Surely choosing a photographer for your pet business is fairly simple? Find someone who takes lovely photos, check they’re available and book them. I’m afraid not! At least that’s my opinion, and here’s why….

Firstly, let me say, I am not dismissing other photographers, far from it. I work with and recommend some very talented commercial photographers who work in the pet industry.

But photography is a huge industry with lots of different specialisms. Someone can be an incredible wedding, portrait or landscape photographer but that doesn’t necessarily mean they understand commercial photography, working with animals, or what those images actually need to do for your business.

You’re not just paying for pretty pictures – those images could be the first thing someone sees when they land on your website, spot you at an event or discover you on social media. They could end up in a catalogue, press article, product launch, award entry or even blown up across the side of your trade stand. These images will be representing your business, sometimes for years after the shoot has finished. So choosing the right photographer matters.

Your pet brand photography is telling a story

If you’re an outdoorsy brand but everything feels overly polished and staged, there’s a disconnect. If your whole ethos is centred around happy, relaxed dogs but the animals in your imagery look uncomfortable, that’s a BIG disconnect. And if the photographs don’t show how your product or service fits into real life, you’re making your customer work much harder to understand why they need it. None of those things necessarily mean the photographs themselves are bad – they could be technically brilliant. They are just not right for your brand.

That’s why I think one of the most important things to ask when looking through a photographer’s portfolio is whether you could imagine your own brand within it. Does their style reflect how you want your business to feel? Would it connect with the people you’re trying to reach?

Why understanding the pet industry makes a difference

Working within the pet industry brings another layer of understanding to a commercial shoot, you start to understand the little details pet owners notice, the conversations happening within the industry, the ethics that matter and what customers are likely to connect with.

I work with pet brands I’d happily buy from myself, and quite often already have. I think that makes a difference because I’m not coming to a shoot completely cold. I understand the world my clients and their customers live in. Your photographer doesn’t necessarily need to own pets themselves, but I do think they need to understand the audience they’re creating the imagery for.

Does your photographer understand animal behaviour?

Then there’s the very important matter of actually understanding animals. I’ve seen examples where a photographer has allowed a situation to go too far because they haven’t recognised that an animal is stressed or uncomfortable. Aside from the obvious welfare issue, that discomfort is going to show in the final photographs too. Your customer might not be able to tell you exactly what’s wrong with an image, but a dog with a tense face and uncomfortable body language probably is going to make them stop and question why it’s making them feel off.

There’s also the reality that animals aren’t able to read the shot list 😂 You might have a beautifully planned shoot and a dog who normally has the obedience of a Crufts champion, only for them to decide on the day that they’ve never heard the word “sit” before in their life – and that’s normal!

Working with animals means knowing when to adapt, when to pause, when to try something completely different and occasionally when to accept that the shot you had planned simply isn’t happening and just going with the flow if the dog decides that stealing the treats is more fun! Knowing the limitations of the animal in front of you is just as important as knowing how to use the camera.

Commercial photography needs to work for your business

This is another area where choosing someone with commercial experience can make a huge difference.

Before a shoot, I always discuss and check to see what the images are going to be used for. Do you need website banners? Images with negative space for text? Portrait crops for social media? Something that can be enlarged for an exhibition stand? Are you launching a product, pitching to the press or creating a catalogue? All of that influences how I approach the shoot and the shot list.

A beautiful photograph isn’t particularly useful if the composition means your website designer can’t put any text over it, or you’ve got 50 variations of essentially the same image when what you really needed was a versatile image library.

It’s also worth asking about licensing and usage before you book. Make sure you understand where you’re allowed to use the photographs and whether that matches what you need them for.

The shoot itself might only last a few hours, but the right images can support your business for years.

The opportunity cost of choosing the wrong photographer

It isn’t only about the damage poor or unsuitable imagery might do, it’s also about what the right imagery could have done for you.

I’ve had clients use images from our shoots for websites, social media, product launches, PR, magazine covers, award entries, catalogues, email marketing and trade shows. They’ve appeared in major publications and helped businesses show up professionally when opportunities have come their way.

If you’re investing in commercial photography, you want to come away with imagery that can do as many jobs as possible. That’s where planning beforehand becomes so important.

How to choose the right commercial photographer for your pet brand

So how do you choose?

Basically, reverse all of the above!

Look for someone who understands commercial photography and has experience working with animals. Spend some time looking through their portfolio and ask yourself whether you can imagine your products or services being photographed in that style.

