Our story
Dogs Didn’t Change.
We Did.
A brand for people who remember when dogs had jobs, not Instagram accounts.
The premise
There was a time when a dog could spend the day in the woods, ride home in the back of a pickup, sleep beside the wood stove and still be one of the most loved members of the household.
Nobody needed to call him a fur baby.
Dogs Were Dogs™ is for people who remember that relationship — and for people who think maybe we had something right.
We aren’t making fun of dogs.
We’re making fun of what humans have done to dog ownership.
They loved their dogs enormously. They just didn’t organize their identity around owning one.
How this started
A Simple Observation
Dogs Were Dogs™ started with a simple observation: dog ownership changed.
The inspiration came partly from memories of rural Adirondack life. Dogs hunted. They explored. They got dirty. They rode in trucks. They slept by the stove. They were companions, workers, watchdogs and best friends.
And people loved them enormously.
The difference wasn’t the love. It was the relationship.
Today a dog can have a stroller, a wardrobe, a birthday party and a social-media account before he has figured out where the squirrels live.
We’re not here to tell anybody how to love a dog. We’re just willing to notice how strange humans have become about it.
So this is for the dog owners who still use the phrase “dog owner.”
For the people whose dogs would rather have a stick than an accessory.
For the dogs that come home tired and dirty.