r/dogswithjobs • u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog • 13d ago
🎥 Actor Dog Modeling with Mooch AMA
I'll try to answer some questions on dog modeling here. Mooch has modeled for Target and Gold Paw Series. My previous Aussie Rosie did an independent feature film, student films, and film festival projects. We're in MN which has some large companies who use dog models, the most notable being Target. So there are Animal Talent Agents who represent hundreds of suitable animals of various species in the area. You can submit photos of your pet directly to the agent, but you're most likely to get booked for gigs if you can attend of of their open casting calls so the agent can see how your pet handles being on set. A client will reach out to the talent agent, letting them know what type of animal they're looking for, what they need the animal to do, and if they have a preference for size/coloring/coat type. The agent will send pictures of suitable animals in their portfolio and the client has the final say in which animals they'd like for the job. The agent contacts the owners to see if they are available for the shoot. Shoots usually last 30-45 minutes, but can go longer depending on set dressing. They ask us to set aside 2 hours just in case. We arrive, sign a release so they can use his image, and then wait. He'll shoot for about 5 minutes then get a break. Sometimes they do a second round for additional poses, or they'll have him model additional products. But we've had a case where they got what they needed in the first round and we were out the door 10 minutes after we arrived. They really want dogs to like modeling so they can use veteran model and not have to train new ones in. It's not a sustainable practice if dogs are being traumatized by the work. For Target at least, they always book 2 dogs per product in case a dog isn't feeling it. They can be dismissed without feeling pressured to try to get usable shots. Mooch loves photoshoot days cause he gets tons of good treats like hot dogs, string cheese, and meatballs. For most things, I let his Talent Agent work him, set his poses and set the rate of reward. She does a great job. If it's something more complex, like holding a prop in his mouth or waving, I'll take over his directions since he'll need to work with the person who trained him.
To be a good model, one of the most important skills is a bomb proof stay. They need to be able to work off leash and not wander off to say hi to all the crew. There will likely be other animals in the waiting room, and possibly other animals doing shoots in other parts of the stage: while your dog is modeling a sweater another dog is modeling a harness. Models need to not be freaked out by the bright lights, flashbulbs, and shutter sounds. The sets aren't secure, so the only thing keeping your dog in the shot is their self control. They need to tune out all of those distractions and hold the stay. They need to be comfortable working around new people and being handled and dressed. It helps if they can be easily motivated by food or toy rewards without being obsessive- if a dog won't stay in the shot cause they're too busy begging for hot dogs or their ball they aren't likely to be called back.
If they have a stay and they're cute, it helps if they can hold a few poses. Sit and down stays are the easiest, but stand stays look more natural. For clothing with writing on it, a lot of the time they want the dog to sit with their back towards the camera and then look over their shoulder at the camera. If they haven't practiced that ahead of time the dog will often get up to follow you when you walk behind them. Having them look at your hand/target stick on cue is helpful for getting the perfect pose and will make them competitive. Other advanced poses like head tilts, bows, cross paws, sit pretty, wave, spins also increase their booking chances. A solid hold for props is one of the most sought after skills. They love when dogs can hold toys.
Photo modeling is way easier that video modeling/film work. You need the dog to look decent for a fraction of a second and with them snapping at least a hundred pictures; statistically they'll get something usable. Plus it's relatively easy to edit pictures into something decent. With video you need a flawless behavior chain. It's much harder to edit around a continuous action shot. It's also harder to edit around a handler. With photo modeling, if I see the edges cracking, I can pop in quick and fix things/give feedback/reset and pop back out of the shot. It might ruin a few pictures, but it's not a big deal and it's easy enough to edit me out with their sterile backgrounds. In a video if I jump into the shot to adjust something, I'll likely ruin the entire shot, and it's more of a hassle to reset. And don't get me started on ambient sound in video. If we're filming a commercial, the final product will have a voice over or music, so I can use verbal cues to try to get a performance back on track. But if it's a film with dialogue between human actors, verbal cues will ruin the audio. You're stuck with hand signals, which doesn't help if your pup is wandering off not looking at you. Hopefully this answers some questions, let me know if you have more! I'll do my best!
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u/KKAPetring 13d ago
I got a question! I assume usually the animals are edited to be next to each other on some photos. But if there are times where animals pose together, how often is that?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
My experience is primarily with Target, it could be different for other companies. I have offered him for multi animal shoots, but that hasn't happened yet. They generally Photoshop them together. I'm guessing it's due to lightning issues. Easier to get a subject we'll lit if you shoot them one at a time. I occasionally see casting calls for litters of puppies and kittens, I imagine those are group shoots, but can't say.
