Including Your Dog in Family Photos: What You Need to Know

For a lot of families, the dog is not an accessory to family life — it is a member of it, and often one of the most photogenic members at that. So it is no surprise that "can we include our dog?" is one of the questions I hear most often when families book a portrait session, and increasingly when couples plan their wedding day too. The honest answer is almost always yes, but including a dog well takes a bit more planning than simply bringing them along and hoping for the best. Dogs do not understand what a photo session is, they do not hold poses, and they operate on their own timetable of attention and energy. Working with that reality, rather than against it, is what separates a family photo with a dog awkwardly wedged into the corner of the frame from one where the dog genuinely feels like part of the family story.

Deciding Whether to Include Your Dog

Before getting into logistics, it is worth being honest with yourself about whether your dog is actually going to enjoy the experience. A confident, sociable dog who is comfortable around new environments and a bit of commotion will usually have a genuinely good time at a family session — new smells, new space to explore, plenty of attention. A dog who is anxious around strangers, reactive to other dogs, or genuinely distressed by unfamiliar places is not going to produce relaxed, joyful photographs no matter how skilled the photographer is, and forcing the situation is not fair to the dog or to the rest of the family trying to enjoy the session.

If your dog falls into that second category, there are still options. Some families choose to photograph the dog separately, at home, in an environment where they are calm, and have those images edited or presented alongside the main family set. Others do a very short, low-pressure appearance at the start of the session, before the dog has had time to become overstimulated, and then have them collected by a friend or family member for the rest of the shoot. Neither of these compromises the honesty of the final gallery — they just work with the animal you actually have rather than the one you wish you had.

Timing the Session Around Your Dog, Not Just the Children

Family sessions are usually planned around children's nap schedules and energy levels, and dogs need the same consideration. A dog who has had a long walk and a chance to relieve themselves an hour or two before the session will be calmer and more responsive than one who arrives full of pent-up energy straight from the car. I generally recommend a decent walk earlier in the day, then a shorter, calmer walk to the location itself so the dog arrives alert but not wound up.

Time of day matters for dogs in a way that is easy to overlook. A midday session in summer heat is uncomfortable for a dog in a way it might not be for the humans, particularly for flat-faced breeds who struggle to regulate their temperature, or older dogs with joint stiffness who find a lot of standing and waiting genuinely tiring. Early morning or early evening sessions tend to work better on both counts — cooler temperatures for the dog and that flattering low light for the photographs, which is one of the reasons I favour those windows for outdoor sessions generally.

Practical Preparation That Actually Makes a Difference

A few small preparations go a long way. Bring your dog's favourite treats, cut into small pieces so you can reward attention repeatedly through the session without filling them up. Bring a favourite squeaky toy or something that reliably gets their ears up and their eyes bright — this is often more useful than any amount of calling their name, which they will tune out after the third or fourth repetition. Bring water and a bowl, especially for anything longer than twenty minutes outdoors.

Grooming is worth thinking about a day or two ahead rather than the morning of, so your dog is clean and comfortable without smelling strongly of fresh shampoo, which some dogs find irritating and will spend the whole session trying to shake off or roll away from. If your dog wears a collar for photographs, a plain leather or fabric collar in a neutral tone photographs much better than a busy printed one, and it is worth removing an obviously branded harness or hi-vis lead just before the actual photographs, even if you keep them on for safety during the walk to the location.

Have a second person on hand whose only job is managing the dog. Trying to parent young children and simultaneously handle an excited dog is a genuinely difficult juggling act, and it shows in the resulting photographs as visible stress rather than relaxed enjoyment. A grandparent, friend, or older sibling who is comfortable with the dog and stays just out of frame, ready to call their name or toss a treat on cue, makes an enormous practical difference to how smoothly the session runs.

Composing Photographs That Include the Whole Family, Dog Included

The temptation with dogs in family photographs is to try to get everyone looking at the camera at the same moment, which with a dog in the frame is genuinely difficult to achieve reliably and, more importantly, rarely produces the most natural image anyway. Some of the best dog-inclusive family photographs I have taken involve the dog looking somewhere else entirely — watching a child, chasing a thrown stick just out of frame, or simply mid-stride walking alongside the family rather than posed and staring down the lens.

