What’s Your Fancy? The Dogist’s Elias Weiss Friedman on His Dog Travel Essentials
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What’s Your Fancy? The Dogist’s Elias Weiss Friedman on His Dog Travel Essentials
Elias Weiss Friedman, better known as the Dogist, has photographed 50,000 dogs in the last 11 years. His new book, This Dog Will Change Your Life, will be his first long-form book. Friedman says his dog, Elsa, is great on the road and loves hiking in the woods. He has yet to fly with Elsa, but hopes to one day visit Japan or Australia. He says his no. 1 tip for photographing dogs: “Have something that interests them. You have to pay them for their work!” He also says to create something new or novel, whether it’s a treat that is new or making a sound.
Elsa, is a good traveler. “Luckily!” Elias Weiss Friedman, the content creator better known as the Dogist, says of his own pup. “I know not all dogs are good in the car, but Elsa is great. She hops right in and then just naps in the back.”
A few years ago, Friedman and his now-wife, Sam, did a cross-country road trip with Elsa. “It was amazing,” he says. “One of the trips of our lives.” Friedman continues, “It’s great to travel with your dog, because you don’t feel like you miss them and they make the experience even better. And, they just enhance every aspect of your life. And so if they’re there, then it enhances it even more.”
Friedman has yet to fly with Elsa—he and Sam drove her down from New York to Florida, so she could attend their wedding as the “dog of honor”—but hopes to one day visit Japan or Australia. “Elsa’s dream is probably to go hiking in Colorado or something,” he says. “She likes being in the woods and looking at all the smells. We try to give her that as much as possible.”
The Dogist, a franchise which now lives on Instagram and TikTok, features portraits of dogs, but Elias is now expanding into writing, too, as he releases his first longform book, This Dog Will Change Your Life. He estimates he’s photographed around 50,000 dogs in the last 11 years, “and no two are the same.”
Not in the book, however, is his no. 1 tip for photographing dogs: “Have something that interests them. You have to pay them for their work!” he says. “I have the advantage of being a new person to these dogs that I meet. So they want to meet me, and they’re curious about who I am. The more I get to know one dog, my affect wears off a little bit. It’s hard to photograph your own dog; I have a lot of trouble photographing Elsa! So I would say create something new or novel, whether it’s a treat that is new or making a sound. I know lots of people think they can’t make weird noises, but really you can. Whether it’s a puppy noise or a baby noise—something to get your dog’s attention. But use it somewhat sparingly, because they become desensitized.”
Ahead of the book’s release, Friedman spoke with T&C about his dog travel essentials.