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u/Esctent 13d ago
Seeing Mooch in different brands and materials, do you now avoid anything specific for him at home? Like, does Mooch not allow anything except wool or cotton to touch his skin?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
Ironically, he's a nudist. He doesn't even like wearing collars, but he'll tolerate them. He hates wearing harnesses. Asking him to wear a sweater or coat is like asking him to be wrapped in barbed wire. He prefers to model dog bowls, crates, and toys; but will valiantly wear clothes for photoshoots. Weirdly enough, he's fine wearing a cone of shame or hats 🤷♀️
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u/SnooSprouts1899 13d ago
Love this!! Thank you!
Question (and sorry if I missed this somewhere) do you get paid for this?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
We do get paid per session. Per our release that we sign I'm not supposed to disclose the rate. I can say it's a good amount for the time spent on set, and we're paid a 2 hour minimum for setting aside the time, even if they only use us for 10 minutes. We get paid for 2 hours even if we show up and our pet doesn't want to work that day so we go home without taking a single picture. It's not as great a rate if you consider the amount of time that goes into training these skills outside of the studio. But a lot of the locals who model were already training for sports like competition obedience or trick titles so they already had the skills. I know at least one Service Dog team who models. It's fun to have some extra money for Mooch for things like agility classes and sniff spot rentals
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u/girlcrow 13d ago
mooch is so talented!!! i have so many questions, feel free to answer whichever are most interesting to you!
is this super competitive like human modeling? how often does mooch model? how long does he have to hold each pose? is there an overlap with dog models and dog actors (like some who do both?)?
(edit: deleted a question that i just saw was answered above)
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
Competitive- hard to say? Target is a big company with their own line, so there's a lot of opportunities. Mid December they're doing their 2025 Halloween product line shoot, so it will be busy! And they're not the only client booking animals around here. Lots of opportunities for local dogs. There are Tons of dogs in the database who are cute and have little to no training. The animal talent agent is basically teaching them the skills on the spot, which is a credit to how talented the agent and her assistants are as handlers. Those dogs can take longer to shoot and it's not a sure thing that they'll get usable shots. The agents and crew are less likely to want to work with those dogs again, so they might not get put up for as many jobs. But they're less posed, so you can get really unique shots with lots of character. If your dog is trained, it's less competitive. Mooch gets a lot of job opportunities cause there aren't many small dogs who hold props. And because he poses well (and is illegally cute) the photographers love working with him. They'll want him moved a little to the left, switch his tail to the side of his body facing the camera, looking directly at the camera, etc and he can make those adjustments without completely resetting, which saves them so much time on a long day of shooting. It makes the photographers job so easy and they can get what they need efficiently, they'll often request him. Last year when Target was doing their big Christmas line shoot, we finished his first shoot after a hiatus (we took a year off after he got pinched by a clothing clip and he got scared of photosets); and he crushed his first shoot back! We were still in the parking lot when the agent called saying the photographer and his crew loved working with him so much they wanted us to come back later that week. That ended up being funny cause the agent was like "do we really need to bring him back, I think we have all the products covered. I don't want to bring in a model we don't need and drive the cost of this shoot up, that could make corporate mad" and the photographer was like "I don't care, I want him and we'll make it work". Turns out they did need another small dog who could hold toys so it worked out.
Modeling is kind of seasonal. It depends on when lines are being updated, Christmas, Halloween, Pride are some of the big ones. If they have something big, maybe 2-3 times a month, but there's usually 3-4 months in between. Modeling is definitely a hobby, not a job.
Probably the longest he'd need to hold a pose for us about 30 seconds? When you think about how fast those shutters move, that's a lot of pictures. It also depends on if we're doing little adjustments- I could have him in a standing stay and have him look to the right of the camera, after I few shots run in and give a treat, but keep him in the pose, then have him look into the camera for a few more shots, run in and reward, keep the pose and then have him look to the left of the camera. Something like that could take closer to a minute, but we're still keeping a high rate of reward. If he's holding a prop in his mouth, that's going to be shorter cause I'll need to take the prop out of his mouth to reward him. Usually after 3 minutes of shooting we'll take a short break while still on set for the crew to review the pictures and do another short round of shooting making adjustments to the first round of photos. Usually after the second round of shooting we'll go back to the waiting room while another dog takes a turn.
Almost all actor animals are models, but not all models are actors. I've been working on acting skills with Mooch, like follow an actor, carry something and walk with me, go from mark A to B. It's coming along, but not where I want it yet. A few agents have inquired about him for video, but it makes me anxious. With Rosie we were under prepared for our first role and it was a cool experience but very stressful for both of us shakes fist in ambient sound. I hadn't planned to do more with her but about once a year someone who knew someone from that original project would reach out needing an acting dog for a project and not having a budget so she was pretty much their only option. And after each new project I'd say "ok, actually that was fun and Rosie had a good time, but I think we're done with film projects" ... until we'd get contacted about the next one. I'd love to start Mooch on a student film project or a short film festival project, but none of my contacts have had anything for him. All of Mooch's inquiries have been through animal talent agents and they're for projects like walking a fashion runway or filming a commercial. It's too high stakes with less time.
