Andrew Cotters Dogs

First published Lockdown Edition (Issue 22), Radar Magazine

During the early days of lockdown all sporting events were cancelled. Whilst this did, of course, leave athletes at a loss, sports commentators were also out of work.

Image: Nathália Arantes

Andrew Cotter, Scottish sports broadcaster, was found to be in this situation. With no sporting matches to cover, he decided to look closer to home to see how he could still make use of his broadcasting skills over lockdown.

In what we believe is a truly ingenious idea, Cotter decided to commentate on his dogs, Olive and Mabel. In a time of such hardship the simple act of seeing dogs being put into a human scenario brought a smile to our faces and soon society fell completely in love with them.

There are various videos on Cotter’s YouTube channel, ‘Mr Andrew Cotter’, and instagram channel ‘mrandrewcotter’. From the dogs having a go at Internet dating to home video call meetings, we were able to see our lives humorously reflected back to us. There were also some sports-themed videos, from wrestling to competing over a bone, with the tension so high we actually gasped!

Videos of Olive and Mabel have received over 50million views on social media and the December cover of Outside magazine, ‘The People Who Made the Year Better’ even had Mabel’s face on it. With a worldwide fanbase, a book was even published in October 2020 detailing their rise to fame and how they are coping with it.

It’s not just the dogs reactions which are so perfectly commentated on by Cotter but the reflection of the relationship between man and dog. Cotter perfectly sums up how Olive and Mabel are feeling at the time and the videos show just how strong their bond is.

On the other hand, the videos demonstrate just how mischievous the dogs can be.

As dog owners across the globe can testify, whilst their beloved pet pooch can be an absolute joy, there are times when even the best dog can be rather disobedient. Cotter's video, ‘The Walk of Shame’, perfectly demonstrates this as the two dogs get as dirty as they possibly can be during a walk. During such a tough time showing flaws helps unify society as we bond together over the fact that life sometimes isn’t perfect but to still make the most of it.

We’ve loved seeing Olive and Mabel so far and can’t wait for more videos, and hopefully even another book.