Since I arrived at Denison, I have experienced severe Jilly withdrawal. Since I am forced to be away from my cuddle buddy, I’ve spent my time admiring pictures of the two of us, making video collages of us playing together, and every so often, I hear a faint bark of her voice… yes, I am referring to my 8 year old Shih Tzu and Bichon Frise mix. Throughout my first couple weeks of Jilly withdrawal, I stumbled upon the world of owner-run dog Instagrams. As soon as I discovered this trend, I fell into a deep hole of Corgi fan accounts, life of a Labrador blogs, and brand-sponsored Chiwawa pages that featured bedazzled accessories. I was both intrigued and overwhelmed to say the least… so I decided to dive headfirst into my own. After stalking countless dog accounts, I realized exactly what I needed to include in Jilly’s Instagram bio. Name, age, birthday, and breed seemed to be the essentials to any successful account, so I set everything up to the best of my ability and began to follow as many other dogs as I could. Laying there in my dorm, surfing through social media as my beloved dog, became a strangely relaxing pastime for me. Around mid-September, I realized that I needed some engagement; I needed to start posting AS MY DOG. As my roommate and I fell over in laughter, I started to edit every picture of Jilly on my phone and post them with my “creative” captions… it is quite difficult to pretend to be a dog. However, once I kept up with the frequent posts, the follows and likes began to roll in…
One month later, Jilly is resting very comfortably at 106 followers! I will admit that keeping up with my dog’s Instagram from a remote location has given me a bit of difficulty, but my mom has jumped onboard by sending pictures of her at home on a regular basis. I am still not entirely comfortable with posting as a dog, engaging with other dogs as a dog, and pretending to live as a dog, but the comments and direct messages I have received are extremely hilarious… Who knew dogs flirt with each other online? Of course, Jilly keeps boundaries with strangers… dog accounts also receive a disturbing amount of spam from illegitimate collar and leash companies. Throughout this experience, I have also learned the importance of interacting with various accounts of different breeds (Jilly does not discriminate). It is very important to respond to any comment that comes from an Instagram-verified page. Additionally, adding various hashtags to each pictures allows for more exposure. I am sure they are many more tricks to learn, but I have been having a lot of fun trying to navigate through humorous concept. This world is extremely fascinating to me, but to be blunt, I am a little embarrassed to be exposing myself as a dog Instagrammer. Anyway, feel free to check out her page @teddybearjill !!