Picture Paw-fect: A local dog trainer uses our murals as a backdrop for pack walks – and the results are adorable.

If you see a group of dog walkers crowded around Sprocket’s murals, it’s likely the ringleader of the group is Jillian Karns of Riverfront Dog Training.

This year, Karns organized a mural-to-mural tour pack walk around Harrisburg. The event was part of a series of Saturday walks she hosts for her graduated dog training clients – a weekly canine social to help reinforce the impulse control and focusing skills they learned with her.

Karns said she’d previously taken photos of clients and their dogs with murals during other group walks – pieces like ‘Bird for Spoken Word’ in York or ‘Protecting Tomorrow’ in downtown Harrisburg. 

“Those photos always stick out to me because of their whimsical nature,” Karns says. “And they inspired us to do a more thorough tour of the other murals.”

According to Karns, every dog in the group has been through either a series of private lessons or a board and train program with her. She says having the murals serve as backdrops for photo ops provided the owners with a lot of fun training time.

“It might be more than one take to get the shot, since dogs are at varying levels of their training journeys and some are still working on nailing their ‘stay,’” Karns explains.

“The dogs are certainly good sports to go along with it all for our entertainment and we don’t skimp on treats or praise for all of their hard work,” she adds.

Karns has been taking dogs into downtown and midtown Harrisburg for over a decade. She says murals are great spots to stop for photo ops with the pups.

The ‘Harrisburg’ mural on the side of Midtown Cinema is one of her favorites.

“I’ve always made it a point to visit when I’m training in the area and I have countless pics of dogs in front of it,” Karns says.

She’s been excited to see more and more murals go up in the city since she started her career in 2012.

“I’m a thorough believer that color and art can bring joy to people and even inspire creativity,” Karns says.