How one man's subway adventures helped shelter dogs find homes

On a recent afternoon in a New York City subway carriage, a white dog with brown patches peered out of a man’s rucksack. The dog, named Bertha, gave him constant licks.

Bertha was found on the streets in October, and was taken in by Animal Care Centres of NYC. Although she had a rough start in life, on this day, she seemed overjoyed. She welcomed neck scratches from dozens of strangers, picked out a new toy, devoured a ‘pup cup’ (an ice-cream treat) and enjoyed a long walk. The outing led to her adoption a few days later.

The man carrying her was not her owner, but a volunteer of sorts. Bryan Reisberg spends one day a week taking shelter dogs like Bertha out of their kennels, lifting them into a rucksack that says “adopt me” and bringing them onto the subway and around New York. His goal is for people to see shelter dogs as he does: curious, sweet, and a potential pet.

“The personality on this little girl, I truly did not want to leave her,” Reisberg said of Bertha. “She was just trying to kiss and love on people.”

Reisberg has a professional background in film. He shoots videos of each of the dogs he takes out for the day and shares a polished compilation on social media. Across various social platforms, the videos have more than 75 million views.

So far, Reisberg has taken out 11 dogs. Ten of them were adopted after his videos were published.

“The primary goal of every video is to get these dogs adopted,” he said, noting that the only dog that had not got adopted had a medical issue that had to be resolved.

Reisberg writes a fun caption to accompany each video, including some important information about the dog. In Bertha’s case, he wrote that she likes “kisses, more kisses, specific toys, hot dogs (sausages), subway rides, making friends, being held,” and added: “did I say she loves giving and receiving kisses?” Bertha’s sole dislike, according to the post: “certain stuffed animals.”

“It’s crazy to me, to be able to see a real-world, direct impact that you’re improving the life of another person and the life of a dog because you took a few hours to go make some content,” Reisberg said. “It’s very fulfilling.”

This is not Reisberg’s first foray into content creation. In 2015, Reisberg began building a large following on social media by sharing hilarious videos of his own dog, a fluffy corgi named Maxine, whom he would bring around New York City in a rucksack.

At the time, Reisberg was working at a production company, directing adverts. He and his wife did not want to leave Maxine home alone all day, so Reisberg would take her with him to work in a doggy rucksack. They got a lot of attention from fellow subway travellers.

“She always had such a big smile on her face,” Reisberg said. “People would be kind of miserable, heads down, and then they would see a fluffy dog and light up.”

He started posting videos of their daily commutes on social media. They quickly went viral.

“She was known as ‘the dog in the rucksack’ all over the world,” Reisberg said. “It was crazy and totally unexpected.”

He was constantly fielding questions from people about the pet carrier he was using, which he said was “poorly designed.”

“I would not recommend it, because it had broken on me so many times,” he said.

So, in 2020, Reisberg left his job to create a dog rucksack, and in 2021, he launched Little Chonk, which makes pet gear and accessories.

Through Maxine’s social media, “I was talking to people every day about how they felt about their pets, what they were missing, what they needed and what they wanted,” Reisberg said.

Earlier this year, a friend gave him the idea to use Maxine’s popular social media pages to promote shelter dogs. He started doing it over the summer.

“He wandered in one day and asked if he could help,” said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society, which works with Animal Care Centres of NYC and thousands of other shelters and rescues around the country. “It was just so fortuitous because he’s got a really big reach.”

Shelter workers help Reisberg select dogs to go out on his excursions, which he tries to do about once a week. The dog must be able to handle the chaos of a crowded city adventure.

“It’s such a morale boost for our team,” Castle said, adding that they try to select dogs that have been in a shelter for longer than average. “When Bryan comes in and uses his channels to influence adoption, he’s a hero to these dogs and to our staff.”

Castle said the impact of Reisberg’s videos was immediate – not just for the pups featured and adopted, but for other dogs associated with Best Friends Animal Society.

In the past six months, “we’ve seen about 100 more dogs get adopted compared to last year… it’s been a huge game-changer for us,” Castle said. “We attribute most of that to him and the power of his social media presence and how he’s showcasing these dogs.”

Castle said the exposure extends beyond Best Friends Animal Society.

“It reinforces the notion that shelter animals aren’t ‘broken’,” Castle said. “They’re really cool and looking for a loving home.”