They say you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, but that’s not the case for Paige Catlin-Maybury, who taught several to not only some dogs, but also their owners.

The 19-year-old World Vision youth ambassador, originally from Midhirst, Central Taranaki, spent two weekends teaching 40 new tricks to dogs and their owners.

“I was in Onehunga and I met a group of people and their dogs earlier this month. The following weekend I was at a beach in the North Shore, teaching people how to train their dogs and teach them new tricks. There were a lot of dog breeds, ranging from border collies, kelpies and shih tzus. They were all amazing.”

Training dogs was her way of taking part in the World Vision 40-Hour Challenge, a fundraising initiative in which people sign up to spend 40 hours doing something, or doing 40 things, to raise money for World Vision. Catlin-Maybury said deciding on her challenge was easy.

“Being able to integrate something I love was an awesome experience. Seeing others light up about something I’m passionate about, giving them the knowledge to train their dogs and teaching them about dog behaviour was special to me. I moved up to Auckland last year, so being able to do something I haven’t done for a while … it’s pretty cool.”