"Why get a dog from a pet store when there are lots of dogs at the SPCA needing homes?" Lynn Gipp says.
The Halfway Bush family, who emigrated to Dunedin from Britain nine years ago, had owned other rescued dogs over the years and had brought one of them, Billy, to New Zealand with them.
After Billy died last year the whole family - Lynn, husband Steve and their children, Ellen (13), Anya (10), Matthew (7) and Katie (4) - checked the animals available for adoption at the Otago SPCA's animal haven in Opoho.
That is how they ended up with Benson - a gentle, laid-back labrador, one of 108 unwanted adults and pups placed into homes by the SPCA last year.
He was about a year old when the Gipps first saw him standing at the back of a cage full of dogs.
"There was just something about him," Mrs Gipp says.
"He wasn't bouncy and he wasn't barking. We all fell for him."
His name was Havoc then, but the Gipps knew that name did not suit his "cruisy" personality.
So he became Benson, although he has also been called Ploddy and Floppy Dog (because he would rather lie down than sit).
Over the next two weeks the family visited about eight times and took him for several walks before they finally took him home.
Benson became "their dog" from that first meeting, Mrs Gipp said.
"From then on, every time he heard us coming he would give one bark. Just one. It was like he was saying `hello, I'm still here'."
The family was living in a suburban house when Benson first arrived, but now he shares a 3ha lifestyle property with sheep, poultry (including an SPCA rescue hen) and guinea pigs.
However, Benson is most definitely a people dog, the Gipps say, preferring to spend as much time as possible with the family.
Because the children are home-schooled, he has them around most of the time.
He can do tricks - weaving through legs, rolling over, twisting and shaking hands - and enjoys chasing balls and playing tug-of-war, but his favourite position is lying down next to someone or giving them "cuddles and kisses".
His undemanding nature is proving a hit with hospital patients.
The Gipps and Benson have joined the SPCA Dog Squad and make regular visits to the Dunedin Hospital children's pavilion and the Otago hospice.
Benson sits happily with the patients, content to have his head stroked and his silky ears squeezed, Mrs Gipp says.
"He does not even react should a child accidently squeeze his ears too hard.
"He loves visiting the patients, especially if people give him biscuits . . . He seems to like all the fuss."
