Being an RMO is busy, and it can be challenging to balance personal and professional life.
Getting a dog is a big leap in personal responsibility (especially for those of us who don’t have kids) that can be very rewarding but also make the work-life balance that little bit harder.
A quick summary for those who don’t have time to read this entire blog:
Coming home to a loving furry friend every day is really rewarding but also a big commitment of time and finances.
Think carefully about your time commitments now and for the next 10+ years before signing up to get a dog.
You can get an automatic feeder online for about $100 which is super helpful for long-days or 24 hour on-call shifts.
Dog walkers are expensive but totally worth it, especially for busy periods of your life.
Factor in the cost of putting your dog in a kennel when you go on holiday.
For me, the decision to get Moose from the SPCA back in 2020 was made without much thought as to the financial and long-term time commitments involved. Luckily, getting him as a house surgeon I had a fair bit of extra time outside of work that I could put into him, but I obviously became more time-poor depending on what run I was on and more-so when I started work as an orthopaedic registrar.
Moose is a 6-and-a-half-year-old Blue-Heeler cross with a special talent for finding and disposing of possums… His possum tally sits proudly on the front of our fridge and is up to 28 possums so far this year, a real wildlife advocate!
Being a heading dog, he needs plenty of exercise and attention but can also be very independent. Having come from the SPCA at 1 and a half years old, he wasn’t well socialised or trained and has been a bit stubborn adapting to his new life, but we have made slow progress. Moose still hasn’t learnt not to pull on the lead and doesn’t have great recall but loves getting out and about for walks with me and Kodi.
When I moved to Whangarei for the 2024 RMO year, I realised I was struggling with the time commitment of having a dog and needed to explore my options. Moose is quite a protective semi-socialised creature… He doesn’t love other dogs but will tolerate them much better and occasionally play with them if he is off leash. I decided to look into getting a dog walker and initially started with having him go for walks with a group of dogs just once a week but have since pumped up the frequency so now he goes for off-leash walks with a group of about 8 other dogs four times a week. This has been a game changer for us and is totally worth the cost. We still walk him nearly every day, but it gives us a buffer if I’m working an on-call shift and know that if I don’t get a chance to walk him that day, he’s still getting plenty of exercise. The other thing that has made life less stressful whilst doing on-calls and late shifts is buying a programmable automatic feeder so I can make sure Moose is still getting fed whilst I’m working late.
Sometimes you are busy studying for an exam, working a busy week or just flat out with a huge amount of accumulated admin and don’t have the time and energy to give to your dog; that’s when I think it’s extremely important to have some options to keep the furry friends entertained like asking friends or colleagues to come hang out with him on your long day or dropping him off at a friend’s house for the day.
For those of us living away from family support structures and don’t want to burden our friends and colleagues all the time with looking after our needy dogs whilst we go on leave, the cost of putting them in a kennel also needs to be factored into the cost of going away for personal leave, weekends, courses and exams. All the costs of having a dog do add up quickly depending on the situation you are in.
However, all that aside, it is totally worth it to always have that happy, loving dog waiting for you at home after a long and stressful day at work.
As part of International Dog Day, Kiwi Canine has a special giveaway to treat one lucky doggo! Check out our Facebook and Instagram post for more details and to enter our Dog Day Giveaway!
*Giveaway closes at 12pm next Tuesday 2nd September.
Kiwi Canine has also generously given all STONZ members a special discount code – Enter code: 5TONZ for 10% off your first order!
Thank you Kiwi Canine for sponsoring us for this year's International Dog Day!