National Dog Day, which falls on August 26, feels like a holiday invented for social media — an excuse to post photos of the pups in your life. But the celebration dates back to 2004, before the creation even of Facebook, established to bring awareness to all the very good boys and girls waiting to be adopted from animal shelters. For rescue organizations, a crucial first step in their work is catching the attention of potential pet parents with undeniably appealing photos. They understand that photography has the power to capture dogs’ essence and, well, make us fall in love with them.
In that spirit, we’ve compiled some of our favorite dog photos on 1stDibs. And if scrolling through these images leads you to scrolling through photos of adoptable pups at a local shelter, then we’re happy to take credit for it.
