Engagement photos with dogs- how to successfully do it!

Hello hello everyone! As an avid dog owner and lover myself I am totally down for when my couples ask me if they can bring their dog to their engagement sessions! I know your pups are a part of your family and you want them to be in your pictures. However, there are things we can do to make sure bringing your dog to a session is a success! So today I’m talking about engagement photos with dogs and how to do it well!

Tips for successful engagement photos with dogs

1. Bring a friend along! If you’re planning on keeping your pup at the session the whole time (we’ll get into how we can structure this later), you will need another person to watch them while we are getting pictures of just you and your partner! This person will also be so helpful when trying to get your dogs attention as they can squeak toys and hold cheese over my head! Which brings me to my second point…
2. Bring their favorite toys or treats! We want to make sure that your pup is looking at the camera when we want them to. The easiest way to do this is to bring treats and squeaky toys that you know will get their attention! chewy.com is a great place to get these things (not sponsored!)!
3. Plan to have someone bring them for only part of the session! Your pup won’t be in every picture at your session which means having someone bring them for only 15-20 minutes will be plenty of time! Trust me, your dog will get bored of smiling at the camera anyway!
4. Dress them up! This is more of a personal preference thing, but be prepared for your session with cute outfits for your pup! Incorporate them into your overall flow so you’re matching! Trust me, it’s super cute.
5. Get some exercise in earlier in the day– Your pup will be super excited to meet a new person (hello, me!) so making sure you exercise them beforehand can be hugely helpful to make sure they’re not bouncing off the wall!

Inspiration

Want some inspiration? Here are a few of my favorite engagement sessions with dogs in them! First up is Andrew and Zach! They did such a good job of incorporating their pup and even had the cutest little accessories for her. They also brought along a friend who was a pro at getting Leia (their pup) to look at the camera qith a squeaky toy.

Next up is Makenzi and Andrew who brought their dog Ollie to their engagement session! He was a bit tired at the end of the session because he had been walking around, which worked out great! He was so chill and ready just to sit for us.

I hope that was helpful for you! As always if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at my contact page!

Best,
Sara

PS- If you want to reach out and find out more about my wedding packages, click here!