Barking Back at Curiosity: Sapphie the Pomsky Unleashes All In Fun Q&A

Sapphie the Pomsky is a viral sensation on TikTok, and many of her followers want to know the entire backstory of the popular talking pup.

Sheena Shah, Sapphie's mom, gets tons of questions about her adorable pup, where she comes up with content, and how their social media journey began.

For fans of the beloved pup, many questions have popped up over time and Sheena wanted to make sure that everyone was in the know. She recently sat down with The Blast to go over some of the most popular questions she gets asked about their TikTok page and Sapphie's life.

What are your names and what do you guys do?

Sheena: "My name is Sheena Shah, and I am Sapphie's dog mom. My husband, Sunit Shah, and I make content together. We are full time healthcare providers. I am a Physician Assistant specializing in Psychiatry and Sunit is an Internal Medicine physician."

Where are you guys from and how did you start making content?

Sheena: "We are from San Diego, California. We started making content for fun during COVID. We wanted to be able to share Sapphie’s unique personality on social media, and it also was a great way to keep track of our memories with her."

What inspires you to make your content?

Sheena: "I have a wild imagination and so generally ideas come very naturally to me. When we were first just growing on TikTok, we had no familiarity with the app. We would create videos for fun just so we could go back and look at them. We would either create trends or hop on trends that other people created. We have been inspired by other dog content creators as well. During my pregnancy, I was inspired by two of our favorite accounts - @beaunosebones and @ladyandtheblues and hopped on some of the trends we later found out that they created. I want to make sure that we give credit where it is due. Content creation is so tough at times and requires a lot of work and creativity, and we know with TikTok there are trends people create and sometimes we don’t really know who creates them until later on. I guess that is the way social media works!"

Sapphie is known as a "talking" dog on the app because she uses buttons on the floor to communicate with her mom and dad. That sort of happened by accident.

How did the buttons get started?

Sheena: "We were actually just browsing online and looking for interactive toys for Sapphie and happened to stumble upon the dog training buttons. The first day, we noticed Sapphie pressing the buttons with such force and attitude, and after she got the hang of basic commands, we started adding more buttons to see how she would react. We have numerous buttons for which we can record our voices, and the buttons play back our recordings when she presses them. When we first started training her, we started with basic commands – 'walk,' 'treat,' 'play,' 'attention,' and then added more complex words, like 'mommy,' 'daddy,' and 'I love you,' etc.  Over time, we realized it wasn’t more so about what she was pressing, but the way she was pressing them - with such sass, attitude, and umph! This is when we decided to add on more buttons!"

Thanks to Sapphie's sass and intelligence, and the way Sheena and Sunit treat the adorable pup as a member of the family, they've won over many hearts. They currently have nearly 7 million followers on TikTok, and an additional 1.4 million on Instagram.

A lot of your videos have gone viral! Has Sapphie's fame changed your life?

Sheena: "While we are extremely grateful for the reaction these videos get, the most important thing is that we see the positive impact she has on other’s lives. We are so blessed to have her, and she receives so many messages and love from people all around the world. We get daily messages about how Sapphie has brightened someone’s day or helped them cope through a mental or physical illness. Creating these videos has been both humbling and rewarding, and we want to continue making content that will enhance the lives of others. As healthcare providers who see people struggling on a day to day basis, we feel immense joy knowing that our videos have helped others laugh or cope. Our favorite series is 'Sapphie Speaks' which is a mental health series that we made to raise awareness on various mental conditions and to remind people that they are not alone."

Sheena and Sunit have come up with a variety of video series in the hopes of not only entertaining, but also to educate and help "make someone's day."

You guys have a lot of different series and each one is so different. How do you guys come up with different series?

Sheena: "I love being creative when it comes to everything in life. When it comes to giving gifts, I’d rather make something. When it comes to ideas, I always want it to be different. I think the reason for that is because I want to leave an impact, and I want these videos to mean something to someone. Everything we do is with the purest intent that it will make someone’s day."

Social media can be very competitive. What are your thoughts?

Sheena: "Honestly, we are rooting for everyone. Especially in this dog community, we have immense respect for each dog and their owners/content creators. We know how much work, effort, and time creators take to make content. These people truly inspire us, and we just love all dogs!"

What are some of your favorite dog accounts?

Sheena: "We LOVE all dog accounts, but some of our favorites that we need to watch on a daily basis include: @adventuringwithnala, @hammyandolivia, @brodiethatdood, @tuckerbudyzyn, @beaunosebones, @ladyandtheblues, @jimmyandclarence, @meekathehusky, @skaya.siberian, @cody.tarus, @good.boy.ollie @elliegoldenlife."