Six Valuable Life Lessons I Learned By Putting My Dog On Instagram

Plus, a bonus WARNING about doing professional photo shoots with your dog.

I don’t know how other mid-lifers feel but the older I get the more adverse to social media I become. It is no longer an amusing place where you can just throw any old post and have a good time with it.

It has become a technological labyrinth and a narcissist’s jungle gym. You have to know about and dabble in all the things to become somebody on social media.

I don’t need to be anybody, I know who I am.

Trends, reels, hashtags, and those oh-so monotonous faces. None of them interest me. Especially if you’re posting the same filtered selfie every single day, accompanied by a spurious inspirational quote or a regurgitated way to make money.

But then we have DOGS!

Do you know what is engaging and funny AF?

Ridiculous dogs, cute dogs, shameful dogs, bad dogs. Even regular, basic dogs are amusing if they capitalize on laughable trends and the right theme music.

When I started my dog’s Instagram I had no goal in mind other than to share her puppy pics with anyone — or no one. I just didn’t want to waterlog my personal account with nothing but dog.

I’ll be the first to admit that my dog’s Instagram started out just like all the other boring profiles and I didn't care. But over time I did start to care and a lot of it had to do with my grief process.

My dog and her Instagram were legit the only things adding joy to my days and I’ll be damned if I didn’t want more of it.

Here are the 6 things I learned about life by Instagramming my dog:

Basic is hilarious

Literally anything can be funny with the right soundtrack. A dog doing nothing but staring blankly at the camera is a riot with the right audio track.

And a dog staring at a rabbit can become an epic thriller scene with zero effort. All I did to capture this video was sit in the grass, yet 5000 people watched it.

Life can be as basic as that.

The art of slowing down, both practically and metaphorically

Slow-motion videos are extra dramatic. A basic dog running can instantly transform into the most inspirational (or comical) thing you’ve ever watched. Just pick the right music for the mood.

Perhaps even better, Instagramming your dog nudges you to slow the hell down in daily life. It forces you to pay attention to the tiniest, most appreciable moments spent between you and your dog.

Peace on Earth begins with dogs.

Trends and technology

For old people (me), the daily desire to make my dog’s Instagram more appealing forced me to learn. It was like continuing ed for a while!

Not many people in my current life know that I studied digital audio production in a past life. But that was back in the day when 4GB on a computer was groundbreaking.

In modern times, our phones come with at least 20GB and for the most part, I have no idea WTH I’m doing with technology.

Instagram for my dog made me want to learn. I have downloaded video and audio editing apps to make my dog reels more fun and interesting and I’ve had a blast. Believe me.

There is NO way to feel worse about yourself

On human Instagram, all people do is compare themselves to others, filter the crap out of their faces and bodies, and compete for the latest income stream.

But on DOG Instagram people smile, laugh, and soak up the endorphin boost you experience when you’re happy.

Nobody’s dog is competing with your dog because they’re all just dogs doing the same stupid dog things.

How can you not laugh at stupid dog things?

Your life pales in comparison to a dog’s life

I’ve had a personal Instagram profile for YEARS and it has never attracted half the attention that my dog’s does. Probably because I stopped posting on it as soon as my dog had her own.

Overnight, I realized that my dog pretty much IS my life because I have nothing to post daily except her. I’m okay with that.

You go out of your way to look for joyful moments

When does anyone do that in real life? That’s a real question.

Do you EVER go out into the world each day purposely looking for joy and laughter? If you don’t, you should.

Most people go out of their way to look for shit to argue about. And they definitely put too much effort into posting negative, politically charged garbage on social media.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is, just go get a dog already. And give it an Instagram page while you’re at it because there’s nothing like waking up in the morning to see that 5000 strangers found happiness by looking at your dog.

In this age of social media, I feel like most people do photo shoots with their dogs for the thrill and validation of displaying them on social media.

LONG before the internet existed I used to haul my son and our dog Mojo, off to Sears portrait sessions. Remember those? I can’t believe we used to pay for the cloudy-blue Sears portrait studio backdrop 😂

Back in the day, we had nowhere to share our photos except on our living room walls. Crowd feedback and validation were not the motivation - keepsakes were.

And man, am I ever grateful for the keepsakes because in this photo of our little family, sadly, only one of us is still alive to remember that I once had a happy family.

It’s very sobering to look at a photo and realize two-thirds of us don’t exist anymore. But eventually, you can look at it with fondness and gratitude rather than utter despair.

My late son, our old girl Mojo, and me - circa 2001

Fast-forward twenty years after that photo, I adopted a new best girl. Dezi is her name and she’s the only good thing that happened to me during the pandemic. I brought her home in May of 2020 and four months later I lost my beautiful boy.

I’m telling you right now…if you don’t think keepsakes matter? You are gravely mistaken.

So, what about the photo shoot warning?

One day, good old Facebook plopped an ad in front of my face. It was for a local photographer, Adam Thibert, offering “Humans and their Dogs” photo shoots.

Of course I clicked it. Duh.

I was a bit apprehensive because Dezi has anxiety issues in unfamiliar situations and she’s not a fan of strange people. She also hates the camera and dodges the hell out of me whenever I pull out my cell phone for Instagram shenanigans.

I was worried I’d show up for our shoot and never be able to get her to do anything photo-worthy. However, the opposite couldn’t have been more true.

In less than one hour we captured more photos than I knew how to say no to.

Warning #1

You WILL spend way more money than you ever bargained for because a professional photographer makes your anxious, camera-dodging dog look THAT good.

Warning #2

You WILL smile so much that there’s no hope of ever getting rid of your laugh lines and squint lines.

During our reveal session, Adam presented me with a slideshow of approximately 35 photos and had the balls to expect me to make rational decisions about which ones I wanted to keep.

Let’s face it, I wanted them all but Visa alarm bells are not my cup of tea.

Throughout the slideshow, I mostly laughed but tiny, inner parts of me also felt overwhelmed with emotion. This big, hairy Shepherd/Clown mutt, has seen me through the most excruciating moments of my life and these photos captured her true spirit beautifully!

When all was said and done, I spent enough money to book a luxury AirBnB with an infinity pool overlooking a vinyard. But my buyer's remorse level came in at absolute ZERO.

The pure joy I feel from looking at these photos and the time spent with Dezi is priceless.

If you’ve ever considered doing a photo shoot with your dog but you’re sitting on the fence?

JUST DO IT.

You won’t regret it. And your photos will forever lock in that segment of your life with your dog. Twenty years down the road you’ll be glad you did it.

Looking for more dog stories? There’s a Substack for that!