How to get the perfect professional dog walking photo for your socials

A picture paints a thousand words and in this day and age, your Instagram feed can help build your business by showing all those dogs having a fantastic time with you.

Let’s look at some hints and tips from pro photographers about how to improve our photos and a few training tips from me to enable you to get your pack to stay still long enough to get it!

Pro Photographer tips for a great dog group shot

Get down to the dog’s eye level

Getting down to the dogs’ level can make for a better photo because it creates a more intimate and engaging perspective.

By being at eye level with the dogs, you’re able to capture their unique expressions and personalities more effectively. This creates a more personal and relatable photo that can evoke emotions and connections with the viewer.

Gaining the attention of multiple dogs

Gaining the attention of several dogs for a photo can be a challenging task, especially if they are easily distracted or uncooperative. However, there are several techniques you can use to grab their attention and keep them engaged.

Firstly, you can use treats or toys to get their attention. This can be a great way to focus their attention on you and the camera. You can try holding the treats or toys up near the camera or making noise with them to get the dogs to look in your direction.

Another technique is to use verbal commands or noises. Dogs are often responsive to sounds, so you can try making noises such as whistling, clapping or calling their names to get their attention.

Use a shallow depth of field to make the dogs stand out

To ensure a shallow depth of field with a phone camera, there are a few things you can do:

Use Portrait Mode: Many phone cameras have a portrait mode that automatically creates a shallow depth of field effect. This mode uses the phone’s software to blur the background while keeping the subject in focus.

Get Close to the Subject: The closer you are to the subject, the easier it is to create a shallow depth of field effect. Try to get as close as possible to the subject while keeping it in focus, and make sure the background is far enough away to create a blur.

Use the Camera App’s Manual Controls: Some camera apps offer manual controls, such as aperture, that allow you to adjust the depth of field. If your phone camera app has this feature, try adjusting the aperture to a lower value (which means a larger aperture size) to create a shallower depth of field.

Use Third-Party Apps: There are many third-party camera apps available that offer more manual control over the camera settings. These apps can often create a shallower depth of field effect by adjusting the aperture or using other techniques.

Edit the Photo: If all else fails, you can always edit the photo after it’s been taken to create a shallow depth of field effect. There are many photo editing apps available that offer blur tools, which can be used to blur the background and create the desired effect.

Use burst mode to get great, unexpected shots

Burst mode on a phone camera is a feature that allows you to take multiple photos in quick succession with just one press of the shutter button. When you activate burst mode, your phone camera will capture a series of photos in rapid succession, usually at a rate of several frames per second.

Burst mode is particularly useful when you’re trying to capture fast-moving or unpredictable subjects, such as pets or sports events. By taking a series of photos in quick succession, you increase the chances of capturing the perfect shot.

How to train a ‘sit stay’ for photos

Have you ever looked at your competitor’s Instagram feed and seen their pics of 6 dogs all say lined up on a log, all looking at the camera and all looking happy? As marketing shots go, photos don’t get any better than that. It says to the viewer that the dogs have had fun, they’re safe and under control, and they’re enjoying themselves.

Start in a low-distraction environment:

If you’re trying to teach the dogs a sit stay at the beginning of a walk whilst they’re hyped up about the walk and have far too much energy then you’re making your job more difficult than it needs to be.

Do yourself a favour and wait until the end of the walk once they’re burnt off some energy and try to find a low distraction space where there are very few people or other dogs around.

And if you can, start training on walks where you have fewer dogs.

Use a verbal command:

Choose a verbal command that you will use to indicate to your dog that they should stay, such as “stay” or “wait.”

Have the dogs sit or lie down:

With your dog in a sitting or lying down position, give the verbal command to stay.

Take one step away backwards from your dog and then one step towards them. 

If they didn’t move, reward them.

Repeat 5 times and if they succeeded in staying still 4 out of 5 times then increase to 2 steps.

Once your dog gets 4 out of 5 success with 2 steps away, increase the distance again to three steps, and so on.

Did the dog move before you could do one step?

Just break it down even smaller to start with.

Rock backwards instead of taking a step, or just move one foot. It doesn’t matter how small the first stage is, as long as we find something to build upon.

Having a dog with you who already knows how to ‘sit stay’ will be a massive help. Dogs are capable of social learning where they see what other dogs are doing and copy that.

So if you have a new client to train, take them out with dogs who already know the command and training will be super quick.

Why train a stay?

Stay has so many uses in the real world.

It’s an amazing tool to have to keep your dogs safe.

Stay means no rushing out of front doors without you checking that it’s safe, no jumping out of cars before getting their leads on, and although you can train it separately, you can use ‘STAY!’ as an emergency stop for your dogs in perilous situations (running into a road etc.)

I hope these hints and tips are helpful. I’ll be following you all on Instagram, be sure to follow back @dogwalkingcoach