Advice Dog

2006Image macroclassic

Also known as: Persuasive Puppy · Advice Puppy · Bad Advice Dog · Wisdom Dog

Advice Dog is a 2006 image macro of a smiling puppy on a rainbow color wheel background, paired with two lines of intentionally absurd advice that spawned the Advice Animals genre.

Advice Dog is an image macro featuring a smiling puppy's head on a rainbow color wheel background, paired with two lines of intentionally bad or absurd advice. First posted in September 2006 on The Mushroom Kingdom fan forum, it became one of the internet's earliest and most influential meme templates, spawning the entire Advice Animals genre that dominated online humor from 2009 through the early 2010s.

advice animalscaptioned animal memesdark humor memeslate 2000s memesearly internet memes

TL;DR

Advice Dog is an image macro featuring a smiling puppy's head on a rainbow color wheel background, paired with two lines of intentionally bad or absurd advice.

Overview

The format is dead simple: a golden-colored puppy head centered on a six-segment color wheel, with bold white Impact font text split across the top and bottom. The top line sets up a premise, and the bottom line delivers advice that's terrible, unethical, or wildly dangerous. The humor comes from the contrast between the innocent, happy-looking dog and the awful guidance it dispenses. Think "Do the laundry / Rob a bank" or "Buy a pet tiger / Let it sleep in your bed"4.

The dog in the photo is a real pet named Boba Fett3. The color wheel background gives the image a hypnotic, almost aggressive cheerfulness that makes the dark advice hit harder.

On September 4th, 2006, a user named Mariko posted a thread called "Guide to Kissing" on The Mushroom Kingdom, a Super Mario fan forum3. Mariko talked about wanting to audition for a school production of *The Diary of Anne Frank* just to play a character with a kissing scene, and asked fellow posters for relationship advice3.

A few days later on September 7th, another forum member called TEM posted the now-iconic image: his dog Boba Fett's head slapped onto a color wheel background3. TEM confirmed authorship in reply #26 of the same thread, writing that he made the picture and that the dog was his3. The image started as a jokey response to the kissing advice thread, but users on the forum quickly began adding their own captions.

Origin & Background

Platform
The Mushroom Kingdom forum (source image), 4chan / YTMND (viral spread)
Key People
TEM, Mariko
Date
2006
Year
2006

On September 4th, 2006, a user named Mariko posted a thread called "Guide to Kissing" on The Mushroom Kingdom, a Super Mario fan forum. Mariko talked about wanting to audition for a school production of *The Diary of Anne Frank* just to play a character with a kissing scene, and asked fellow posters for relationship advice.

A few days later on September 7th, another forum member called TEM posted the now-iconic image: his dog Boba Fett's head slapped onto a color wheel background. TEM confirmed authorship in reply #26 of the same thread, writing that he made the picture and that the dog was his. The image started as a jokey response to the kissing advice thread, but users on the forum quickly began adding their own captions.

How It Spread

The meme jumped off The Mushroom Kingdom forum within two weeks. On September 17th, 2006, YTMND user LizardDude posted a page called "Boba Stares" featuring the image set to Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 13 in C-Sharp Minor". Days later on September 21st, another YTMND user named TEM006 posted "Happy Pup," which showed multiple copies of the color wheel image with the text "You're the man now, happy dog".

The meme picked up steam on 4chan's /b/ board through 2007 and into the summer of 2008. Encyclopedia Dramatica created its first Advice Dog entry on June 24th, 2008. On July 5th, 2008, Advice Dog landed the 76 millionth GET on /b/, which some users saw as forced meme status while others took it as validation.

The real explosion came when MemeGenerator user Ferenc Somos uploaded the Advice Dog template on March 19th, 2009. Easy-to-use generators meant anyone could make their own version without Photoshop skills. By early 2009, the floodgates opened for spinoffs, and the Advice Animals genre was born.

Platforms

4chanRedditLiveJournalDiggearly blogs

Timeline

2006-01

Advice Dog first appears on 4chan

2006-06

Format spreads to Reddit and other sites

2007-2008

Peak of Advice Dog variations and usage

2008-01-01

Advice Dog reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2009-2010

Popularity peaks with hundreds of daily variations

2011

Format begins to decline as newer memes emerge

2025-01-01

Advice Dog is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The standard Advice Dog format follows a two-line structure:

- Top text: A normal-sounding premise or first half of advice - Bottom text: A punchline that twists the advice into something absurd, dangerous, or morally questionable

The humor typically works through misdirection. The top line sounds reasonable, then the bottom line goes completely off the rails. Common approaches include pairing mundane activities with criminal behavior, giving sincere-sounding advice that would cause harm, or combining two unrelated instructions in a way that implies chaotic logic.

