YouTube’s viral Norris Nuts family sacks its world’s best $100K guard dog and it’s Kayla to the rescue
Social media sensation the ‘Norris Nuts’ family has rehomed its world’s best, $100,000 guard dog, Demi, with fitness influencer Kayla Itsines.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australia’s viral YouTube family the ‘Norris Nuts’ has offloaded its world’s best, $100,000 guard dog Demi, to none other than fitness influencer and new mum Kayla Itsines.
Flown in from the United Kingdom last year, the highly trained Demi was purchased from the U.K based Protection Dogs Worldwide (PDW), which specialises in producing some of the most elite guard dogs in the world.
The dogs are also among the most expensive, at a cost of up to $176,000 AUD each.
After much hype about how much the family of eight was looking forward to Demi’s arrival following security scares, it appears the family - which is a global social media sensation with millions of followers over multiple platforms - got rid of her after just a couple of months.
The Norris family - that has made a fortune sharing its kids’ daily lives on social media -
revealed late in 2021 that there had been an incident or series of incidents at the family’s Newcastle home that had led them to feel “unsafe” and want a guard dog.
The eldest of the Norris tribe, Sabre, said in a YouTube video posted in December 2021 that “it sucks that we just don’t feel that safe, but I think Demi will be able to help us”.
The circumstances around the dog’s removal from the family home are shrouded in mystery, with the family confirming “she’s not coming back” in a video posted to YouTube four months ago, only two months after uploading a video titled ‘we bought $100,000 guard dog to protect our family’.
Fans have speculated as to whether there is bad blood between the family and the U.K dog security company, with both camps unfollowing one another on Instagram.
Brooke Norris, mother to Sabre, Sockie, Biggie, Naz, Disco and Charm, revealed in the video that “a lot’s been happening behind the scenes” and that she was captured receiving ominously “bad news” about the dog while on the phone in a previous video.
“We like making videos that make you feel happy and what’s happened is not very nice so it’s a bit of a tricky balance,” Mrs Norris said later.
She added that fans were “owed” an explanation as to why Demi was no longer with the family, but later said the dog was “not going to come back” and the family was “moving on”.
Fans were evidently overwhelmed with relief to see that the dog had been adopted by another Australian influencer family, that of Kayla Itsines.
Itsines founded her fitness empire on a series of ebooks and wellness apps, with the 31-year-old Adelaide native welcoming her second child and first baby with fiance Jae Woodroffe on January 5 this year.
Woodroffe is understood to be experienced with dogs.
In July 2022 the couple confirmed the dog was “with us for now”, posting photos and videos of Demi playing with their child to the couple’s joint Instagram account.
“One of our best friends owns the company Demi is from,” Ms Itsines told the Herald Sun.
“We got a call from (the Norris family) asking if we can have Demi … she’s the most amazing dog in the world.
“She’s high drive and needs someone (like Jae – my fiance) who has experience with high drive dogs … she’s absolutely spectacular in every way but I can totally understand how this would be a full time job for someone.
“They are an amazing family with six children. This would have been a lot … sometimes a dog can be too much.”
Fans commenting on the Itsines’ Instagram post expressed their joy at seeing the dog was seemingly healthy and in good care.
The Norris family previously lost a nine-week-old puppy named Bubba in a “tragic accident” involving Justin Norris, father to the young Norris tribe, only days after it was brought home.
The family’s decision to purchase the specially trained guard dog was made after a series of alleged incidents that left the household of eight feeling “unsafe”, although the details around these events remain unclear.
“Because Demi’s gone we have security, like people out the front of the house,” Mrs Norris said in a video following the dog’s shock departure.
The family had previously unveiled Demi’s arrival to their home in a YouTube video, in which Mrs Norris said the dog had “gone through a massive ordeal to get to Australia”.
“She’s travelled all the way from England to Australia, she’s had to do 10 days of quarantine,” she said as the dog arrived at their home.
“Hopefully she lives happily ever after”.
Demi was filmed exiting her crate after her post-quarantine flight from Melbourne to Newcastle, and could be heard fretting and crying as she was greeted by her trainer from PDW.
In February PDW took to Instagram to post about the positive experience they had with the Norris family – a post which has seemingly been deleted.
The family’s Instagram account has also unfollowed the company on social media, and vice versa.
While the Norris family said Demi’s departure resulted from a “long story” and promised fans a timely explanation, no further information has been disclosed, four months on.
Demi will stay with the Itsines family until the middle of this year when the family will get their own guard dog from PDW. It is not known who will take care of her beyond that.
Originally published as YouTube’s viral Norris Nuts family sacks its world’s best $100K guard dog and it’s Kayla to the rescue
Costello slams Dan’s ‘moronic’ Covid bans, treaty plans
Former Nine chairman and Liberal treasurer Peter Costello has slammed Dan Andrews’ Labor regime for its “moronic” Covid bans and other initiatives, saying it was the “most incompetent government” he’d seen.
Porter Davis co-founder selling $20m+ mansion
The co-founder of home builder Porter Davis, who left the firm long before its collapse, is selling an Armadale home built on the site of the neighbour’s tennis court.