Check out the slideshow above for an adorable gallery of Coconut Rice Bear's adventures.

Sure, your dog is cute, but is it cute enough to earn the same salary as an entry level programmer?

Meet Coconut Rice Bear (aka @coconutricebear), a four-year-old, 50-pound Samoyed who has developed a rabid Instagram following thanks to a fluffy coat that's whiter than fresh snow and a persona that owner Chuck Lai describes as "playful and silly, but a little dramatic."

"She's the queen of San Francisco," he says.

With that royal title comes sponsors. So far she's worked with companies ranging from a dog harness maker to a personal finance website. Rates vary, but typically follow a formula of $100 per 10,000 followers.

Coconut only began monetizing this year and plans to limit sponsored posts to two per month. With around 358,000 followers, that means she's making roughly $3,500 a post, netting a potential gross annual income of $84,000 a year. That's just $12,000 less than the median household in San Francisco.

When Lai purchased Coconut from a breeder in Toronto in 2015, he didn't realize he'd be signing up for a part-time job. Originally, Coconut's account was just a fun way for Lai to document his pet's life.

Coconut's audience grew organically at first, then exploded in 2017 when meme application 9GAG posted one of her videos, bringing in 50,000 new followers. At the 200,000 follower mark, Lai began creating sponsored content. Coconut's jaunts to famous locales like the Golden Gate Bridge and Lincoln Park Steps may still look like any old walks in the park, but behind the scenes Lai now spends a couple hours every day conceiving new posts, editing video and engaging with his followers.

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Unfortunately for aspiring dog-fluencers, in 2019, it's significantly harder than it once was to build an audience on Instagram due to the app's shifting algorithm. Instagram is still the most lucrative platform for Lai, but he believes the nascent 15-second video-sharing app TikTok is a better place to grow a following.

Lai says on TikTok, the key is taking advantage of how important music is to the core audience of the application. Users tag the songs playing in their videos and often search based on the latest pop hits, so if you record a video featuring a smash like "Old Town Road," you'll be much more likely to land in people's feeds (Coconut's most popular video is set to a song from the musical "Six").Social media savvy certainly helped grow Coconut's audience, but Lai also credits much of the success to building a personal connection with fans. "Videos and captioning, that's what everyone likes these days," says Lai. "You're giving a voice to your dog."

It may sound silly, but the Internet's obsession with dogs has actually spawned a canine lingua franca referred to as DoggoLingo, popularized by Twitter account WeRateDogs. Her strong voice has resulted in an intimacy between Coconut and her fans that verges on, well, creepy.

"It's strange because people think they know her. We can't walk down the street," says Lai.

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Aside from the social media upkeep, Coconut's followers might be surprised to know that she's actually not too high maintenance (for a queen). Her hair stays sparkling white thanks to natural dirt-repelling qualities. Lai claims that he hasn't bathed her for four months. She does require daily brushing, but Lai does all the grooming himself.

One luxury that she does indulge in is a homemade mix of ground meat, rice and vegetables, mixed with kibble. Given how much money she's making, she deserves it.

Dan Gentile is an SFGATE digital editor. Email: dan.gentile@sfgate.com | Twitter: @dannosphere