level of training I am still rewarding every correct response. The magic happens when you build understanding, consistency and reliability.

And contrary to popular belief, that doesn't require hours of training every day. Just a few minutes here and there, practised thoughtfully and built up over time.

Well done Holly. 🐾

12/06/2026

Brave Bruno 💪✌️

This is a training walk with a fearful doggie - he is the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet. But he looses his confidence in certain situations in public and gets super scared. His fear is real 😱🙀

Bruno’s behaviour is interesting in that he doesn’t have one trigger for his fear, it is usually caused by a “trigger stack” which means there are multiple scary things around at the same time. Like traffic AND people AND weird noises.

We can build a dogs confidence with regular supportive outings where they are protected from becoming overwhelmed and feel safe.

10/06/2026

Life tags – you’re it for life! We’re making dog registration a little more ‘pawsitive’ with the introduction of life tags – durable stainless steel registration tags designed to last for your dog’s lifetime.

Instead of receiving a new plastic tag each year, your dog will keep the same tag and unique number for life. It’s a simple change that means less hassle for owners, less waste heading to landfill, and a better way to help reunite lost pups with their humans.

While the tag is changing, annual dog registration is still required by law. Registration fees, microchipping requirements, and dog control rules all remain the same. Dogs must also continue to wear their registration tag at all times – no ifs, or mutts about it.

Think of a life tag like a car number plate – the plate stays the same, but registration still needs to be renewed each year.

The new tags are laser-engraved to help them stay readable for years to come. They also mean we can stop producing and posting thousands of plastic tags every year, which is something to bark about.

Meanwhile, although dog registration fees haven’t changed since last year, there has been an alteration to dog categories. Category 1 is dogs on properties smaller than one hectare, while category 2 is dogs on properties larger than a hectare, and the third is working or farm dogs.

Our life tags are a ‘furtastic’ step forward in modernising dog identification.

Don’t ‘furget’ to register your dog before 31 July to avoid penalty fees. Visit tasman.govt.nz/dog-registration.

10/06/2026

We are back at the front door 👀 🐶

Training one dog to stay calm when visitors arrive is challenging enough. Training three dogs in the same household? Difficulty level: HARD.

In this session, Holly, Penny and Bruno practised staying in position while I answered the door, chatted to a “visitor” and even rang the doorbell.

Did Bruno have a few woofs about the doorbell? Absolutely. 😂 But despite the distractions, all three dogs stayed put.

The best part? These dogs were complete novices just a few weeks before. No magic tricks, no shortcuts - just consistent training, repetition and building the difficulty one step at a time.

I'm pretty proud of this crew. ❤️

08/06/2026

Dogs teach us a lot.

This might be one of the most important lessons. ❤️🐾

05/06/2026

One of the things Lynn and Minnie have been working on is heel work.

We start by practising in easy environments before gradually taking those same skills out into the real world. In this case, the beach in Māpua.

When another dog appeared, Minnie got a little excited and let out a bark. That's pretty normal for a pup. The important part is that she was able to recover and reconnect with Lynn afterwards.

Training isn't about perfection. It's about building better habits, one walk at a time.

Well done, Lynn and Minnie 🐾

03/06/2026

Remember Holly's last video where she was learning to stay on her bed?

Here's what happened next…

Once Holly understood the exercise with pretend visitors, it was time to make it more realistic. In this session, I added actual “visitors" at the front door and practised staying calm while people arrived.

The visitors may have been recruited for the occasion (and there was definitely some laughing involved 😂), but Holly's response was spot on. She stayed relaxed on her bed and didn't budge.
This is one of the biggest differences between teaching a behaviour and training for real life. First we teach the skill. Then we practise it in the situations where it actually matters.

I'm really proud of the progress Holly made in bootcamp. 🐾