One creative Kiwi whānau has made sure their dog's groomer is sussed on how to communicate with their pooch, who only understands te reo Māori.
Maimoa Creative, a family-run design studio based in Tauranga, shared a print-out they created to make sure their groomer could speak to Toka the pup in his language - and people are loving it.
"The first time we took Toka to a groomer I totally forgot to tell them that he only responds to Māori commands," the Instagram caption reads.
"When I picked him up they mentioned he wasn't very good at listening 😅 Here they are thinking my kurī is deaf or stupid, and poor Toka just couldn't understand what they were saying 🤭 So now I have this print-out that I can leave with them to use the basic commands they may need."
Some of the commands on the illustrated list include 'e noho' (sit), 'homai' (give it to me) and 'taihoa' (wait), but one eagle-eyed commenter spotted the cutest one of all.
"OMG YOU TAUGHT HIM HONGI???? ADORABLE" they wrote on the post.
"Yeah, have to be prepared for a wet hongi from a kurī though!" Maimoa Creative replied.
"Oh my god as someone that works at a doggy daycare I would love this, it's so often that we get dogs in that dont understand English and we can't communicate with them at all," another comment read.
"Not me learning these words for myself haha," said a third.
Maimoa Creative have made the commands available as a digital download on their website, so anyone can teach their pet (or themselves) a bit of Te Reo - awesome!
