A pet portrait as a birthday gift: for the owner or for the pet

A birthday gives two chances for a portrait: the birthday of a person who loves their pet, and the birthday of the pet itself. This page covers both. It explains how to choose between them, which pet birthdays veterinarians treat as the start of a new life stage, how Queen Victoria's household turned birthdays into a day of painted gifts, and how a group of friends or a family can give one portrait together. For the steps every portrait gift shares, start with the guide to pet portrait gifts.

Two birthdays to choose from

The owner's birthday. A portrait of someone's dog or cat on their own birthday is a gift about the thing they love most at home. It suits a friend, a parent, a partner or a grandparent who talks about the animal every time you meet.

The pet's birthday. If the owner knows the day the pet was born, that date is a second choice. The Purrspectives guide to dog birthday ideas covers the party, the treats and the yearly photo. A portrait given to the owner on the pet's birthday marks the year in a lasting way, and it can mark a new stage of the pet's life.

No known birthday. A pet adopted from a shelter may come with no known date of birth. For them, the day the pet came home is the natural date. The page on adoption anniversary portraits covers how to find it and how to mark it.

The milestone birthdays veterinarians use

Veterinarians divide a pet's life into stages. Two sets of guidelines, written by task forces of veterinary experts and published in veterinary journals, set out these stages for cats and for dogs. The age where one stage ends and the next begins gives a natural reason to mark a birthday with a portrait.

Cats

The 2021 Feline Life Stage Guidelines from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) name four age-based stages:

The guidelines add a fifth stage, end of life, which can come at any age. They also say individual cats vary, and that a healthy cat over 10 may be treated as a mature adult at the veterinarian's discretion.

Dogs

The 2019 Canine Life Stage Guidelines from AAHA define the stages by growth and lifespan instead of fixed ages, because breeds and sizes age at different speeds:

For a dog, the first birthday falls in the young adult stage, after rapid growth has stopped. The third or fourth birthday marks the end of growing up. The senior stage starts at a different age for a small dog and a giant one, so ask the dog's veterinarian when their dog enters its last quarter.

What a milestone means for a portrait

A portrait records how a pet looks at one point in its life. A first birthday portrait keeps the young adult face before it changes further. A portrait at a cat's seventh or a dog's mature years shows the animal at its full adult look. A portrait in the senior years records the older face of a long-time friend. Each is a good reason for a gift, and a family may choose to give one at each stage.

A royal custom: painted gifts on a birthday table

Queen Victoria's household made birthdays a day for works of art. English Heritage, which cares for her seaside home, Osborne on the Isle of Wight, says that from 1846 until Prince Albert's death in 1861 the couple were almost always at Osborne for their birthdays: Victoria's on 24 May and Albert's on 26 August.

Present-giving was at the centre of the day. English Heritage says the gifts they exchanged were paintings, furniture and other works of art, laid out on a birthday table decorated with flowers. The day began with the band of the Royal Marines playing under the royal bedroom windows. The children gave their parents flowers, and then the whole family went to see the gifts. After breakfast the children performed music and poetry they had written. A walk, a drive, often a group photograph on the terrace, and a celebratory dinner followed.

One of those birthday paintings was of a dog. English Heritage says the family's St Bernard, Maurice, joined the household in 1855 and was said to be one of Albert's favourite pets. Albert commissioned an oil painting of Maurice from the artist John William Bottomley as a birthday present for Victoria. It shows Maurice in the grounds near Windsor Castle, and it now hangs in the Queen's Lift Corridor at Osborne. A royal couple gave each other a portrait of their dog for a birthday more than 160 years ago, and the same idea suits a family today.

Surprise, or ask first?

Birthdays appear in several gift studies, and two results help with a portrait.

In five experiments reported by Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2011, Francesca Gino and Frank Flynn compared requested and unrequested gifts. In one, people imagined giving a birthday present to a spouse who had given them a list of options. Recipients appreciated gifts from their own list more, and saw them as more thoughtful. Givers expected the opposite. So if a friend has ever said they would love a picture of their dog, a portrait is the gift they asked for.

Sentimental gifts carry a second lesson. In a 2017 study by Julian Givi and Jeff Galak of Carnegie Mellon University, reported by the Society for Consumer Psychology, people choosing a birthday gift for a friend picked between a framed photo of the friend's favourite musician and a framed photo of the two friends on a fun day together. Givers chose the sentimental photo less often than recipients wanted it. A portrait of the friend's pet belongs with the sentimental kind.

Giving one portrait as a group

A birthday party often means one person receives many gifts. A 2021 set of 12 studies from Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business looked at exactly that setting, naming birthdays among its examples. It found that givers worry about how their gift compares with the others, and sometimes spend more than they planned or skip the occasion. Recipients focus on how much thought went into each gift.

A group portrait gift avoids the comparison. Friends or siblings can share one portrait of the birthday person's pet, and the card can carry every name. One person should manage the details: the photo, the style, the edition and the size. The page on getting a full-size photo for a surprise portrait explains how to collect the photo without the owner knowing.

Choosing a style and a size for a birthday

Purrealism offers 15 portrait styles: nine from Indian royal courts and six from European history. For a birthday, match the style to the pet's stage of life as well as its character:

• A young dog or cat full of energy may suit a warrior or knight: the Rajput Warrior, the Chola Warrior or the Medieval Knight.
• A mature adult at its full adult look may suit a ruler on a throne: the Maharaja, the Mughal Emperor or the Renaissance Royal.
• A senior may suit a calm, seated noble: the Victorian Noble or the Regency Era.

The gallery shows finished portraits, including a black labrador as Mysore royalty in a saffron turban holding a gold sceptre. For the size, think of the recipient's room. A print of 8 × 10 inches fits a desk or a shelf, while 18 × 24 or 24 × 36 inches suits a wall above a sofa. When you do not know the walls, a digital download lets the recipient choose their own print and frame later.

To hand it over well, the page on presenting a portrait gift covers wrapping, the card and keeping the pet safe from ribbon.