One of the most common questions I receive about my photos is, “How do you get your dogs to look at the camera?”
I’ve been photographing my dogs for over 15 years, mostly outdoors in a high distraction environment, so I thought I would share some of what I have learned about taking good photos with your dog’s face actually in them.
If you are wondering how your dog can sense you are trying to take a picture, why they turn away, and how you can get your dog to look at the camera more consistently, you have come to the right place.
Why Does My Dog Dislike the Camera?
Dogs communicate with each other, and with the world around them, through body language.
One way dogs communicate is by staring intently at each other. Most dogs perceive this as a threat and they may feel fearful or defensive.
A camera lens can look like an eyeball to dogs. If you have a DSLR, it can look like a great big eyeball. When you point it right at them, or get in their face with it, it can make a dog nervous.
At the very least, a dog may turn or walk away to show appeasement or submissive behavior. At the worst, a dog may bark and lunge toward the camera.
Also, cameras often make a whizzing, whining, or clicking noise when zooming or taking a picture. While the sounds may be too subtle or high-pitched for us to hear, a dog hears a wider range of sounds than we do. What we don’t hear may sound loud and clear to them and it may scare them.
Although it’s typically not a good idea to use a flash when photographing animals because it can turn their eyes red, sometimes the lighting conditions require one. This flash of light can startle a dog or be interpreted as something to fear, which can make a dog less likely to look at the camera next time.
How Does My Dog Know I’m Taking a Picture?
You slowly slip the camera out of your pocket, try to be as quiet and stealthy as possible as you point the camera in your dog’s direction, and just when you get ready to take the perfect photo, your dog looks and/or moves away.
How does your dog just seem to know??
Well, besides the obvious – being able to see the camera – you may also be sending other strange signals to your dog.
Despite your best efforts to appear as if you’re not doing anything when trying to capture a cute picture of your dog, you in fact are doing something.
Our body language often changes when we are trying to be sneaky to capture our dogs on camera. We may become abnormally still, we may slowly creep up on our dog, we may slouch down on the couch, we may stand in a weird position,
In other words, your dog knows you are trying to take a picture of them because you are probably telling them with your body language (which is your dog’s primary language BTW).
How to Get Your Dog to Look at the Camera
So how do you capture the cute or funny moment you are witnessing on camera?
There is a long way and a short way to get your dog to look at the camera.
The long way is by using desensitization and counter-conditioning to change the way your dog feels about the camera and their response to it. By using these techniques, you can teach your dog to see the camera as a wonderful thing, not something to be feared.
If you want a temporary (temporary if your dog gets wise to your tricks) and quick way to get your dog to look at your camera, check out the tips below.
The short way involves things to rapidly grab their attention and get them to look in the direction of your camera lens. I share those tricks below.
9 Tricks to Get Your Dog to Look at the Camera
These are tips I’ve learned about and used over the years.
Sometimes I have to use more than one in succession to grab my dog’s attention. There are also some that worked at first but then stopped working.
You’ll have to experiment and see which ones work for your dog on a consistent basis.
Once you get that figured out, you’ll be able to capture your dog’s expression in photos and get more in-focus images.
1) Use treats
Some dogs will look at treats intently in anticipation. Especially if it’s right before meal time or they have been active, making them extra hungry.
If your dog doesn’t naturally care about treats that much, you can work off camera to teach your dog to “look” at you.
To do this, place a dog treat next to your eye, say “look”, and only reward your dog when they make eye contact.
2) Squeak a toy
The high-pitched sound of your dog’s favorite squeakie toy can make them look to see what you have in your hand.
Simply hold your hand up to the camera lens, or where you want them to look, and squeak away.
It can also help if you have someone assist you with the squeaking so you can keep both hands on the camera to steady it and concentrate on getting the best shot.
3) Make a strange sound
Try making a strange sound with your voice like a meow, whistle, bark, moo, etc.
4) Throw something behind you
Dogs are often intrigued by fast moving objects, especially ones moving away from them. Some dogs think it may be a critter they can chase.
If you throw a stick, ball, or rock you found in the grass, behind you, your dog may watch it fly through the air and land.
5) Clap Your Hands
Sometimes a sudden noise can interrupt your dog from whatever they are doing to look.
Since clapping takes two hands, you will need an assistant for this one. It can be very effective though.
It’s best to have this person stand behind you and the camera when doing this.
If you are alone, you can try snapping your fingers instead. It may not work as the noise is usually more subtle (unless you are a really strong snapper) but it might.
6) Get in their line of sight
One of the tricks to good pet photography is to simply spend some time observing your dog going about their business and take photos along the way.
If you want to capture a photo of your dog looking at the camera, get between them and something that is grabbing their attention in the distance.
7) Use your dog’s favorite words
Are there any special words you say at home that immediately snap your dog’s head to attention? Words like “walk” or “food”?
While I try to use this trick sparingly, as to not confuse my dog or desensitize them to it, it can come in handy in a pinch.
8) Use an app
Consider downloading an app to your cell phone that will make attention grabbing sounds to help get your dog’s attention.
A couple available apps to do this are animal sounds or Isqueak.
To me, using an app to make a sound, vs your voice, takes more coordination and correct timing but the sounds are more realistic, which are more likely to grab your dog’s attention.
9) Practice patience
Many dogs will eventually look at their owner to check in.
If you hang out in one place until your dog relaxes and starts to look around, the chance they will gaze at you is good and that is the perfect time to snap your picture.
I have one more tip but I didn’t include it in the list because it’s not directly about getting our dog to look at the camera. That’s burst mode.
Bonus Tip
If you shoot in burst mode, your camera will capture several pictures in rapid succession while holding the shutter down.
The chance of one of those images capturing your dog looking at the camera is better than if you only took one at a time.
Most cameras these days have a burst mode setting. Even most cell phones these days have that feature.
With some, you need to go into settings and turn it on. However, I accidentally discovered my Samsung does it simply by continuously holding down the camera shutter button.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this information and these tips will help end your frustration and let you capture more pictures where your dog is actually looking at the camera.
However, do remember that photos where you dog is not looking at the camera can also be nice and add visual interest. For example, if your dog is looking to the right, line your dog up in the left portion of your screen so it appears your dog is looking off in the distance.
For a quality photo, you want good lighting too. Indoors, if possible, take a photo near a window with bright (but not sunny) light. Outdoors, photos will turn out best if the photo can be taken entirely in sunlight or entirely in the shade (shade and overcast days are my favorite lighting situations!)
Practice makes perfect, so grab your phone or DSLR and spent 30 minutes every day for a few days practicing.
English (US) · 