I always love to see people customizing my AmiDogs and AmiCats crochet patterns to make closer matches to specific pets. These patterns are so easy to customize by choosing the closest pattern and changing colours to match your pet. If you want to get more adventurous, you can mix and match parts, and add strategic embellishments to match a different breed or specific dog more closely.

You may remember that I’ve already crocheted custom amigurumi versions of my furbabies Maui and Maggie. Last Christmas, I decided to make a mini-me of Dudley, one of Maggie’s best friends. (Check out his Instagram here!) As you’ll see, Dudley is an absolutely gorgeous long-haired cream dachshund, and I knew that, with a little customizing, my AmiDogs Dachshund pattern would be a perfect match!

I took my best guesses from my yarn bobbins box to choose the closest colour:

And used my AmiDogs Dachshund pattern to make my ami-Dudley:

I followed the pattern exactly, choosing slightly larger eyes to match the real Dudley’s soulful gaze, and I strategically brushed the ears, tail, and backs of the legs to mimic his long flowing fur.

And here’s Dudley with his amigurumi mini-me!

Maggie and Dudley are so cute together:

…and so are their amigurumi counterparts:

If you’d like to make a custom amigurumi dog or cat to match your furbabies, or as an incredibly meaningful gift for a pet parent, I have 24 AmiDogs and 8 AmiCats patterns for you to choose from as your starting point:

And you can find instructions for all the techniques you could ever want for customizing and embellishing your amigurumi in Part 2 (Customizing Amigurumi) of my latest book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, now available in print from Amazon and as an ebook direct from me. (You should also take a look at ‘Designing Custom Amigurumi’ in Part 3, for inspiration and examples of what you can achieve!)

I hope this inspires you to make amigurumi versions of the beloved animals in your life!