Getting Cute Holiday Photos Without Scaring Your Fearful Dog

fearful dogs Dec 12, 2022

This time of year, lots of people are posting photos of their dogs (or kids!) with Santa, or in cute little holiday outfits. For those of us with fearful or reactive dogs, these kind of holiday mementos can seem out of reach. And it's true that many sensitive pups would really suffer if they were forced to go to a pet store full of people and other dogs for a photo shoot, or manhandled into a ugly Christmas sweater. Luckily, there are some fun ways to get those holiday photos of your pup, without scaring them.

Holiday Photo Tip #1: Use Holiday Props

You can take photos in front of a Christmas tree or other holiday display, or decorate a photo shoot area with holiday props like ornaments, tinsel, and lights. A colorful holiday blanket is very simple way to brighten up a photo. You might even be able even decorate and take photos in your pup's safe space, if you do it carefully so you don't scare them. See some examples of holiday props in photos of the Dogkind team dogs, in the video below.

Holiday Photo Tip #2: Bows, Neck Ties, Bandanas

If your dog is comfortable having a collar put on them, you might have the option of adding a holiday bow to their collar, using holiday neck ties (check out the video below to see Pancake modeling some), or holiday-themed bandanas. Just start with something small that can be added to a collar or can be put on your dog in the same way that you put on their collar, and avoid anything that might scare them, like collars or bows with bells attached.

Holiday Photo Tip #3: Add Holiday Touches To An Existing Photo

There are lots of free and low-cost photo editors these days. I used Canva to make the slides in the video below. In the video I also show how I took an old, plain photo of Pancake, and dressed it up a little. If you have a good eye for design, you could probably come up with some really nice holiday photos without even taking a new photo of your dog.

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