How I try to find balance in online communication

Three years ago, I started an Instagram to document life with my newly adopted Australian cattle dog, Scout. It began as a journal more than anything else—and somehow, all these months later, I’ve turned sharing about my heeler into a career?! Sometimes it doesn’t seem real.

I feel so many things about our place in the online dog community. I’m humbled fellow owners actually find value in what we share, delighted to look back on so many memories with Scout, and often still in awe of the whole thing.

Sometimes I’m also nervous.

I never planned for our platform to grow. And while I’m not complaining (I promise—I feel so privileged to be where we are!) it can be a lot of pressure. Nearly twenty thousand people follow Scout’s training and our family shenanigans. That has the potential to be simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting.

While I’m still figuring out exactly how to protect my mental and emotional wellbeing while embracing the joy of connecting with so many dog lovers, these are so…