Dog named for local pub is social media famous

By AUDREY BENGTSON

A 7-year-old goldendoodle with a fan base of almost 2 million social media followers was named after a popular College Park night spot: R.J. Bentley’s.

The pup’s owners met at Cornerstone Grill & Loft as University of Maryland (UMD) students in the early 2010s, and in 2017, the newly engaged couple, Kelly and Brandon Madsen, adopted their pooch. But “Bentley just had a better ring to it” than Cornerstone, Kelly said, so they stuck with that. 

Pre-Bentley, the goldendoodle-obsessed pair, who moved to Mariottsville, Maryland, frequently exchanged dog videos on social media, but, Kelly noted, “I definitely never expected that I was going to be like, a social media person.”

Bentley changed that after the Madsens adopted him through a dog breeder they met online.

Bentley’s social media career began when the couple started to post cute, funny videos of their new puppy on an Instagram account with the handle @minidoodlebentley. Shortly after, a well-known Instagram gym influencer, Kayla Itsines, posted a picture of Bentley on her own account and tagged him. By the next day, Bentley’s account had gained almost 30,000 followers.

Kelly, a mathematician, posts Instagram Stories on Bentley’s behalf several times a day and videos at least once a week. The dog also has TikTok, Facebook and YouTube accounts.

Bentley inspires the post ideas himself, being quite a “quirky and goofy” dog, Kelly said.

With the rising popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels, Kelly said she has found that short-form videos, which she personalizes for Bentley, reap the most views, likes and followers.

The Madsens don’t  have anyone helping with the posts, although they did try hiring an extended family member at one point–which turned out to  be an unnecessary expense, Kelly said.

Kelly said Bentley’s most popular posts are the ones that show off his personality as he interacts with the Madsens’ two children, Tyler, 3, and Rachel, 1, who adore their dog. These posts are often about what the kids teach Bentley, and what he teaches them. Other times, they can just post Bentley in a silly outfit and that will blow up, too. 

Still, Kelly said it has been harder to keep up with posting since her children were born. However, she said she doubts she will ever get tired of posting, saying Bentley “does so much in a day that it’s not hard for me to just, like, film 10 seconds of him doing something and post it to a story.” 

The Madsens make “quite a bit of money” from Bentley’s social media channels by promoting products for children and dogs. Kelly said she turns down most other offers and puts the profit in their kids’ college funds.

Over time, Bentley has been climbing the ladder of success, reaching closer to the fame of other furry influencers like Doug the Pug, who has 6.1 million TikTok followers and 3.6 million on Instagram, and Grumpy Cat, with 2.6 million Instagram fans.

And while there are many highly followed and adored pets like Bentley on social media, his mom said she doesn’t worry about competition and just posts content people seem to like.

Overall, Bentley’s fans are mostly females in their 20s and 30s, or goldendoodle owners, Kelly said.

Over the years, the followers have been encouraging and positive, with Bentley receiving kind and funny comments on the posts. The only negative comments are about the Madsens’  choice of purebred dog–which they selected because goldendoodles are hypo-allergenic and both are allergic to most dogs–or criticize the pet owners for dressing up Bentley. 

Bentley’s social media fame has been a positive experience for the family, Kelly said, something they enjoy doing, not just for themselves but for their audience.

“I never knew this would happen to be, like, how much joy you get out of bringing happiness to other people,” Kelly said.

In fact, she noted, because of their journey with Bentley, they are considering adopting another dog in the near future.