How to Make a Pet Photo Calendar: A Step-by-Step Guide
To make a pet photo calendar, decide which pets are in it, gather twelve photos (one for every month) plus a cover shot, match each photo to the month it belongs in, then upload the original files and order. A personalized pet photo calendar is made to order, needs zero design skills, prints in 2-4 business days, and is backed by the Happy Tails happiness guarantee.
Last updated: August 2026 · By Patrick McCarthy
What is a pet photo calendar?
A pet photo calendar is an ordinary wall calendar with one upgrade that changes everything: the animal on every page lives in your house and has personally destroyed at least one item you liked. The store-bought version gives you a stranger's border collie mid-leap in a meadow. Gorgeous dog. Not your dog. Yours is asleep on a warm pile of clean laundry with one back leg pointed at the ceiling, and that photo is worth an entire month.
How do you make a pet photo calendar, step by step?
Six steps, about fifteen minutes of real work, and one part where you get unexpectedly emotional at your own phone.
Step 1: Cast the calendar
Single-pet households settle this in a second: he is the star, he has always been the star, he has behaved like the star since the day he arrived. Multi-pet households have a diplomatic incident on their hands. Split the year evenly and the peace holds (six months each for two pets, four each for three). If even splits feel too corporate, hand out months by personality instead: the cat takes the sunbeams, the dog takes the snow and the mud, and whoever hates the vacuum gets January, because January is already hostile.
Step 2: Raid the camera roll first
Do not start by planning a photo shoot. Open the photos app and search your pet's name, or just "dog" or "cat", because modern phones quietly sort pets into their own album and have been building your archive for years without mentioning it. Flag anything that makes you laugh out loud or go quiet, aiming for 25 to 30 candidates rather than twelve. Most people find their entire calendar right here and never take a new photo, which is the correct outcome: the best pet photos are accidents that already happened.
Step 3: Shoot only what is missing
Lay the shortlist out and look for the gaps: twenty-eight indoor shots and no outdoors, every photo from the same winter, the same head tilt eleven times (admittedly a very good head tilt). Fill the holes with a ten minute session near a window and a pocket of treats. You are collecting three or four missing pieces, not producing a magazine spread.
Step 4: Give every photo a month
This is where a nice calendar becomes one that guests comment on. Let the seasons sort most of it, then reserve the personal months: his birthday, her gotcha day, the anniversary of the couch incident. The shot list further down does the thinking for you. The payoff repeats twelve times, because on the first of each month you get a small surprise you gave yourself back in August. He will not acknowledge it. He will be asleep on the laundry again.
Step 5: Run the print check
Screens are forgiving and paper is not. Open every finalist, zoom all the way in on the eyes, and keep only the ones that stay crisp. Use the original file rather than a screenshot or a texted copy, since those have been compressed once already and print noticeably soft. Two more catch people out: horizontal photos fit a calendar page more comfortably than vertical ones, so a tall shot can lose the ear tips or the end of the tail to the crop, and heavy filters that look moody on a backlit screen tend to print muddy.
Step 6: Upload, preview, order
Upload your twelve, drop each into its month, and look at the whole year before checkout. No design skills needed: you are placing pictures you already love, not laying out a magazine. The preview catches the classic error, which is two nearly identical nap photos sitting in March and September pretending to be different photos. Then it gets made. Nothing waits in a warehouse: every calendar is printed to order in 2-4 business days and shipped, with US delivery typically about 5-10 business days, and the Happy Tails happiness guarantee covers a free reprint on any print defect.
Should you raid the camera roll or plan a photo shoot?
Both work. They cost wildly different amounts of your weekend.
| Approach | Time | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera roll raid | About 15 minutes | Anyone whose phone is older than a year | Lopsided seasons, because nobody photographs February |
| Raid plus a gap-filling shoot | 15 minutes now, 10 later | Most people, most of the time | Needs cooperation from a creature who has none |
| A planned year of shooting | A year | The deeply committed, and puppies worth documenting | You will not finish it by December |
Our honest recommendation is the middle row. Raid first, shoot three or four gap fillers, order. Perfectionism is the entire reason people are still "about to make a calendar" in March.
Which photo belongs in which month?