Read their client testimonials too. A portfolio tells you what a photographer can create, but testimonials tell you what they’re actually like to work with.

I’d also look at their ethos. Do their values align with yours? If animal welfare is central to your business, does the way they work reflect that? Do they seem genuinely interested in understanding your products, your customers and what you’re trying to achieve?

And importantly, do they ask questions?

I don’t think a commercial shoot should start with “what photos would you like?” It should involve conversations about your audience, your marketing, where the images will be used and the story you’re trying to tell. From there you can think about the right locations, animals, people and shot list to bring it all together.

Because the right photographer shouldn’t just make your products look good. They should understand your business, your audience, your animals and the story you want your imagery to tell. And preferably know that when the dog says they’ve had enough, they’ve had enough.

If you’re planning a commercial shoot for your pet business and would like a photographer who’ll help with the thinking before the camera even comes out, feel free to get in touch. I’d love to hear about your brand.

Drop me a WhatsApp to 07810 541 685 or pop me an email to kerry@furandfables.com

 

There are a lot of reasons to create your own awareness day, I should know, I created National Dog Photography Day in 2017 and launched it in 2018.

Back then though, I didn’t realise that it would eventually lead to media coverage, podcast interviews, speaking opportunities, brand collaborations and years of ongoing visibility for my business.

The Benefits For Your Business When You Create An Awareness Day

A few weeks ago, I was invited to give a talk about to a Pet Industry networking group how I created National Dog Photography Day and what I’d learned from the experience. It made me realise that although I’ve spoken about the day itself many times over the years, usually people are intrigued about how I created it, but I’ve never really talked about what happened as a result of creating it. So I’m going to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way, and how the awareness day has helped my business over the years.

It Started With Procrastination: The beginning of National Dog Photography Day

Like many business owners, I was looking for ways to raise awareness of what I did. I didn’t have a huge marketing budget, I wasn’t running big advertising campaigns, and I certainly didn’t have a PR team behind me. What I did have was an idea and a willingness to try something a little different and not worry about whether it would work or not.

And so National Dog Photography Day was born!

If you aren’t sure what an awareness day is, they are designated dates which encourage people to celebrate, recognise or raise awareness of a particular topic.

The idea wasn’t born out of a clever marketing strategy, in fact, it started when I was supposed to be working and I was flicking through a content planning calendar trying to plan my social media. As I was looking through the list of awareness days, one particular entry caught my eye: Ugly Trucks Day and I got to thinking : who comes up with these things? And then I started wondering, if someone created that, could I create one too? And what would I call it?

That question sent me down a rabbit hole of awareness day registers, PR calendars and media databases. The more I researched, the more I realised that many awareness days aren’t created by governments or huge organisations, they’re often started by individuals, charities and businesses who are passionate about a particular topic. At the time, I was working as a pet photographer, and it didn’t take long before the idea for National Dog Photography Day began to take shape.

Why National Dog Photography Day?

The strongest awareness days are built around something that genuinely matters to both you and your audience. For me, that was simple. I loved helping people celebrate their dogs through photography, and I could see how much dogs were becoming part of people’s lives in a way that goes deeper than ‘just’ having a dog. Instagram was growing rapidly, dog accounts were everywhere, and people were sharing more photographs of their dogs than ever before.

Creating a day dedicated to celebrating dogs and encouraging people to take better photographs felt like a natural fit. It wasn’t trying to solve a global problem, it was simply bringing people together around something they already loved (like celebrating trucks for their character and dependability rather than their appearance…)

Treat It Like a Launch, Not a Date in the Diary

One of the biggest misconceptions about awareness days is that the work happens on the day itself. In reality, if you want an awareness day to gain traction, you need to treat it like any other launch.

This was one of the biggest discussion points when I gave my recent presentation, several people commented that they hadn’t realised how much preparation goes into building momentum before the day arrives.

Think about how you would approach launching a new product or service. You’d probably work backwards and create content, contact collaborators, reach out to the press, build anticipation and make sure people knew it was coming – an awareness day is no different.

The more effort you put into the lead-up, like connecting with journalists, other businesses which compliment yours, getting your audience involved before hand – the more likely people are to engage when the day finally arrives.