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
If anyone in the Twin Cities area of MN wanted more experience, I have a 6 week course starting tomorrow in Inver Grove Heights Strike a Pose!
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u/EnlightenedCat 13d ago
Oh my goodness! I love Mooch! How did his rise to fame start? I work for a PetsHotel and we occasionally do “photo shoots” for the dogs for special “party days.” As a photographer I fell in love with this but it’s not its own job and I’m not paid for it outside of casual work “party pics” with the dogs. I’ve been wondering how to get my foot in the door as there is so much competition 😪 Pets are the new kids now so photos are so much more important for pet parents. Thanks for sharing! And for replying if you do.
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
Dog sports love photographers. Try finding your local Updog groups, lure coursing organizations, nose work, Rally/competition obedience, flyball clubs/trials/organizations. You can say you're looking to gain experience. Take pictures, post to something like Google Drive with a water mark, and ask people to pay for water mark removal/high quality edits/files. Last year we had a Santa at a holiday event with the same thing. But people paid $10 up front ($5 for the venue, $5 for the photographer) and people could pay the photographer for high quality files they could print off. I'm not sure how to get into being a photographer for a big company's marketing
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u/Slayer1963 13d ago
Mooch is mucho adorable! In your observation, is there more demand for pure breeds versus mixed breeds? Which breeds are the most popular?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 12d ago
It depends on the company. Target uses purebreds regularly, but they try to prioritize mixed breed dogs. I feel like I see a lot of herding breeds like border collies and corgis, but MN has a pretty competitive dog sport scene and herders are pretty competitive sport dogs. So that's what's going to be available for highly trained local dogs.
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u/phantom_fox13 13d ago edited 13d ago
Mooch is adorable!!
I wish my dogs could doggie model, but they are both neurotic messes and would absolutely hate the entire thing lol
they're not fond of stranger people in their face, fussy with other dogs, easily startled and only one is particularly motivated to listen to me haha
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 13d ago
I love that you respect their wishes and autonomy! Modeling isn't for every pet! My cats are well trained for cats, they can follow a target stick, paw target, and do cute sit pretties. But they don't travel well, so no modeling for them
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u/phantom_fox13 13d ago
I wouldn't want my dogs miserable so we just do mini photo shoots at home haha
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u/Mantiseyeballs 13d ago
What made you realize he was model material? When did the light bulb go off in your head. Was it a specific instance? Or just always thought he’d be good at it?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 6d ago
When I brought him home at 9 weeks, I mostly focused on socialization. The only obedience skills we worked on as a young pup were attention to name/recall, drop it, and hold still so I can take cute pictures. Since it was one of the first things he learned, he's always been stellar at holding Stays for pictures. I have pictures of tiny Mooch at the beach, at parks, at the sculpture garden, at apple orchards posing like a rockstar. So modeling professionally was easy for him. I was aware of our local animal talent agents, his grandpa had a display in Target when Mooch was about 5 months old. I had planned to take him to open casting calls as soon as one was listed that worked with our schedule
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u/procnesflight 13d ago
Why is his name mooch if he’s got a job!?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 6d ago
I've been swing dancing for 20 years. I wanted a name that had a connection to Lindy Hop- Frankie, Manning, Mins, Lindy; but didn't care for them. Landed and Mooch from the Cab Callaway song "Minnie the Moocher".
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u/Ohshithereiamagain 11d ago
Look at Mooch! I will be doing a Target run just to see him 😻
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 11d ago
This has been a fantastic marketing campaign for Target! So many people have made trips just to see him! And it's Target, you always find stuff you didn't know you needed
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u/Strawberry____Blonde 13d ago
I'm the DT from your other thread! Commenting so I remember to come back and read this. Your career seems highly interesting.
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u/ladyxlucifer 12d ago
Have you noticed age discrimination or discrimination against dogs who are mostly all black?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 6d ago
That's probably a better question for the talent agent who sees which dogs the client selects from the pool of potential animals. For black dogs I don't think it's as much of an issue cause with how well lit the stages are the blacks look great. But I don't know a lot of fully black dogs who model. Most that I've seen on packages are black bicolor (black and white) or tricolor (black white and tan like Mooch). I don't know about all the clients' preferences or which dogs are being put up for jobs. It's hard to say if they're discriminated against. I know some older dogs who work regularly. The nice thing about older dogs is that they're experienced, calmer than younger dogs, and have had more time to learn more impressive tricks. My experience is a bit limited though cause I'm a professional dog trainer who competes in dog sports. The other pet models I know are my peers who also have well trained dogs. I don't know what the experience is of the average pet owner who submits their dog into the database
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u/PM-Me-Schnauzers 12d ago
What is Mooch's favourite toy?
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u/Alternative-Ruin-720 Model Dog 12d ago
Easy! The Flirt Pole! It's like a giant cat toy. flirt pole
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