Your dog’s bio and photo

Your dog’s bio and photo is your chance to present your foster to the world! This entails creating an accurate and well-written bio accompanied by one or more clear, well-shot photographs. Here is some information to help you create the best bio possible and some hints for taking a great photo of your foster!

Writing the bio:

Your dog’s bio should contain the following information (without being too long!):

• Dogs name
• Breed
• Age
• Gender
• Weight
• Health issues
• Housetrained or not
• Child or not child friendly
• Gets along with other dogs or not
• Walks well on a leash or not
• Rides well in a car
• What state you live in (so we know which petfinder website to add your foster)
• Where does the dog sleep
• any personality or cute things that the baby does will add a personal touch to the bio that will capture the attention of potential adoptive parents.

While working applications, many potential adoptive parents have asked if the furbaby walks well on a leash because they love to take nice long walks each evening or ask if the baby travels well in a car because they take the furbaby everywhere they go and on all of their vacations (which we love). These things may not sound important to you, but to the person who is fitting a new “stranger” into their household, this info is very important to them. We do not match up dogs to people, but we find the perfect home for each individual foster.

Keep bios positive!  housetrained, not housebroken. If a dog is timid, say he needs a patient home to help him become better socialized,  commercial breeder or breeder instead of puppy mill, working on housetraining, don’t say he’s a ‘marker’, etc.

Here are a couple examples of nicely written bios:

Jack is a friendly and playful 6 yr. old Pekingese boy who weighs about 14 lbs. He enjoys playing with other dogs and gentle children. Jack is nicely house trained, and loves car rides and going for walks on his leash. Jack loves to play with his toys almost as much as he loves to sleep in the big bed with his foster mom!  This handsome Peke boy is very loving and sweet, and fostering in the Northeast.

Hi there! My name is Peanut and I am an easy-going 9 year old Pomeranian weighing in at just 5 lbs. My foster mom loves my lush black coat and thinks I am quite a handsome boy. I have grade 3 luxating patellas, which isn’t uncommon for a Pomeranian my age. This means I can’t jump but I still like to go for short walks and I love rides in the car. My foster mom even takes me shopping sometimes and I just love my dog carrier! I don’t really play with toys much, preferring to snuggle with my foster mom on the couch. Did I mention I’m even housetrained?! Because of my small size and mature age, an adult home would be best for me. I get along well with other dogs because I am pretty laid back and prefer to sleep in my doughnut doggie bed at night. If you are looking for a portable companion, ask about Peanut the Pomeranian! I am fostering in the mid-Atlantic.

Taking your dog’s photo:

Many times adoptive parents said that they “fell in love with the photo” of the baby when they first saw him/her on the website or petfinder. We want to receive as many applications as possible on each baby so that we have a greater resource for finding the perfect home for each baby!

Here are some guidelines for photographs:

1. Try to avoid pictures of  foster babies wearing belly bands or prissy pants in the photographs. We do not want to do this because it gives the illusion of an incontinent baby, not just a baby who is working on housetraining. So please remove belly bands and prissy pants before photographing your foster baby.
2. Secondly, watch your background on the photos. Lets not take a photo of the baby standing in front of his crate or beside the trash. Please do not photo a dark or black furbaby in front of a black or dark background. Same goes for photographing a white or light colored dog in front of a white or light background. Contrast really shows off your baby.
3. We also do not want photos that look like we are restraining the baby. So no photos of your hands on the face or around their neck. If you are concerned with a wild child who does not pose for the camera, then consider placing them on a comfy chair or some place that is elevated so the baby will remain still.
4. Natural lights generally photographs best. To avoid that dreaded “red eye”, try to capture your furbaby outside or near a window to avoid using a flash.
5. Send 2 or more photos! If possible, send one face shot of your furbaby and at least one full body shot.

As soon as your foster is acclimated and ready to be posted on petfinder.com and stfbr.org, please email your bio and photo(s) to dogbios@gmail.com.

Please note, that bios are reviewed by Meredith and may not be posted immediately. If you have any questions, please email tzumom1@gmail.com.

Thank you!