I tend to work in bursts during dog-inclusive portions of a session, taking many frames in quick succession rather than waiting for one perfect composed moment, because dogs move fast and unpredictably and the best expression — ears up, tail mid-wag, tongue out in a genuine pant of happiness — often lasts a fraction of a second. This is a different working rhythm to the more composed portrait work in a session, and it is worth allowing extra time in the schedule for it rather than trying to squeeze it into the last five rushed minutes.

Height and positioning matter too. Photographing a dog from standing adult height makes them look small and secondary in the frame. Getting down to the dog's eye level, even briefly, produces images with much more presence and personality, and often ends up being the family's favourite image from the whole session. If children are also getting down to the dog's level to interact with them, that combination of a genuine, unposed moment at eye level is very often where the strongest photograph in the whole gallery comes from.

Including Dogs in Wedding Day Photographs

Dogs at weddings have become genuinely common in the last decade, and for good reason — if your dog has been part of your relationship from the beginning, it makes sense that they would be part of the day that celebrates it. The practicalities are more involved than a family portrait session, though, because a wedding day has a lot of moving parts, a lot of people, and a schedule that does not pause easily if a dog needs a break.

My general advice for couples wanting their dog involved in wedding photographs is to keep their actual presence focused and time-limited rather than trying to have them present all day. A dedicated portrait slot with the couple and the dog, ideally scheduled during a quieter part of the day such as directly after the ceremony or during a natural gap before the wedding breakfast, tends to work far better than hoping the dog will behave calmly through a reception with music, dancing, and dozens of unfamiliar people. Assign a specific person — not a member of the wedding party with other responsibilities — whose sole job on the day is to look after the dog, bring them for the portrait slot, and then take them home or to a quiet space afterwards. If you are planning this kind of day, it is worth reading more generally about a pet-friendly wedding photographer approach and discussing the timing directly as part of your wedding photography planning.

Most UK wedding venues that allow dogs restrict them to outdoor areas and grounds rather than allowing them inside for the ceremony or reception, so check your specific venue's policy well in advance rather than assuming. Some venues welcome a dog for photographs on the lawn but not in the building at all; others are more flexible for a well-behaved dog on a lead during a quiet moment. Building this into your day-of timeline, rather than treating it as an afterthought, avoids a stressful scramble on the morning itself.

When a Dedicated Pet Session Might Suit You Better

Not every family wants their dog woven into a full family or wedding session, and that is a completely reasonable choice. Some families prefer a separate, dedicated session focused entirely on the dog, without the added complexity of managing children's attention spans at the same time. A standalone pet session gives the dog the photographer's full attention, allows for more time to let their personality come through, and can be scheduled on a day and at a location that suits the dog specifically rather than being fitted around everything else. If that sounds like a better fit, it is worth looking at dedicated pet photography options, including sessions built specifically around dogs in locations such as Cambridge and the surrounding countryside.

There is also a lovely middle option that some families choose: two short sessions rather than one long one. A calm, focused pet portrait session on its own, followed at a later date by a family session where the dog makes a brief, well-rested appearance for a handful of images. This spreads the pressure across two more manageable windows rather than asking one single session to accommodate everyone's attention span and energy level at once, and it often produces stronger images from both sessions as a result.

What to Do If Your Dog Simply Will Not Settle on the Day

Sometimes, despite all the preparation, a dog is just not in the mood on the day — overexcited by a new environment, distracted by another dog nearby, or unexpectedly anxious. If this happens, do not panic, and do not spend the whole session trying to force cooperation, because that stress transfers visibly to the rest of the family and to the images of the humans as well as the dog. I would rather capture five genuinely relaxed minutes with the dog at the very start or end of a session, when everyone still has patience, than spend the whole booking wrestling with a dog who is clearly not enjoying themselves. A shorter, honest set of dog photographs is always preferable to a longer set that shows visible frustration on everyone's face, human and canine alike.

If it becomes clear early on that the dog needs to leave, having that second person ready to take them home or to a quieter spot means the rest of the family session is not derailed either. This is exactly why planning ahead for who is managing the dog, and building in a natural point where they can exit gracefully, is worth the five minutes of conversation before the session rather than figuring it out on the day itself.

Dogs bring a particular kind of unguarded joy to family photographs that is genuinely hard to replicate any other way — the way children light up around them, the way a dog leaning into someone's side says something true about that relationship that no posed portrait quite manages. Whether you are planning a family session, thinking about your pricing and packages, or want your dog woven into your wedding day, I am always happy to talk through what will work best for your particular animal. Get in touch with Yana Skakun Photography via the contact page and we will plan a session that suits your whole family, four-legged members included.