Writing in his memoir, Love said that Capitol planned the cover shoot after the company had conceived the would-be album title "Our Freaky Friends", with the animals representing the group's "freaky friends". When questioned about the cover in 2016, Wilson could not recall who thought of going to the zoo. Jardine remembered that the "Pet Sounds" title had already been decided, and that until arriving to the photo shoot, he thought that "pet" referred to slang for making out ("petting"). He credited Capitol's art department with the idea.