The man carrying shelter dogs through New York City

Doges Editorial · 2026-06-23 · 4 min read

Bryan Reisberg puts shelter dogs in his backpack and carries them through New York City. The rides are changing which dogs get adopted.

Bryan Reisberg has helped place roughly three dozen shelter dogs in New York City homes since July 2025 [1]. His approach: put a shelter dog in a mesh backpack, carry it through the city for a few hours and film the reactions. He developed the method after his own corgi became a social media star the same way.

Reisberg steps onto the F train at West 4th Street with a dog's head poking from his backpack, ears enormous. Commuters who were staring at their phones lean forward. A man in a hard hat starts baby-talking in a way he will probably never mention to his coworkers.

It's so fun to do that to people. You see them light up with joy and the dogs love it.

How the rides work

Shelter adoption is a visibility problem. A dog sitting behind a kennel door is invisible to most of the people who might love that dog. A dog at the corner of Spring and Broadway, gazing at a taxi driver who just lowered his window to say hello, is something else entirely.

Reisberg and his wife got Maxine the Fluffy Corgi in 2015. After he was ticketed for carrying her on the subway without a carrier, he started taking her in a backpack instead. Her Instagram following grew to millions. Viewers responded to the experience of encountering a dog in an unexpected place: that jolt of warmth before your brain has processed what you are looking at.

The first shelter-dog ride

The first shelter dog to ride was named Axl. Reisberg carried him through the city in July 2025, posted the footage, and Axl was adopted. It happened again and again. He refined the process: pick a dog comfortable being handled, with enough confidence to enjoy the experience rather than be frightened by it. Take that dog somewhere interesting. Let the city do the rest.

The backpack is now a known quantity in certain parts of lower Manhattan: a signal that whoever is carrying it has a dog worth meeting. Reisberg has also partnered with Best Friends Animal Society, one of the country's largest no-kill advocacy organizations, to match specific dogs to rides more deliberately [1].

Big Bertha's viral ride

Big Bertha is a pit bull mix. She is large. A thumbnail does not flatter her, and her breed alone slows adoption chances in most facilities.

Reisberg carried her through the city anyway. The video accumulated millions of views. People who had never considered adopting a pit bull, people who had actively avoided them, watched Big Bertha ride through SoHo with the expression of a dog who has decided to enjoy herself, and they felt something shift.

Big Bertha was adopted. Her story spread far enough to fuel a broader conversation about how dogs are presented to potential adopters, and whether the standard shelter photo, fluorescent-lit and anxious, is doing its job.

The experience transformed me to my core.

Dogs outside the kennel

Dogs behave differently in the world than they do in shelters. A dog who paces her kennel and barks at the door can be the same dog who settles into calm the moment she is out in open air, taking in smells and watching people. The kennel version is often the only version a potential adopter ever sees.

The dog in the backpack is the same animal that was pacing the kennel an hour earlier. Outside, with strangers approaching and the smells of the city arriving from every direction, she shows a different version of herself. Adoption decisions are emotional. People fall for dogs before they think about logistics. A few minutes of watching a dog ride through the city, ears up and eyes wide, can produce the kind of attachment a shelter profile page rarely does.

What shelters gain

For rescue coordinators, an adoption ride means free, high-quality attention from a creator whose audience is already receptive to dog content. Most shelters run on limited marketing budgets, many entirely on volunteer labor. A video reaching a million people at no cost and generating direct adoption inquiries is not a small thing.

Some dogs are naturals. They take to crowds easily and hold eye contact with strangers. Others need more preparation, or are not the right fit for a city ride.

We are getting totally bombarded with people wanting dogs Bryan is taking out.

Reisberg has been transparent about the logistics in interviews. The experience has to be positive for the dog above everything else. A frightened dog in a backpack helps no one. The ride only works if the dog is genuinely enjoying it, and most of the time, according to people who have watched him work, they are.

New York City, eight million potential adopters

New York City has approximately eight million residents. Reisberg's videos reach a fraction of them, but each ride delivers something a shelter website cannot: a face-to-face encounter with a dog that is relaxed and at ease.

Roughly three dozen shelter dogs have been placed since July 2025, and Best Friends Animal Society is working with Reisberg to put more through the same process [1].

References

[1] "Backpack Rides Help Shelter Dogs Find Homes," Forbes, June 12, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenreeder/2026/06/12/backpack-rides-help-shelter-dogs-find-homes