The background is always the six-color wheel, and the puppy head stays centered. Most generators handle the formatting automatically. The key is keeping both lines short and punchy.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Advice Dog's biggest legacy isn't the meme itself but what it created: the entire Advice Animals format. The template of "animal head on color background + two-line caption" became the dominant meme structure of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Without Advice Dog, there's no Courage Wolf, no Philosoraptor, no Socially Awkward Penguin, no Insanity Wolf.

By late 2008 and early 2009, users on 4chan were pumping out Advice Dog spinoffs at a rapid pace, each replacing the puppy with a different animal or character that had its own personality archetype. Encyclopedia Dramatica cataloged dozens of these variants, from Foul Bachelor Frog to Success Kid to Paranoid Parrot.

The format also migrated far beyond imageboards. MemeGenerator and later Imgur and Reddit's r/AdviceAnimals subreddit made the format accessible to mainstream internet users. The Advice Animals subreddit became one of Reddit's largest communities and was a default subreddit for years.

Know Your Meme documented the meme's full origin story, including messages from the dog's real owner.

Fun Facts

The dog's real name is Boba Fett, named after the Star Wars bounty hunter.

The original image was posted as a response to a teenager asking for kissing advice on a Mario fan forum, making it one of the most unlikely origin stories for a genre-defining meme.

On 4chan, the original image briefly circulated on /mu/ as a fake album cover to confuse newcomers before becoming an advice meme.

As of May 2013, "advice dog" returned more search results than "my little pony" on Google.

The meme has been called by at least seven different names including "Persuasive Puppy," "Crafty Clever Canine of Conscience Corruption," and simply "that fucking rainbow dog".

Derivatives & Variations

Bad Advice Dog

A variation where the advice is intentionally terrible or harmful

(2006)

Courage Wolf

A similar format using a wolf instead of a dog, typically giving brave or inspirational advice

(2006)

Success Kid

A baby's determined face used for celebrating minor victories, following the same macro format

(2006)

Insanity Wolf

An inverted version of Courage Wolf giving absolutely chaotic advice

(2006)

Frequently Asked Questions

Advice Dog

2006Image macroclassic

Also known as: Persuasive Puppy · Advice Puppy · Bad Advice Dog · Wisdom Dog

Advice Dog is a 2006 image macro of a smiling puppy on a rainbow color wheel background, paired with two lines of intentionally absurd advice that spawned the Advice Animals genre.

Advice Dog is an image macro featuring a smiling puppy's head on a rainbow color wheel background, paired with two lines of intentionally bad or absurd advice. First posted in September 2006 on The Mushroom Kingdom fan forum, it became one of the internet's earliest and most influential meme templates, spawning the entire Advice Animals genre that dominated online humor from 2009 through the early 2010s.

advice animals captioned animal memes dark humor memes late 2000s memes early internet memes

TL;DR

Advice Dog is an image macro featuring a smiling puppy's head on a rainbow color wheel background, paired with two lines of intentionally bad or absurd advice.

Overview

The format is dead simple: a golden-colored puppy head centered on a six-segment color wheel, with bold white Impact font text split across the top and bottom. The top line sets up a premise, and the bottom line delivers advice that's terrible, unethical, or wildly dangerous. The humor comes from the contrast between the innocent, happy-looking dog and the awful guidance it dispenses. Think "Do the laundry / Rob a bank" or "Buy a pet tiger / Let it sleep in your bed".

The dog in the photo is a real pet named Boba Fett. The color wheel background gives the image a hypnotic, almost aggressive cheerfulness that makes the dark advice hit harder.

On September 4th, 2006, a user named Mariko posted a thread called "Guide to Kissing" on The Mushroom Kingdom, a Super Mario fan forum. Mariko talked about wanting to audition for a school production of *The Diary of Anne Frank* just to play a character with a kissing scene, and asked fellow posters for relationship advice.

A few days later on September 7th, another forum member called TEM posted the now-iconic image: his dog Boba Fett's head slapped onto a color wheel background. TEM confirmed authorship in reply #26 of the same thread, writing that he made the picture and that the dog was his. The image started as a jokey response to the kissing advice thread, but users on the forum quickly began adding their own captions.

