Every year at Blind Foundation Guide Dogs HQ in Manurewa, dogs woof their way through a staggering 25,000kg of premium dog food – the equivalent of 11,000 human meals.
And when you add it up over 10 years, it gets even more stratospheric – a whopping 250,000 kg of the stuff chomped by pups and their mums and dads.
The food – Hill's "Science Diet" which is precisely balanced with growing puppies in mind – is donated every year to the foundation by Hill's Pet Nutrition in a partnership that began in 2008.
"You can't really put into words how important their (Hill's) contribution is," says Wendy Mellberg Haecker, the foundation's guide dog operations manager.
"They have such a great range of products and can to cater all the dogs we have here."
Sophie Kennedy, Hill's New Zealand marketing manager, says the partnership has been an amazing shared journey.
"Although we can only take credit for providing the great nutrition, it is a nice feeling knowing that Hill's is involved in a programme that can ultimately help make a huge difference to Kiwis who are blind or have severe sight loss," she says.
"The majority of the food we supply is our Hill's "Science Diet" large breed puppy food which is specially formulated to help these guide dog puppies in training perform at their best."
Hundreds of guide dogs are currently working in New Zealand. Up to 100 guide dog puppies are bred every year – all at the Manurewa centre - with around 40 being placed with people who are blind or low vision each year.
The guide dogs start their working lives at the age of two and are retired at 11.
Mellberg Haecker says the in-house breeding programme allows the foundation to ensure the puppies have parents with good guide dog traits - and the temperament for what can be a demanding job.
Labradors are the traditional first choice for guide dogs while Golden Retrievers are also popular and can be cross bred with Labradors.
Poodles and German Shepherds are also used in smaller numbers. Poodles, being highly intelligent and non-allergenic, are suitable for people who can't tolerate dog hair. German Shepherds have a strong work drive and are a good option for more active people.
Guide dogs need to be able to deal with the daily lives of the blind person they are teamed with, have a high work motivation, the ability to cope with unexpected situations and a range of different environments.
These traits start to appear quite early, and once they are weaned the puppies are closely watched for suitability, placed with volunteer puppy raisers and begin training.
Mellberg Haecker says between 50 and 60 per cent of the puppies go on to be guide dogs – the rest are either "re-homed", become mobility dogs for the disabled, pets for children who are blind or stay with their puppy raisers.
When the young guide dogs are teamed with a blind person at two, the pair undergo a two-to-three week programme with a trainer who then slowly backs away as they gain confidence and learn to negotiate the world together.
The pair, who are closely monitored in the first year, are followed up in yearly meetings with the trainer.
Once they reach retirement age they are often adopted by the blind person they have been working with, but if this is not possible, the second option is adoption by family members or friends. Some even go back to the people who raised them as puppies, a heartwarming end-of-working-life story for dogs that have provided years of assistance to a Kiwi who is blind or has low vision.
Mellberg Haecker says retired dogs are always popular and easy to rehome, testament to the high esteem with which they are held.
"It's wonderful how so many people are keen to adopt them."