The Visibility Opportunities Afterwards

When people ask me about awareness days, they’re usually interested in how to create one, what they don’t often ask is what happens afterwards. Although the engagement on the day was great, the visibility it created afterwards was even better, it led to radio interviews, podcasts, newspaper articles, speaking opportunities and collaborations that simply wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

National Dog Photography Day has now been running for several years, the first few years as a pet photographer and I have had so many amazing opportunities because of it including:

• Reaching number one trending on Twitter/X and with big brands and even HRH The Queen getting involved.
• Speaking at a business conference in front of a room of entrepreneurs
• Podcast appearances
• National and regional radio interviews
• Increased social media traffic
• New client enquiries

Even with the change of direction of my business from pet portraits to commercial pet photography it continues to generate engagement, reach and conversations. Below are some of the figures from 2025 when I did a small brand photoshoot giveaway.

More importantly, it gets my brand to people who would never have discovered me otherwise and instead of competing for attention in a crowded social media space, I had created something that people wanted to talk about and participate in, so the awareness day has become part of my marketing strategy because it’s an annual event and each year it creates new content opportunities, new PR angles, ways to engage with my existing audience and ways to reach a new audience.

Create Opportunities Instead of Waiting For Them

A big lesson I’ve learned through running National Dog Photography Day is that sometimes you can’t just hope to get noticed – you can’t wait for journalists to discover it or for somebody to invite you onto a podcast or ask you to speak at an event. Instead of waiting for opportunities, I created something I was happy talking about and pitched to people who’s audience might like to hear about it.

That doesn’t mean everyone should rush off and create an awareness day tomorrow. It does mean that there is value in thinking beyond traditional marketing and asking yourself what you could create that would genuinely bring people together. If you don’t want to create your own day, you can always find one which is about something you love and figure out a way to get you and your audience involved instead.

What I’d Do Differently If I Started Again Today

• I’d start planning earlier! I launched the first National Dog Photography Day with far less preparation than I’d recommend now, mainly because I didn’t know what I was doing as there were no check lists on how to create your own awareness day! If I were doing it again, I’d spend much longer building anticipation and creating resources before the day itself.
• I’d involve more collaborators – the biggest growth comes when other people have a reason to share the message. I’d spend more time identifying complementary businesses and organisations that could help amplify it.
• I’d keep up the momentum – the awareness day created opportunities, but I wasn’t always strategic about capturing them. Today I’d be much more focused on email sign-ups, follow-up content and turning the increased visibility into relationship building.

If You Want To Create Your Own Awareness Day

If you’re considering creating an awareness day for your own business, I’d encourage you to start with something simple – think about what you care about, what your audience cares about and how people could easily participate.

Choose a simple name, one that a 10 year old would understand without explaining and pick a date carefully – avoid big events like Wimbledon and Comic Relief as your day will get lost and if you want to get press coverage, your day will be low on the list.

And give people a reason to get involved and make it easy for them to share and get involved!

Most importantly, don’t get caught up in the idea that it needs to be perfect before you start – you can use your first year as your testing phase while it’s still new and has less eyes on it! National Dog Photography Day certainly wasn’t perfect when it launched, at the time I think I was the first small pet brand to do something like this – I didn’t know anyone else who had done it so I had no resources to pull on, I was basically winging it but I learned as I went along.

Free Resource: Create Your Own Awareness Day

After speaking about this recently, I’ve put together a free quick-start guide for pet businesses and small brands who are interested in creating their own awareness day. Inside you’ll find prompts, planning tips and practical first steps to help you turn an idea into something people can get behind.

You can sign up for it here: Create your own awareness day tips

Let me know in the comments if this has inspired you to create an awareness day of your own.

Kerry x

If you think that a dog model has to be perfectly behaved, endlessly obedient, or able to perform a long list of tricks on command, then you couldn’t be more wrong. In reality, that’s not what makes a great dog model at all.

 

Some of the best dogs I’ve worked with have been wonderfully goofy, slightly chaotic, sensitive, or full of personality. What matters most is whether the dog is comfortable, happy, and the right fit for the type for the brand.

 

Over the years, I’ve built a dog model database across the UK, working with dogs of all breeds, ages, personalities, and energy levels. And one of the things I’ve learned is this: a successful dog modelling shoot is far less about perfection, and far more about pairing the right dog with the right brand, environment, and managing expectations.

When I put out a casting call, there are a few core things I usually look for.

 

A dog doesn’t need to be “competition trained,” but having some basic skills makes shoots smoother, safer, and more enjoyable for everyone involved.