Origin & Background

Platform
The Mushroom Kingdom forum (source image), 4chan / YTMND (viral spread)
Key People
TEM, Mariko
Date
2006
Year
2006

On September 4th, 2006, a user named Mariko posted a thread called "Guide to Kissing" on The Mushroom Kingdom, a Super Mario fan forum. Mariko talked about wanting to audition for a school production of *The Diary of Anne Frank* just to play a character with a kissing scene, and asked fellow posters for relationship advice.

A few days later on September 7th, another forum member called TEM posted the now-iconic image: his dog Boba Fett's head slapped onto a color wheel background. TEM confirmed authorship in reply #26 of the same thread, writing that he made the picture and that the dog was his. The image started as a jokey response to the kissing advice thread, but users on the forum quickly began adding their own captions.

How It Spread

The meme jumped off The Mushroom Kingdom forum within two weeks. On September 17th, 2006, YTMND user LizardDude posted a page called "Boba Stares" featuring the image set to Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 13 in C-Sharp Minor". Days later on September 21st, another YTMND user named TEM006 posted "Happy Pup," which showed multiple copies of the color wheel image with the text "You're the man now, happy dog".

The meme picked up steam on 4chan's /b/ board through 2007 and into the summer of 2008. Encyclopedia Dramatica created its first Advice Dog entry on June 24th, 2008. On July 5th, 2008, Advice Dog landed the 76 millionth GET on /b/, which some users saw as forced meme status while others took it as validation.

The real explosion came when MemeGenerator user Ferenc Somos uploaded the Advice Dog template on March 19th, 2009. Easy-to-use generators meant anyone could make their own version without Photoshop skills. By early 2009, the floodgates opened for spinoffs, and the Advice Animals genre was born.

Platforms

4chanRedditLiveJournalDiggearly blogs

Timeline

2006-01

Advice Dog first appears on 4chan

2006-06

Format spreads to Reddit and other sites

2007-2008

Peak of Advice Dog variations and usage

2008-01-01

Advice Dog reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2009-2010

Popularity peaks with hundreds of daily variations

2011

Format begins to decline as newer memes emerge

2025-01-01

Advice Dog is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The standard Advice Dog format follows a two-line structure:

- Top text: A normal-sounding premise or first half of advice - Bottom text: A punchline that twists the advice into something absurd, dangerous, or morally questionable

The humor typically works through misdirection. The top line sounds reasonable, then the bottom line goes completely off the rails. Common approaches include pairing mundane activities with criminal behavior, giving sincere-sounding advice that would cause harm, or combining two unrelated instructions in a way that implies chaotic logic.

The background is always the six-color wheel, and the puppy head stays centered. Most generators handle the formatting automatically. The key is keeping both lines short and punchy.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Advice Dog's biggest legacy isn't the meme itself but what it created: the entire Advice Animals format. The template of "animal head on color background + two-line caption" became the dominant meme structure of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Without Advice Dog, there's no Courage Wolf, no Philosoraptor, no Socially Awkward Penguin, no Insanity Wolf.

By late 2008 and early 2009, users on 4chan were pumping out Advice Dog spinoffs at a rapid pace, each replacing the puppy with a different animal or character that had its own personality archetype. Encyclopedia Dramatica cataloged dozens of these variants, from Foul Bachelor Frog to Success Kid to Paranoid Parrot.

The format also migrated far beyond imageboards. MemeGenerator and later Imgur and Reddit's r/AdviceAnimals subreddit made the format accessible to mainstream internet users. The Advice Animals subreddit became one of Reddit's largest communities and was a default subreddit for years.

Know Your Meme documented the meme's full origin story, including messages from the dog's real owner.

Fun Facts

The dog's real name is Boba Fett, named after the Star Wars bounty hunter.

The original image was posted as a response to a teenager asking for kissing advice on a Mario fan forum, making it one of the most unlikely origin stories for a genre-defining meme.

On 4chan, the original image briefly circulated on /mu/ as a fake album cover to confuse newcomers before becoming an advice meme.

As of May 2013, "advice dog" returned more search results than "my little pony" on Google.

The meme has been called by at least seven different names including "Persuasive Puppy," "Crafty Clever Canine of Conscience Corruption," and simply "that fucking rainbow dog".

Derivatives & Variations

Bad Advice Dog

A variation where the advice is intentionally terrible or harmful

(2006)

Courage Wolf

A similar format using a wolf instead of a dog, typically giving brave or inspirational advice

(2006)

Success Kid

A baby's determined face used for celebrating minor victories, following the same macro format

(2006)

Insanity Wolf

An inverted version of Courage Wolf giving absolutely chaotic advice

(2006)

Frequently Asked Questions