Terms of use
The short version: use the site, read the source we quote, follow the signs on the ground, and tell us when something has changed.
What this site is
Hiking Dogs is a guide to where you can take your dog in New Zealand, built from rules that have already been published by the people who own them. Access verdicts sit on one of two lanes and every walk page says which. On the first, the verdict is quoted from the authority that wrote it, DOC, Herenga ā Nuku or the local council, with a link to the source so you can read it yourself. On the second there is no such wording for the track by name, so we publish what licensed public walk data supports, read the conservative way, and name the authority that governs the spot. The counted split is on how we check. We are not a permitting authority and we do not make the rules. We find them, quote them, and show our working on how we check.
Signs on the ground are the final word. If a sign at the gate says something different to what you read here, follow the sign, then tell us so we can fix the page.
What we cannot promise
Rules change. Councils amend bylaws, DOC gazettes new areas, summer beach windows shift, and tracks close for lambing, storm damage or disease control. We re-check whenever someone tells us something has moved, and we work hard to keep every verdict current, but we cannot promise a page is right on the day you read it.
Your dog stays your responsibility. Under the Dog Control Act 1996 and your council's bylaws that responsibility sits with you, and it cannot be handed to a website. Before you go, check the signs, the season and any closures for the place you are heading. If something is unclear on the ground, take the cautious option.
Accounts
You need to be 16 or over to create an account, and we ask for one account per person. All we need from you is an email address. What we store and why is set out on our privacy page.
Your photos, reports and reviews
What you post stays yours. You keep ownership of your photos and your words. By posting them you give us permission to show them on the site and in the record artifacts we build from them, such as the Photo Record, alongside your first name and your dog's name.
Every photo is checked by a person before it appears. Post only photos you took yourself, and never a photo of someone else's child. If you want something removed, ask us and we will take it down, no reason needed.
Reports and how they land
A report never changes a verdict on its own, and that is deliberate. When you tell us a rule looks wrong, it triggers a fresh check against the authority that owns the rule, and the wording we find there decides what the page says. Sometimes that means we confirm what you saw and the page changes the same day. Sometimes it means we come back and tell you the rule really does read that way.
When a report leads to a change, we credit you on the updates page by first name and your dog's name. Say the word and we will leave you out of it.
Reusing what we publish
Personal, non-commercial reuse is welcome. Take a verdict for your tramping club newsletter or your walking group, with attribution to Hiking Dogs and a link back to the page you took it from.
Two things we hold firmly. A verdict must be reproduced with its source and never altered: the quote and the link travel together, because a rule stripped of where it came from is only a rumour. And nothing that misrepresents what a rule actually says.
Please do not scrape the site at scale, republish the database, or rebuild the map as your own.
Councils, vets and rescue groups are a different case. If you want an embed or a feed for your own site, get in touch. We would much rather help you show the current rule than watch a stale copy of it go around.
The service itself
The site is provided as it is, with no warranty. We build it in our own time and it costs you nothing to use. Features will change as the site grows, and some of what we try will not work out and will be retired. If we ever wind the site down we will say so on the updates page first, with enough notice for you to take your walk log and your photos with you.
Getting hold of us
Questions about any of this, anything on a page that needs fixing, or a takedown request: send it through the report form. It reaches us, and we read every one.