I’m a dog lover through and through. Admittedly not the type to watch Crufts or train my dog (that I don’t have) to do fancy tricks, but I love giving them scratches and watching videos of other people's. Over the last few years, social media has changed what it means to be a pet owner and pets have unknowingly been catapulted into the limelight amassing thousands of followers. The rise of the pet Instagram (aka pet influencers) isn't just about making your pet well known it can be a good earner if your pet gets famous like Sam the Mini Aussie (@sam_mini.aussie).
Well-trained pets are always impressive. Not only is it a sign their owner is equipped with more patience than I could ever imagine but it shows just how intelligent our four-legged friends can be. We’ve seen dancing dogs, dogs who skateboard, dogs who surf, and now we have a dog who takes photos. On a recent scrolling session I came across a video of Sam who has been trained to take a photo and pose; that’s the energy of Mario Testino and Lucky Blue Smith rolled into one.
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I’m more than a little embarrassed to admit that when I did own dogs I could barely get them to sit, let alone roll over, give me their paw or stand on their hind legs. In my defence, they were a mix of West Highland Terriers and Jack Russells who notoriously have high intelligence levels but a mind of their own making them difficult to train. Sam (the dog in the video) is an Australian Sheppard who is not only highly intelligent but ready to follow instructions and regularly trained in herding, agility and other dog sports.
So far the video has amassed nearly 6 million likes and over 75,000 comments. We’re a bit late to the game as it was posted on Christmas Day and the photos taken were likely for next year's Christmas card but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shout about a dog photographer – and by that I mean an actual dog who is a photographer, not just a human to takes photos of dogs.
It’s worth mentioning, that the camera used was a camera phone and all it took was a gentle boop of the nose to take a picture but let’s not take away from what is important here. Not only can the dog press the shutter, but he perfectly mimics his owner's poses to create photos that show the true bond between (wo)man and dog.
