Rachael Reynolds moved to Akron in August 2020 from Arizona with her springer spaniel puppy in tow.
“I picked him up August 10th in Traverse City, Michigan, and drove to Akron with an eight-week-old puppy,” she says.
Reynolds calls her dog Elton, but his full name is Sir Elton, the Rocketdog — inspired by none other than musician Elton John.
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Photos by Rachael Reynolds
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Rachael Reynolds
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Rachael Reynolds
“I’ve seen him nine times in concert,” she says. “The Lion King was my first introduction to him, along with watching Princess Diana’s funeral as a kid. … I just always loved him.”
Reynolds is a photographer who primarily focuses on weddings and portraits, so she shoots photos of Elton, for her Instagram account, Sir Elton the Rocketdog, as a creative outlet.
“It has taken some training. He knows left, right, up, down, sit on the log and how to back up and sit pretty. It’s been a fun thing. It sounds quite vain. But I think especially with working dog breeds like his, their drive to please and drive to have a job is a huge thing.”
But it isn’t all work. Reynolds says Elton also loves climbing rocks at the ledges. “That is his thing,” she says. “He’s a little daredevil.”
Being on Dog Instagram, as Reynolds calls it, has opened up doors that has helped her as a dog parent.
“We’ve discovered some local places to get his food. I’m really into making sure that he’s eating well, and it’s been a good education space,” she says. “He probably eats better than I do now.”
They went through four kinds of kibble before Reynolds finally connected with Lake Erie Pets in Ohio City, a local small-batch kibble maker. “It’s amazing, and there are no preservatives outside of salt in it,” she says. “Elton eats the whitefish and duck recipe.”
She also recommends Morty’s Munchies in Cuyahoga Falls. “Nicole at Morty’s Munchies — she’s fantastic and brings a lot of different companies in, like shampoo from this lady she met on the East Coast. I really like the idea of not putting chemicals on him. I’m not super crunchy in my everyday life, but I do think it’s better to err on the crunchy side.”
