11-year-old Sophie is our first Dog of the Month. This new feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Sophie’s human, Ben, for his support.

Dog name: Sophie aka Sophie Doge aka Soph doggie dog (sung to the tune, obviously)

Age: 11-ish

Breed: Mostly lab

If rescued, where from? 

Not “rescued” as such, but we adopted Sophie from other owners when she was about two.

If dog of the month had not been a reward in our PledgeMe campaign, give us the pitch on why Sophie would be dog of the month anyway.

Where most dogs are dogs with personalities, Sophie is a person who happens to be a dog. She prefers to walk on paved paths and hates nothing more than getting her feet wet, or, god forbid, having to step in mud. When meeting other dogs, rather than going bonkers like any dog would, her reaction is that of a dog-agnostic person: “Oh look a dog. Cool. Let’s keep walking”. They say that dogs are like their owners (or is it vice versa?): comfortable in her own skin, shy to the point of appearing snobby, and a little bit depressed. To be honest, I love dogs (especially Sophie), but I’m not one of those 1000% dog-people, so having a dog that is not like a dog is the best thing. 

Also: Sophie’s best trick is that she does the most gentle “whuff” when you tell her to “say WOOF!” It’s barely audible.

The photo Sophie would use for a social media or Tinder profile photo

The photo Sophie would ask to be taken down if you shared it on social media 

What is Sophie’s idea of happiness? 

Occasionally, when we go for a walk to the local park, Sophie will find a chicken bone or a discarded pie wrapper. The other day, someone appeared to have distributed an entire packet of sliced salami across a 20 square metre area. Sophie’s idea of happiness would be an infinite field of salami. Not solid salami, but an infinite paddock with salami slices every 5-10 metres so that there was fun in finding each morsel.

If Sophie could talk, what famous voice would it sound like?

I think she’d sound quite like Kim Hill, both in tone and vibe. Deeply serious and knowledgeable but absolutely immune from excitability or credulity.

What food would your dog want to see ranked by The Spinoff?

Mystery meats: ranked. The Hobsonville ham, park salami, the magic pie bush.

Does your dog have any friends? 

Sophie has a minder called Pretzel. Because Sophie is polite and stubborn, Pretzel will often come to her aid. If Sophie is waiting for the door to open, Pretzel will come up and meow loudly for us to open the door. When we walk to the local park, Pretzel will follow us and lurk around the edges of the park like a secret service officer making sure no one is waiting the bushes to attack.

Sophie has never been an alpha dog, and I like to think that Sophie considers Pretzel the alpha because she’s much more relaxed when Pretzel is nearby.

Also, this sneak attack is an excellent example of Sophie’s temperament.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. What’s Eating Aotearoa is a reader-funded editorial project from The Spinoff focused on food and how it shapes this country.