‘Super energetic’ Calgary dog becomes social media star during COVID-19 pandemic

Calgarian Ken King was looking for some light-hearted relief from the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now he and his dog Tim are sharing the fun with thousands of others.

Tim is a two-year-old miniature dachshund who featured in about 50 videos that King has posted on TikTok and Instagram.

King began making the videos as a bit of a distraction from the realities of the pandemic.

“Not being able to get out, trying to keep the business going through the pandemic — (it’s been) stressful at times,” King said. “People seem to feel like it was making their day a little bit better, so we kept doing it.”

The videos featuring Tim can be found at @timmytheween on TikTok and Instagram.

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“The main thing was just things that would make people laugh,” King said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The main thing was just things that would make people laugh," King said.

After seeing the positive response to the dog videos, King figured posting videos featuring himself might promote his business.

“We’re trying to have a technology startup, but you can still have fun and spread some joy, so I’ve made some videos of me dancing after I get off of hours of Zoom calls,” King said.

So far, the videos featuring King, seen at @kenboostceo on TikTok and Instagram, haven’t attracted nearly as much attention as the videos featuring Tim.

“It’s pretty entertaining how I can put him in just about anything and it goes relatively popular on social media,” King said.

“I’ll spend hours putting something together to promote the business and get us out there and it gets about half the likes because we don’t have a nice, cute dog in it.”

But King said he’s happy to put that “nice cute dog” in the spotlight every chance he gets.

“(Tim is) super happy, super energetic, and he made the pandemic quite a bit easier on me, so spreading that was kind of fun.”