Why Fur Babies Are Family
There are dog people, and then there are people who know that calling them “the dog” doesn’t really begin to describe the place they have in your life.
They’re part of the family.
They’re there for the ordinary mornings, the chaotic evenings, the walks you’ve done hundreds of times and the moments when everyone somehow ends up squashed together on the sofa.
They have their own place to sleep, although they may have entirely different ideas about where that should be. They know the sound of the treat cupboard opening from three rooms away. They know when someone is coming home before you do.
Somehow, without anybody officially deciding it, life starts arranging itself around them.
When Does a Dog Become Part of the Family?
I don’t think there’s a particular moment.
They simply weave themselves into everyday life.
I grew up with a rescue dog called Shannon. She suffered terribly with car sickness. She wasn’t actually sick, but the panting and drooling made it very obvious that travelling wasn’t her favourite thing.
We could have left her at home however when we started to pull of the drive, she’d stand at the window with that little face watching us leave.
More than once Mum had started pulling off the drive before I told her we had to go back and get Shannon – so we did.
We put up with the panting and the drooling, stopped for comfort breaks when she needed them and took her with us. Within minutes of arriving wherever we were going, she’d be absolutely fine and happily getting on with life.
Nobody needed to sit us down and explain that Shannon was a member of our family.
Of course she was and that’s simply what family looked like in our house.
Why Do We Call Dogs Our Fur Babies?
For some people, “pet” describes the relationship perfectly well.
For others, it doesn’t come remotely close.
I regularly hear people describe their dogs as their babies, their fur babies or their four-legged children. Couples tell me the dogs came before the children. Children talk about them as their brothers and sisters; and sometimes a dog really is someone’s closest companion and family.
There isn’t one right way to describe that relationship – what matters is the place they occupy in your life.
You know their expressions, those peculiar little habits , the things they’re frightened of – with Shannon it was thunder and she’d be in my bedroom before the first clap made an entrance! The joy of watching the ridiculous things that make them wildly happy can while away more time than we care to mention.
You make decisions with them in mind, and when you’ve had a difficult day, they’re very often the one sitting beside you without requiring an explanation.
Dogs Become Part of Our Family Stories
Look through years of family photographs and you’ll often see it.
🐾The dog who was there when the children were tiny.
🐾The puppy who arrived when everyone was growing up.
🐾The dog who moved house with you.
🐾The one who came on holiday.
🐾The one who was always underneath the table at Christmas.
🐾They become markers in our family history.
That’s one of the reasons I think photographing them matters and most certainly not because we need to prove that they were important.
It’s because they were there.
Should Dogs Be Included in Family Portraits?
Absolutely, if they’re part of your family.
That doesn’t mean they need to behave impeccably or sit beautifully beside everyone while looking straight at the camera.
In fact, I’d much rather photograph some of the personality that makes them yours.
🐾The expression you recognise immediately.
🐾The way they look at one particular person.
🐾The ridiculous ears.
🐾The favourite toy they have loved almost beyond recognition.
🐾The relationship between a child and the dog they’ve grown up with.
🐾Those little details can eventually become some of the things you remember most.
What If My Dog Won’t Behave for Photographs?
This is one of the things people worry about unnecessarily, your dog doesn’t need to arrive at Woodland Hill with a CV from obedience school.
Some are excitable, nervous, distracted by every interesting smell in the room and some will do practically anything for a treat and others regard my attempts at bribery with complete contempt.
That’s why I want to know about them before they arrive. We can talk about their personality, what they love, what they don’t, whether treats are allowed and anything that might help them feel comfortable.
I’m not waiting for your dog to perform perfectly – I’m looking for them.
Why Photograph Your Dog If You Already Have Hundreds of Pictures?
Most of us with animals have phones absolutely stuffed with photographs of them, hands up whose camera roll is approximately 87% dog!
We have sleeping, looking ridiculous, doing something they definitely weren’t supposed to be doing and I wouldn’t swap those photographs for anything.
Professional portraits aren’t intended to replace them – they’re something different.
They give you the opportunity to create something deliberately, to photograph the character you know so well and then choose the portraits you want to actually live with rather than leaving every photograph hidden amongst thousands of images on a phone.
When Your Dog Is Part of Your Home
This is perhaps the part I love most. When a portrait becomes artwork in your home, your dog isn’t relegated to the camera roll, they’re there amongst the other people who belong to your family.
Not because dogs need to be elevated into something they’re not and not everybody has to understand the relationship you have with yours.
It’s just plain and simply this – when you look around your home and see the people and animals who make up your life, they belong there too.
One day those portraits also become part of your family’s history, the dog the children grew up with, the companion who came everywhere , the fur baby who was there through an entire chapter of your life and that’s the simplest answer to why fur babies are family.
Because family isn’t really about what you call them.
It’s about the place they hold in your life.
Pawtrait Photography at Woodland Hill
I create Pawtrait experiences at my studio in East Grinstead, West Sussex, for dogs and the people who love them.
Before your experience we’ll have a Discovery Call so I can hear about your dog, their personality, the people they belong with and anything I should know before they arrive.
Then we’ll create portraits that feel like them, followed by a Design Consultation where you can choose the portraits and artwork you’d most love to live with.
Whether you call them your dog, your fur baby, your four-legged child or simply their name, I want you to recognise exactly who they are to you.