Steal this. It is the fastest route from a folder of favorites to a finished year.
| Month | The shot to look for | Why it lands |
|---|---|---|
| January | First encounter with snow, or maximum blanket burrito | Confusion or comfort, either works |
| February | The lap photo, the unbearably soft one | Coziest month, coziest picture |
| March | Muddy paws, wet ears, general disgrace | Nobody photographs March, so silly wins |
| April | Ears up in long grass, first proper day out | The zoomie face returns |
| May | Flowers, porch naps, sniffing something at length | Best free light of the year |
| June | Water: hose, lake, sprinkler betrayal | Wet fur and wide eyes photograph beautifully |
| July | The sunbeam nap, fully melted | Peak stillness, peak sharpness |
| August | Car window, tongue horizontal, ears backwards | The most joyful face a dog makes |
| September | Back-to-school moping by the front door | Everyone recognizes the abandonment stare |
| October | Leaf pile, or a costume tolerated for eleven seconds | Eleven seconds is all you need |
| November | The kitchen supervisor, stationed under the counter | Cooking season, and they are unionized |
| December | Deep suspicion aimed at the holiday tree | The judgmental stare deserves a headline |
Lay birthdays and gotcha days over the top of that list wherever they fall. A private anniversary beats a seasonal cliche every single time.
How do you photograph a pet who refuses to cooperate?
Assume no cooperation and you will get better photos. Six tactics that genuinely work:
- Hold the treat right beside the lens. Whatever they look at is where their eyes go in the photo. A treat held down at your hip produces twelve months of a dog staring at your hip.
- Save the squeaky noise for last. You get one clean ear-perk per squeak, maybe two. Camera up, framed, focused, then squeak.
- Shoot in burst. Hold the shutter down for thirty frames. One of them has both eyes open and no blur, and that one is worth all the deleting.
- Get down to their level. Kneel, or lie on the floor and accept that you will be walked on. The from-above shot is the one everybody has and nobody frames.
- Do not negotiate with cats. Cats do not perform on request, ever. Wait until one has settled somewhere with good light, then photograph the situation you have been given.
- Wipe the lens. Your phone has been nose-printed more often than you think, and that mysterious soft haze on every photo is not artistic, it is snout.
For the full checklist on what separates a printable photo from a merely nice one, read our guide to choosing the best photo of your pet.
Which pet photo calendar should you make?
Same twelve photos, different personality on the wall. Pick by the style you want and the room it will hang in. The personalized pet photo wall calendar for 2027 covers the whole year ahead for $34.99. The 2027 personalized pet photo wall calendar takes the full year ahead, which is also the safer choice if you are shopping for somebody else. Cat households (who did not consent to being households, but here we are) have the personalized cat photo wall calendar for 2027, twelve months of dignified contempt. For quieter rooms, the minimalist linen edition keeps the layout calm and lets the pet do all the talking, and the rest of the lineup sits in the calendar collection.
The runner-up photo, the one that nearly took July, deserves better than your camera roll. It belongs on a custom pet photo mug you hold twice a day while the live version supervises breakfast like a building inspector.
What do people get wrong the first time?
Twelve photos from the same summer. A calendar built entirely out of one July looks like one long July. Spread the shortlist across seasons, rooms and moods, even if that means promoting a slightly worse photo purely for variety.
Forgetting about the crop. Photos are fitted to the page, so a shot with the tail already touching the frame edge will lose the tail. Leave breathing room around the animal and the crop stays friendly.
Holding the project hostage to a group photo. Multi-pet homes want one perfect shot of everybody, and everybody has never once sat still simultaneously. Give each pet their own months and let the group photo happen if it happens.
Ordering on December 20. Made to order means made, then shipped: fast, but not instant, and the December mail has opinions of its own. Sizes, materials and shipping specifics live on our FAQs page.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make a pet photo calendar?
Choose which pets star in it, gather twelve photos plus a cover, match each photo to the month it suits, then upload the originals and order. Made to order, no design skills needed.
Can you make a pet photo calendar without taking new photos?
Almost always, yes. Search your phone for your pet's name and shortlist about thirty existing shots. Most people never take a new one, because the best photos already happened by accident.
What makes a good pet photo for a calendar?
Sharp eyes, soft natural light, and eye-level framing with a little space around the animal. Personality beats polish: the slightly undignified photo that is unmistakably them wins every time.
How do you get a pet to look at the camera?
Hold a treat right beside the lens, frame the shot first, then make the squeaky noise. You get one good ear-perk, so shoot in burst. Cats, of course, negotiate nothing.
Do you need design skills to make a pet photo calendar?
None at all. You upload photos and drop them into months, then preview the year before checkout. If you can attach a picture to an email, you are comfortably overqualified.
When should you order a pet photo calendar?
Printing takes 2-4 business days and US delivery typically 5-10, so order by early December for holiday gifting. For yourself, any month works: the calendar starts on whichever month you choose.
The bottom line
Making a pet photo calendar is fifteen minutes of work sitting on top of years of accidental photography you have already done. Cast it, raid the camera roll, shoot only the gaps, give every photo a month, check that the eyes are sharp, and order. The 2027 personalized pet photo wall calendar takes the whole year ahead, and at $34.99 you can order it while the enthusiasm is still fresh. The dog does not know what a calendar is. He will still be smug about it.
Keep reading: the full guide to custom pet wall calendars, plus how to make a wall calendar with your own photos when the cast list runs wider than pets.
