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Every year around Mother's Day, the discourse starts up again.
They're just dogs. You're not a real mom. It's not the same thing.
And every year, the people who have loved a dog deeply — really deeply, the kind of love that rearranges your whole life, read those takes and feel something between amusement and exhaustion.
So let's talk about it.
Why Does "Dog Mom" Bother People So Much?
Honestly? It probably says more about them than it does about you.
The discomfort usually comes from one of two places. Either someone doesn't have that kind of bond with an animal and genuinely can't imagine it. Or they do understand it , and it scares them a little how much they feel it too.
Because here's the thing about loving a dog. It is not a lesser love. It is not a practice run for the real thing. It is its own real thing, complete, consuming, and in many ways uncomplicated in a way human relationships rarely are.
Your dog doesn't hold grudges. They don't have bad days that unfairly spill onto you. They don't need you to be anyone other than exactly who you are. They need you. And you need them.
If that's not a relationship worth celebrating, I don't know what is.
What It Actually Looks Like
Being a dog mom, especially to a senior dog, looks like a lot of things people on the outside don't see.
It looks like researching ingredients at midnight because you want to make sure what you're feeding them actually does something. It looks like adjusting your morning walk pace because their joints are stiffer than they used to be. It looks like learning the difference between a good day and a hard day just from the way they walk down the hallway.
It looks like Rza pressed against my leg while I work, the same way his sister Ghost used to be. It looks like making sure every treat I give him has a purpose because that's what this brand was built on. Because Ghost taught me that love shows up in the details.
And it looks like people who don't have this in their lives looking at you from the outside and not quite understanding why you'd go to such lengths for a dog.
Let them not understand. You know what you have.
The Senior Dog Chapter Is Its Own Kind of Motherhood
There is something particular about loving a senior dog that nobody really prepares you for.
It's not sad. Although people often treat it that way. It's actually one of the most intimate and intentional stages of the relationship. You become more attuned. More present. You notice things. You advocate harder.
You start reading labels. You think about joint support and cognitive health, and what their body needs now versus what it needed at two years old. You make choices based on love and backed by research because that is what this stage calls for.
That is motherhood. Whatever anyone wants to call it.
How to Celebrate Yourself This Mother's Day
If you are a dog mom, especially to a senior dog, here is your reminder that you deserve to be celebrated this month, too.
Here are a few ways to honor the relationship:
Take the long way on your walk this week. Let them sniff everything. Don't rush it.
Take a photo of them in their favorite spot — the good light, the real one, not posed. You'll want it later.
Tell someone about them. Their name, their age, their personality. Let yourself talk about them the way you actually feel about them.
And if you want to show up for them in a tangible way this Mother's Day, treat them to something that actually does something. Our three formulas — Brain Boost, Tender Heart, and Mobility Boost — were each built for a specific aspect of how senior dogs age. Because your senior dog deserves the same level of intention you put into loving them.
From one dog mom to another — happy Mother's Day. Go kiss that grey muzzle.
