Cool Dog meme · memes.md

3 images

The original photograph of the black Shiba Inu that became the 'Cool Dog' meme, leaning nonchalantly over a wooden fence.
The unedited source photograph of Cool Dog, showing the Shiba Inu's iconic smug pose against a garden backdrop.
A Cool Dog variant with a nonchalant caption reinforcing the character's laid-back attitude.

History

Cool Dog is a late-2000s image macro built from a photograph of a Shiba Inu leaning its front leg casually over the roof of a doghouse. The image spread from November 2008 through 2010 as an Advice Dog variant, paired with boastful or ironic captions like 'cool story bro' across personal blogs, fark, and Memebase.

Origin

Cool Dog's earliest surviving uploads both date to November 2008: one posted by a user named Cristal on sguenis.blogspot.com on November 5[1], and another on old.marcofolio.net the same month in an '[Imagedump] November 2008' post[3]. Cristal's post is a Portuguese-language personal blog that treated the picture as a funny photo to share, without extra commentary framing it as a meme[1].

Platform: Personal blogs (viral spread)
Creator: Unknown
Date: 2008

Overview

Cool Dog is a photograph of a Shiba Inu resting its front leg casually over the roof of a doghouse, giving the dog a relaxed, arms-crossed look[1]. Users picked up the image as an Advice Dog format variant, pairing it with boastful or ironic captions written in the classic advice-animal template[3].

The recognizable element is that specific pose: elbow bent, chest forward, the dog looking calm and unbothered, almost as if leaning on a bar[1]. The single photo carried the joke on its own, which is why the picture also spread as a plain shareable image on personal blogs alongside the captioned macro versions[2].

How It Spread

On May 4, 2009, a captioned version of Cool Dog was posted to the Motivational Posters Online blog, dressed in the demotivational-poster style that was everywhere on humor blogs then[2]. That entry helped push the image further into the Advice Dog rotation[2].

By late 2009, a 'cool story bro' Advice Dog variant was uploaded to fark.com by user mjoven1975, and on November 21, 2010, another remix appeared on Memebase, with Cool Dog serving as a generic Advice Dog canvas for existing catchphrases in both cases[3].

Later, Urban Dictionary entries picked up 'cool dog' as slang, with one definition describing it as something you say when spotting an animal like a snake slithering away[4].

How to Use

The Cool Dog template follows the Advice Dog macro layout. Take the Shiba Inu doghouse photo, add colored top-and-bottom text, and drop in a short boastful or ironically confident line, often in the 'cool story bro' or one-upmanship register that matches the dog's relaxed pose[1].

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cool Dog?

Cool Dog is a photograph of a Shiba Inu leaning its front leg over a doghouse roof, later paired with boastful 'cool' captions in the Advice Dog format[1].

Where did Cool Dog come from?

The earliest surviving upload dates to November 5, 2008, on sguenis.blogspot.com, posted by a user named Cristal on a Portuguese-language personal blog[1].

What does Cool Dog mean?

The name points to the dog's laid-back, elbow-on-the-roof pose; Urban Dictionary also lists 'cool dog' as slang, including as something to say when spotting an animal like a snake[4].

How do you use Cool Dog?

Add colored top-and-bottom Advice Dog text to the Shiba Inu doghouse photo with a short boastful line, like the 2009 Motivational Posters Online captioned version[2].