Networking Sites Get Focused With Dog Lovers’ Communities

By : Colleen P Kelly
If you’ve joined the online networking craze, you know how easy it is to stay connected with your buddies through Facebook, or to keep up with your sister through Myspace. But you might be asking yourself, as a dog lover, what’s out there for me? How can I connect with new friends online who share my hobbies and interests? Well, you’re in luck. New networking sites have popped up that offer forums for chatting, pictures and videos for browsing, and friendship for people all over the world living the avid dog lover lifestyle.

Different Sites for Different Types

Is it cute puppy pictures you’re after, or local canine community connections? Whatever your interests are, there’s a site to satisfy any dog related fix.

For the avid puppy picture collector, there’s Dogster.com – having been around the longest, 3 years, it’s the grandfather of dog networking sites. Or, for those looking to become better acquainted with the dogs they like best, a relatively newer site, Dogphoria.com, encourages members to write a story for every picture. These stories are like blogs in that you can keep up-to-date with everything going on in other dogs' lives.

If meeting local dog lovers is what you’re after, then sites like Pawspot.com and Petpop.com will suit you. Here you’ll set up a personalized puppy profile as well as your own human profile to connect with owners. Do you live near a specific park? Search around for other people who visit there. You might even make some new friends offline.

Joining a Community

The biggest draw of these dog networking sites is the sense of community that they foster among dog owners.

In addition to daily picture posts, many of these dog networking sites such as Dogster.com and Petpop.com include forums where their members can share and gather tips about pet care, nutrition, and grooming, among other things. In the wake of the recent pet food scare, many people found help and advice in the forums of their favorite dog social network. The forums are “a place to have little conversations,” says Molly Price, whose dog Daisy has been a Dogster.com member since early this year, “you can get tips on everything.”

Belinda Hoosech, an artist and dog lover from Los Angeles, has a profile for her dog Jake on Dogphoria.com and says that although she set up a myspace.com profile for her dog on the extremely popular networking site for people, she just didn’t find the same sense of community that she got from Dogphoria.

Although people are creating dog profiles and write in the persona of the dog, it is still the owner that is crafting the dog’s image based on its personality. Hoosech explains that as she browses the daily phories on Dogphoria.com – the website’s word for photos and their related stories – she starts to recognize favorite dogs, and begins to connect with the person who is writing these stories through the voice of his or her dog. “You get to know people really well through that,” says Hoosech, “the owner’s dogs takes on their owner’s personalities.”

Through the dogs they meet on these networking sites, members learn about each other’s upcoming weddings, vacations, or even illnesses and bad news. The site provides a place where people can support one another through difficult times such as illness, surgery, or even the unfortunate death of a beloved pet. When she learned about the death of another member’s dog, Hoosech says that she “cried as much as the person on the other end.”

Outside of the website, Hoosech has made a number of friends through Dogphoria.com and has even met some of them in her local area when she was invited for walks or to a dog’s birthday party. There has even been some talk of organizing a Dogphoria event somewhere in the United States.

So, if you are an avid dog lover and your Fido or Rover doesn’t have an online profile yet, it’s time for you to explore the online dog lifestyle scene. Now there is a place for you to show off your little – or big – cutie while satisfying your daily dose of doggy dish.



Author's Resource:

www.smilinjake.com www.dogster.com www.dogphoria.com

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