How to Get Your Dog on TV

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By Lija Rasa
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Article Rating: (8 Ratings)

Get your cutie dog on TV!

Do you want to see your dog on TV? Who wouldn't! If you think that your dog is the smartest, the funniest, the most wonderful, the most beautiful, and just overall the most awesome dog ever, welcome to the club. But even with all the competition, your beloved puppy deserves the fifteen (or more!) minutes of fame. And not by winning the Best in Show - if your dog was that kind of show material, you probably wouldn't need any help getting the exposure. This article is about using the technology available these days to get your dog pictures seen or videos watched by lots of people. If you can make that happen - your dog might just end up on TV.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

An awesome dog!
Video Camera
Digital Camera
Internet connection

Step 1

***Get your dog on film***

Get your dog on film as often as you can. You could set up a camera in your house or in the yard if that's where your dog plays and does funny things. If your dog does something funny - you want to have a recording of it. If the dog can do tricks, great - record it. If you have other pets, and your puppy plays with them, even better, people love to watch such videos. In order to get on TV, the videos have to be really funny or awesomely cute. You are the director here - try to make that happen.
Step 2

***Upload your dog videos on youtube***

If you don't yet have a youtube account, go to youtube.com and sign up. Upload some of the videos of your dog, and make sure to give them catchy titles. A generic title like "My Dog Playing" is a lot less likely to attract viewers than something crazy like "My Dog Flying Monkey Style". Videos that receive a lot of hits often end up on national TV.
Step 3

***Promote your dog videos***

Put links to the videos in your email signature, on your social networking (like Facebook or MySpace) pages, in your signature at any pet discussion forums, etc. You can even email the links to your friends. If the videos are worth watching - they won't mind. And if they are really good, people will forward them to friends, bookmark them, etc.
If you are willing to do even more work, create a blog or a website dedicated to your dog. In addition to videos, take lots of cute pictures of your dog to put on your site.
Step 4

***Contact your local TV stations***

On slow news days, it's not uncommon to see cute dog clips on the local news. Help your local TV affiliates to come up with entertaining programming by sending in some of your awesome dog videos. If the viewer response is good, your dog might even make onto national TV.
Step 5

***Send in your dog videos to shows or competitions***

Try shows like Planet's Funniest Animals (Animal Planet) or America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC).
If your dog is misbehaving really badly, try Cesar Milan's Dog Whisperer (National Geographic). Although that might not be the type of exposure you want, you might be able to create a popular blog about training your dog afterward.
Step 6

***Sign up with animal talent websites and look for casting calls***

Photographers and producers often look for dogs (and other animals) for various projects, and your dog might just get picked. Check for links to some animal talent sites below.
As for casting calls - search online, type in something like "dog casting calls" in Google and you will get lots of hits. Some casting calls are for dog training shows, some want misbehaved dogs, some want really well trained dogs, so keep looking, and you might just find one that your puppy is perfect for.
You will need good quality pictures or sometimes videos for this purpose. But if you followed the previous steps, this shouldn't be a problem.