Our writers
Real Australian pet owners, vet nurses, trainers and analysts sharing what worked, what didn't, and what they'd buy again.
Mick O'Donnell
Mick is a station hand in regional NSW with fifteen years behind a working Blue Heeler. He writes about gear that holds up on the land, at the beach and on the long drive into town — and has strong views on anything with a zip.
Sophie Bennett
Sophie rents a small apartment in Perth and shares it with Miso, a rescue kitten, and Wally, a young Cavoodle with opinions. She writes from the renter's side of pet gear: what fits through a narrow doorway, what survives a balcony summer, and what was a waste of a fortnight's groceries.
Jess Allen
Jess founded a pet gear store in regional NSW and has handled, stress-tested and returned more harnesses, leads and beds than she cares to admit. Her reviews compare tiers honestly: what the extra money buys, and where the budget option is genuinely enough.
Daniel Whitlock
Daniel is a certified dog trainer (Delta Society) based in Melbourne, sharing life with a kelpie-cross named Banjo. His posts turn training theory into week-by-week plans that a first-time owner can actually follow.
Nadia Brooks
Nadia is a certified dog behaviour consultant (IAABC-CDBC) based in Adelaide, living with an anxious rescue greyhound called Juniper. She writes about anxiety-first gear choices and why the tool matters less than the plan around it.
Ella Tran
Ella is a certified feline behaviour consultant (IAABC) based in Brisbane, sharing life with a ginger tabby named Mochi. She writes the cat-side training guides: luring a cautious cat onto a perch, clicker basics, and why force never works.
Maddie Sorensen
Maddie grooms dogs across Perth (Cert III Animal Studies) and fits pet clothing on the road as a mobile fitter. She knows which harness rubs behind the armpit, which coat survives a 40-degree day, and where locals actually buy this stuff.
Tessa Ngata
Tessa is a Certificate IV qualified veterinary nurse and animal rehabilitation assistant in Hobart, Tasmania. She writes about senior cats, joint-friendly setups and the safety checklist most owners never get told.
Hannah Wright
Hannah has worked as a veterinary nurse in small-animal practice in Adelaide, spending most shifts on anxiety consults, senior-pet checks and the paperwork nobody warns you about. She writes the clinical-angle columns on this blog and is strict about one rule: explain, never diagnose.
David Thompson
David — Davo to everyone — shares Brisbane with Duke, a rescue Staffy who engineered his owner's conversion from cheap collars to properly fitted harnesses. He writes the rescue-dog side of gear choosing: strong pullers, escape artists and second-chance dogs.
Marcus Hale
Marcus turns Australian pet-industry sales data, owner surveys and search trends into plain-English answers for gear buyers. He lives in Canberra with two deeply unbothered cats and a spreadsheet habit.
Rebecca Halloran
Rebecca teaches pet first aid short courses on the Gold Coast, after a decade of seeing what heat, hooks, stings and bad travel setups do to dogs and cats on the way to the vet. Her guides cover the safety side of gear: restraint that doesn't restrict breathing, car cabins in a Queensland summer…
Fiona Ellery
Fiona has fostered more than forty dogs and cats for Ballarat rescue groups since 2016 — the shutdown ones, the chewers, the staffy with the bad hip and the kitten raised in a laundry. Every guide she writes starts with the same question: what does this animal need in its first fortnight? She…
Tom Riley
Tom and Scout, his Border Collie, cover about twenty thousand kilometres a year across the Top End — camping, four-wheel-driving and testing exactly how long a dog will tolerate the back seat before the complaints start. He reviews travel gear the only honest way: on corrugated roads, in…
Nina Caruso
Nina runs customer service for a pet gear store and has answered thousands of sizing, fitting and returns questions from real buyers. Her guides start where the reviews stop: the questions people actually email in, the sizing charts that mislead, and the returns that were nobody's fault. If a…
Ellie Nguyen
Ellie shares a one-bedroom Melbourne rental with two cats and a landlord who does not do drill holes. She writes the renter's side of cat gear: window perches that hold without screws, playpens that suit a living room you cannot modify, and the no-damage setups that survive both a fussy cat and a…
Ruth Alderton
Ruth managed a boarding cattery in Sydney for eleven years, with upwards of thirty cats in residence at peak season. She knows which beds survive industrial washing, which toys hold up to strange cats, and how a new cat reads a strange room. Her guides are written for multi-cat households, where…
Sofia Marchetti
Sofia is an interior stylist who got tired of choosing between a beautiful lounge room and a happy dog, and made it her job to stop choosing. She styles pet zones that earn their place in a room: where the bed goes so it reads as furniture, which bed colours survive red clay and white couches, and…