The Dogist, the dog blog with millions of followers, will be in Philly this weekend leading pups up the ‘Rocky’ steps
Narberth native Elias Weiss Friedman is coming home to meet the Philly Dogist community and promote his new canine wellness brand.
Alert your pups! The Dogist is coming home to Philadelphia.
Elias Weiss Friedman, the Narberth-raised canine street photographer whose blog The Dogist has over 10 million social media followers, will be in Philadelphia this weekend for a group walk and photo shoot.
Friedman — who has posted over 50,000 photos and videos of dogs (and their humans) online since 2013 — is hosting a meetup on Sunday morning on the Schuylkill Banks. Hundreds of hounds are expected to attend.
“We’re going to meet at the Schuylkill River Dog Park,” said Friedman, speaking via Zoom from his Manhattan apartment, “and then we’re going to walk along the river up to the Art Museum and climb the Rocky steps for a group photo.”
Friedman will be there with his dog Elsa, the Instagram famous white husky mix who was dog of honor at his 2025 wedding to Samantha Cutler, his fellow alum of Wynnewood’s Friends Central High School, which was featured in the New York Times’ Vows column.
“It’s a little crazy for me,” said Friedman, “because I feel like I’m a prophet, or” — he laughs — “some sort of dog evangelist, where everybody’s gonna follow me. It’s like I’m leading a march.”
“It’s a very joyful thing to have people meet up around a shared love of dog. They get to know each other, and make a lot of connections. It’s an amazing show of the power of not just the dog community, but the Dogist community.”
Sunday’s walk with Friedman is part of a Dogist tour, tied to the launch of the Dogist Company, a canine wellness brand whose first product is Vitality, which is advertised as a “Board-Certified Vet-formulated antioxidant chew that supports brain, joint and immune health.”
“It’s salmon flavored so a dog might consider it a treat,” Friedman says of the product he developed with veterinary nutritionist Angela Rollins, which is available at thedogistcompany.com. “But it’s not a treat, it’s a supplement.”
“Everybody wants more years with their dog. But it’s also about having good years with your dog,” say Friedman, who credits Elsa, 6, as “chief wellness officer” on the Dogist Company website.
“I’ve spent the last 13 years of my life showing the world how amazing dogs are. So the next evolution of the Dogist ecosystem is creating products that make dogs lives better — because it’s the least we can do for them for all they do for us.”
Friedman is also active with the Dogist Fund, a charitable partnership with GoFundMe that supports three nonprofit canine support organizations each year.
This year’s beneficiaries are the Maryland-based Pets With Disabilities, New York’s Animal Rescue Consortium, who were featured in a heart-tugging post this week about Zoe — a pit bull who suffered violent injuries as a bait dog in a dog fighting ring — and Paws & Affection, which is headquartered in Montgomery County.
“They’re based in Narberth where I grew up,” Friedman said. “They raise service dogs to work with teenagers and children who are clinically diagnosed with depression, or PTSD, are on the autism spectrum.”
Friedman also has a show on YouTube — simply called Dogs — where he strolls around meeting pups with celebrities such as actors Zooey Deschanel and Sarah Paulson, and comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Lewis Black.
Last year, Jane Goodall was a guest in an episode recorded a week before her death. Meeting the English primatologist and anthropologist, “was the biggest honor, probably, of my life,” said Friedman.
The Dogist origin story dates back to when he was a two year old and wandered away from his grandmother’s house in Narberth toward traffic on Montgomery Ave. Oreo, his grandmother’s dutiful black lab, kept him from walking into speeding traffic.
Most of Dogist’s photos are taken in New York, but Friedman’s content gathering travels have frequently brought him to Philadelphia, where he’s found four legged subjects in Manayunk, Rittenhouse Square, and the Main Line.
“Negativity is easily found on the internet,” he said. “Dogs are an antidote or a respite to all that.”
At group meetups like Sunday’s — where walkers without dogs are also welcome — he can connect IRL with members of the digital Dogist community.
“I always enjoy going out and meeting people and talking to them about their dogs,” said Friedman, who has published three books including last year’s This Dog Will Change Your Life.
“Dogs don’t have an ego, right?” he said. “They’re not burdened by one like we are. So part of the joy of seeing that they’re so free is that it allows us to transcend our ego for a few minutes. And that’s a very liberating experience.”
The Dogist Company Vitality Walk at Schuylkill River Park, 30 S. 25th St. at 10 a.m. on Sunday October. 4, Instagram.com/thedogist