 

Typically, I look for dogs who:

If a shoot requires specific tricks or skills, I’ll always mention that clearly in the casting call beforehand.

 

The more cues or tricks a dog knows, the more flexibility we have creatively during a shoot, but honestly, personality and comfort matter far more to me than perfection.

 

This surprises people sometimes. I don’t actually need every dog to be ultra-bold or overconfident. In fact, sometimes that can make shoots harder.

 

What I’m really looking for is a dog who feels safe enough in the environment to engage, explore, and work with us at their own pace.

 

I’ve worked with anxious or sensitive dogs before because they were absolutely the right fit for the client or campaign. Sometimes a softer expression or calmer body language suits a brand far better than an hyper alert, energetic dog – it’s about matching the dog to the story we’re trying to tell.

 

 

This is probably one of the biggest parts of my process, and something many clients mention in testimonials afterwards – no image is more important than a dog’s wellbeing.

 

I pay very close attention to canine body language throughout a shoot. If a dog is uncomfortable, overwhelmed, tired, frustrated, or simply not enjoying something, we stop and reassess. Sometimes we pivot completely, take a break or sometimes we change the shot idea altogether.

 

That isn’t failure, it’s simply working with dogs in a realistic way – there are dogs who usually have a solid sit and wait who just decide on the day that isn’t something they would like to do!

 

I also stagger my shoots carefully so dogs aren’t left waiting around unnecessarily or crossing over with lots of unfamiliar dogs. That keeps the environment calmer and more manageable, especially for sensitive dogs.

 

The goal is always for the shoot to feel fun and positive for the dog as well as the owner, because I really believe you can see the difference in the final images. Relaxed, engaged dogs create far more authentic photographs than stressed or uncomfortable ones ever could.

 

 

This is the part many people don’t think about before booking a commercial shoot -n ot every dog is right for every brand, and that’s completely okay.

 

When I’m planning a shoot for a client, I’m not just looking for the right breed,  I’m looking for dogs whose personalities, energy levels, skills, and comfort zones suit the products and campaign.

 

For example:

 

For treat companies, I usually look for dogs who are food motivated, but not so obsessed with food that they become frustrated or overwhelmed during the shoot.

 

For toy campaigns, I need dogs who genuinely enjoy play and interaction. If a dog naturally loves tug, chasing, or engaging with toys, the images immediately feel more dynamic.

 

If we’re photographing  dog coats, jumpers, harnesses, or accessories, it helps massively if the dogs are already used to wearing products comfortably beforehand – a dog freezing or looking uncomfortable in clothing translates straight into the final images.

 

For brands who ideal client is outdoor/adventure and need running or action-heavy shoots, dogs need to physically enjoy that style of movement and be able to safely participate. Age, fitness, and enthusiasm all come into play here. Same with brands who want to sure their durability in water – if I need to photograph dogs in lakes, rivers, or at the beach, I specifically look for dogs who genuinely enjoy water. You can’t fake that kind of enthusiasm.

 

 

One of the hardest parts of commercial pet photography is finding the right dogs for the right projects which is why I have gradually built a dog model database across the UK. It allows me to match dogs to brands, products, campaigns, and locations rather than simply using whoever happens to be available nearby.

 

It also means I can accommodate a huge variety of briefs, from high-energy outdoor adventure campaigns to calm lifestyle imagery, cosy cottage scenes, senior dogs, puppies, scent work, water-loving dogs, and everything in between. The right dog genuinely changes the outcome of a shoot. If I’m shooting for a larger brand, they sometimes would prefer to use agencies like Urban Paws who have a larger database, or Pets on Set who can train animals specifically for a brief.

 

 

If you’ve ever looked at a brand shoot and thought, “My dog could never do that,” there’s a good chance you’re being far harder on yourself than necessary.

 

Most commercial shoots aren’t about creating perfection. They’re about capturing genuine personality, connection, and emotion in a safe and positive environment and often, the little quirks are what make the images memorable.

 

If your dog is happy around people, enjoys new experiences, and can manage some basic cues, they may already be far more suitable than you realise.

 

And if I ever think a dog isn’t the right fit for a particular shoot, that’s never a judgement on the dog or owner. It simply means the brand, environment, or campaign requires something different.

 

Good commercial pet photography is about finding the dogs who naturally fit the story already being told. Want to be considered for my dog model database? Drop me a WhatsApp to 07810 541 685