5 Helpful Tips When Bringing Your Pets To Your Engagement Session

My dogs Bella and Norman are my babies. I spoil them with treats and cuddle with them every chance I get. When mothers share photos of their children on their phone, I show people my dogs. With my dogs, they’re always excited to meet us at the door, tails wagging and all. They show us their affection when Norman licks us or Bella offers her paws (she’s too posh for licking). Even my husband is wrapped around their cute paws.

Our dogs are more than just pets. They are family.

When my clients tell me that they have pets themselves, I get excited! I know that they’ll want to include theirs in their engagement session. Pets delight me in general so everytime I get to interact with animals, it just makes the session more special. I also love the effect of pets on their humans. If my clients feel that they are awkward in front of the camera, having them interact with their pets at the beginning of the session gets them to relax and forget that I’m there. It’s a great way for my clients to warm up.

Bringing pets to your engagement sessions does bring about its own challenges. I can’t just tell a dog or a cat to behave a certain way as easily as I would ask my human clients (most of the time). So to make your engagement sessions with your beloved fur babies a breeze, here are a few tips!

(Note: Most of these tips apply more to dogs than cats. Compared to dogs, cats are generally the mellower kind.)
1. Take your dogs for a long walk before your engagement session.

A tired dog is apparently a good dog. Caesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer, says so. By tiring out your puppy before your session, they’ll be less hyper, hence making them easier to work with.

2. Bring lots of treats.

If you want your pets to do what you want, they’ll be more motivated to do so when treats are involved. My dogs love liver bites. They’re natural and you can easily divide the chunks into smaller pieces so they won’t be too full by the end of the session.

3. Bring their favourite toy.

If your dog loves to fetch, bring their ball or frisbee for them to play with. It’ll be a great way for you to interact with them as well.

4. Get a neutral toned collar and leash for your pooch to wear.

If you don’t, the colours from their collars and leash will stick out and be too much of a distraction from the entire image. Unless you coordinate them with your own outfits, then it’ll work.

5. Bring another person to look after them.

As much as I love working with pets, they’ll come point during the engagement session where I need to only photograph just the two of you. If we do your session in the cooler months, then it’ll be alright to leave them in the car for a little while. But that’s not really an option when it’s warmer. If your dog is calm, I can hold on to them while I do my job. But it’ll be easier if there’s another person there to take care of your pets while I take your portraits.

So there you have it! Bringing your pets to sessions are so much fun for pet-loving photographers such as me so don’t hesitate to include them. I’m always interested to hear your thoughts so please write them down in the Comments section below!