I will be the first to admit that I have an unhealthy obsession with dogs. I own a shirt that says "I'd rather be with my dog" with a yellow lab on it (I have two yellow labs and they're the only boys I need in my life). I have spent embarrassing amounts of time crafting different strategies for how I could smuggle a puppy into my dorm and rationalized how I would feed and walk it without anyone noticing. So, for all of those of you who relate, here are some signs that you are also entirely obsessed with dogs.
1. You have about as many pictures of dogs on your phone as people.
If you opened up your phone camera roll right now, you'd be knee deep in pictures of various different dogs that you've sent to your friends or just kept on your phone because they're just so freaking cute or funny or perfect in every way. "Why do you have a picture of a dog dressed up as a pineapple standing on a plate of fruit?" You're not even entirely sure why you have that, but you know it's an absolute necessity to have on your phone.
2. You also have an obscene amount of pictures of your own dog(s).
If you have or have had a dog of your own, you pull up about seven different pictures of them any time anyone mentions dogs. "Wanna see pictures of my dog? He/she is the cutest thing you've ever seen, I'm obsessed." Even if they don't want to see pictures of your dogs you make them look at every picture you have, and guilt them into saying your dog is really cute. You also adore it when someone responds by showing you pictures of their own dog, and then you bond and become best friends with this fellow dog lover. Maybe you'll even share this article on their wall.
Here's one of about 58 pictures I have of my dogs because they're so freaking cute. 
3. You spend large amounts of time watching videos of dogs.
Whether it's on Instagram, your Facebook feed, or YouTube, you know that if you watch one dog video, there's no stopping you. It's almost like a Netflix binge, and two hours later you're tearing up over a video of a puppy playing on a slide, and you don't know how you got to this point. You watch videos of dogs on many occasions: when you're sad and you want to be in a better mood, when you're stressed and you need something to make you smile, or just because you enjoy spending your free time this way. If you're like me and now want to go watch videos of dogs, here's one of my favorites of all time:
4. You follow a lot of dog accounts on Instagram.
Personally, 40 out of the 630 accounts I follow are about dogs. Some are owners consistently posting pictures of just one dog (examples: @itsdougthepug, @misterbaguette, @goldenalbus), a specific breed that you particularly adore (examples: @corgistagrams, @bulldogstuff, @retrieverstagram), or just general accounts that post a lot of pictures of a lot of dogs (examples: @thispuppylife, @thedogist, @dogsofinstagram). All of these accounts bring you so much joy, and you frequently screenshot these pictures and send them to friends saying that you want to steal the dog in the picture because it's so adorable.
5. Every time you see a dog when you're out and about, you freak out.
"LOOK AT THAT DOG" is a phrase your friends hear very often. Every single time, you're so tempted to pet it, but you're also very intimidated to ask the owner if you can pet their dog. Your friends often pretend to not know you because they find it embarrassing that you're gawking at someone's dog.
6. You've made friends with people because you know they just got a new puppy.
Don't lie, you have, even though you're not proud of it and felt a little bad. But is a Snapchat of your cute new little puppy not an invitation to come over and pet said puppy and essentially ignore you? I'm sorry but you can't try to compete for my attention when there's a little clumsy puppy running around. It's just not a reality.
7. You have gone somewhere just to pet dogs.
You're not ashamed to admit that you searched for a place to go just to pet puppies, made a plan to go there and then driven somewhere completely out of your way. It was absolutely worth the 35-minute drive to the middle of nowhere to go to a kennel to pet some dogs. You find nothing even remotely unreasonable about that.
8. When you do pet dogs, you talk to them in a voice that sounds like you're talking to a small child.
Everyone around you looks at you like you're absolutely crazy for talking in "baby voice," and you don't really notice it until you see the confused looks on their faces. "Who's a good dog? You are! Yes you are, you're such a good dog," just doesn't sound as enthusiastic in a normal voice.
9. You also have full-on conversations with your dogs about life.
It's not weird, I swear. They're very good listeners and they pretend to care a lot more than people do sometimes. And sometimes you wish they could talk back.
10. You've browsed adoption websites on more than one occasion and rationalized adopting one or many dogs.
This is super dangerous territory to enter because every single time you almost adopt at least five dogs and you give them all a backstory and feel like you're deeply hurting their feelings by not adopting them, even though they didn't really know you were considering it in the first place.
(But really if you want a dog you should consider adopting! A lot of wonderful puppies need a home!)
11. What you miss most about home is seeing your dogs.
Yes, of course you miss your family and friends, but for some reason being with your dog or even just seeing dogs regularly is something that you miss so much you could probably cry about it. But when you are reunited, it's the most exciting thing ever.
12. And you annoy your family biweekly about sending you pictures of your dogs.
They have just started to send them randomly on a semi-regular basis so you stop texting them asking for pictures of the dogs instead of asking how their day was.
13. You could find things like "dogs in flower pots" or "dogs playing in snow" and other oddly specific things in your Google search history.
You don't really have an answer to justify why this is, but you're OK with it.
14. You cannot go to a movie if there's a possibility the dog dies.
"Marley and Me?" "Old Yeller?" "Where the Red Fern Grows?" Any movie where the dog dies is an absolute no-go for you. You can't even handle dogs being anything but happy in movies because all dogs deserve to be happy all the time and never sad ever. For those of you that can't emotionally handle movies where dogs die, here's a helpful website to search before you agree to go to the movies. Nobody needs to start bawling on a first date because the dog dies.
15. You couldn't date anyone that doesn't like dogs.
Dogs before dudes. End of story.
There's a reason that they call them man's best friend: it's because they're the best. Please share this on a fellow dog lover's wall to make their day!
