Because the new iPhone SE has only one lens for its camera, Apple has set it so that the Portrait studio lighting & focus effects are only capable of detecting human faces. Other iPhones with multiple lenses can apply these effects reliably with pets & objects. Not so the new SE, it can do it but not reliably.
I'm willing to take my chances with that so when I learned of the Halide camera app I bought it & its companion app, Spectre immediately. Halide replicates the studio lighting & bokeh effects with pets & objects well enough on the new SE.
Here's a pic of my cat Mittens, taken at a distance of 30 centimetres with portrait mode applied.
I have deliberately edited the pic so the background (and her right ear) are blurred & indistinct with the rest of her head in focus.