FORT MYERS, Fla. — Icy gold chains, jet ski rides and leopard painted skin. Those are part of the ingredients that are making one Fort Myers pitbull the talk of TikTok.
Jennifer Mitchell is a pet stylist in Fort Myers. She owns “Pups N Paradise,” a grooming shop where she grooms and safely paints her pitbull named “GQ.”
She said she has painted her 6-year-old American Pitbull before, but this past month her friends told her GQ belonged on social media.
“I had friends like you need to use TikTok, you need to put him out there. I had no idea it was going to blow up as much as it did,” said Mitchell.
The videos features GQ living luxuriously, meeting people on the beach and taking jet ski rides with his gold chain draped over him on Fort Myers Beach. The videos exploded, one raked in more than 16 million views.
“When he’s like this, it’s like being Kanye West or something,” she said.
As more videos permeate the web, Jennifer says she gets her fair share of scrutiny from people who think painting her dogs is abuse.
She said her instagram account has even been inactivated multiple times for posting videos of her painting GQ. She said she uses a dog safe dye that easily washes off after a period of time.
“There’s no harsh chemicals in it, it’s made specifically and designed for pets,” said Mitchell. “I don’t think there’s a lot of people that know that you can do this.”
Mitchell’s dog Ember also features tiger stripes. She said she hopes GQ’s internet fame raises awareness about safe ways to style your dog and leads to more acceptance for pitbulls.
“It’s like being a celebrity. Everyone wants to flock over,” she said.
