Tales to Wag About has moved

The blog has moved!
It made more sense to have the blog integrated with Wags' website, rather than blog and website in different locations - so please find the new blog here. 
Hope to see you there! I've just updated the blog with images from this photo shoot...

Made it to the Top Ten

Every week, Hair of the Dog Blog (a blog for pet photographers) posts a new weekly facebook photo competition. I have been following along for a while, never submitting an image yet - until last week when the theme was "black and white". 

You're allowed to post two images and in my mind, I had narrowed down the two shots I wanted to submit pretty quickly. 

The first image here is the one that made the Top Ten, and I am totally thrilled! 

I like this image personally for a lot of reasons - but maybe mostly because it speaks so strongly to everything I really believe in and work for. The process of training, the by-product of training, the effort and time spent connecting and creating a bond with your dog, Investing into Becoming Their Best Friend, and then having some of those little moments captured as permanent images to treasure. 

That connection and Friendship is a Gift. Never something to be taken for granted, but a true gift when it is present.

There is no prize money or fancy ribbons or awards, but what a great way to spread awareness and get to showcase your work beyond your own readership.

I'm very Grateful for this opportunity to have an image published on a well-read blog; what a great feeling to start off the week with!

Finding and bringing: so many uses for these great skills

Just a little while back, I wrote a blog piece with some ideas on how you can make your dog useful in and around the house. Over the last few months, my three children have been on a roll of getting our dogs to help in different ways. It's truly been a fun and joyous journey of many new and fresh ideas and the kids' creativity is very inspiring! They always seem to come up with new ideas about what the dogs might be able to carry and deliver and how, and to whom.

It's very simple stuff, it's not difficult to develop once you have the basis for play and retrieving - but that's really where it needs to start: with a dog who feels safe and good about picking things up. Sometimes we mess this part up right at the beginning with a puppy - being so very concerned about "how do I teach my puppy not to chew on shoes? and how do I teach my puppy what "NO" means? as in: "don't touch - that's mine!" 

Maybe that's the wrong question to ask.

Maybe the question to ask would be something like: "How do I manage my shoes and my valued items; how do I keep them safely away from my puppy so that I can create an environment where Everything my puppy picks up is OK to pick up, because I want to ENCOURAGE a lot of picking up, carrying and bringing to me?"

Sometimes it's just the question that needs a bit of tweaking. 

So, we've played around a lot with getting the dogs to carry this, that and the other. The kids specialize in sending little surprises with the dogs. Today when I hear someone happily encourage "Take this to mommy!" I simply cannot predict what will arrive at my feet..It's amazing how many things they have discovered that can be sent back and forth between family members using a dog's happy cooperation?!

Another thing, besides retrieve that I have played around with a ton over the last 12 months or more, in both private one-on-one training sessions, as well as in classes and at home - is working on Find it! - games...different ways to challenge the dog's amazing scenting ability.
This concept will be taken further in this fall's classes as I continue to see how much joy it brings both handlers and dogs to play and master these games. 

The process is very simple to start with food, and then we can quite quickly go from food, to a toy or really almost any other object...and then the sky's the limit! This summer, after the CSI Course that Wags unlimited hosted, we've played around a bit with cadaver scent - but you can work with any scent that tickles your fancy! Vanilla, Anise, Wintergreen, Pine...the difference is ultimately only in what you'd like to use the Nose Work for.

Dogs are used in law enforcement, at border crossings, for detection work, to locate missing items and people. We've read and heard about hotels hiring dogs to sniff out bed bugs! They can be used to detect disease and cancer. They find drugs, they find weapons. They find tennis balls :-) The list goes on and on - it seems we've only barely started to scratch the surface of how to use our dog's noses! It's fascinating and fun. It's actually quite easy to teach and get going. But best of all , I think: is the PURE JOY I see in dog's and people's faces when the teams "get it". Dogs are straining at their leashes to get going on the scent work! People are smiling - feeling GREAT about their brilliant dogs.

I think it just can't get much better than that - it's yet another way of really connecting people with their dogs - and to me, that's what the training process is really all about. Exploring and mastering things beyond "the sits and the downs" that we can share as a truly enjoyable activity - and making it somehow matter in everyday life.

How about going the next step from Nose Work to finding and retrieving some valuable item of yours? or What if your dear friend lost her keys or ring in the grass? Wouldn't it be amazingly cool to be able to feel confident and say "My dog will find those!"

That's the goal and intent for our Nose Work and Fun Games classes this fall and winter. We will develop both of those skills (finding and separately also picking up) and start to look for ways to really make our dogs useful around the house! I hope you'll join on this fun journey.


The fall class schedule is being created as we speak and should be up shortly. A newsletter will be sent out with all the details very soon. If you aren't a subscriber (yet) - you can change that by going to this link to add yourself!

The photos that accompany this post are from one of our Drop-in classes this summer where we snuck in some fun Scent Games. I was happy to have at least my phone with me to be able to snap a few momentos of this Amazingly Fun activity! The dogs here had only tried these games once or twice but all showed great enthusiasm for these fun opportunities to use their noses.

You can see it: they're all intent on the boxes: There's something there somewhere in one of them. Where is it? I'm gonna Find it!

It's simple, will be very useful and So much Fun - so let's do it! Let's work on some Scent Games this fall and winter?!!

Piper the Standard Poodle

The email started with "Annette - you don't have a black Standard Poodle in your portfolio!"

The rest is now history as I'm happy to say I'll be uploading some black Standard Poodle images to my web gallery today as well as sharing a small collection here. 

Meet Piper - a 6 year old Gorgeous and Lovely girl. 

It's always fun to photograph dogs - but add to that: it's really fun to photograph dogs that I've met/ had as students or otherwise somehow gotten to know.

With this girl - Our paths have crossed multiple times at trials as Piper and my boy Maggio seemed to be training and trialling through the same levels of Obedience and Rally'O for quite some time. While Maggio and myself had to put trialling on the backburner because of lameless and issues with his body for a while - Piper continued along her obedience journey and has now put many more additional titles behind her name.

What a treat to photograph such a well trained dog - and one of the most well-kept and well groomed poodles I've ever met. She always looks stunning!
Thanks Catherine for coming out - how fun to see you and her again!

We started with some shots in the studio and then did a few shots outdoors. It had rained overnight and the grass, bushes and ground were soaked and still dripping of water. The final shot (at the very bottom here) tells a subtle tale of dog hair in contact with moisture.

The wet grass made for a very cool and artistic out-of-focus backdrop as all the water drops and moisture on leaves and grass sparkled like little sequins in the morning sun. It was really quite delightful, despite getting shoes, pants and dog completely soaked :-)

So; Hope you Enjoy - a few more shots of Piper...

Making use of the dogs ability to Help around the house :-)

Both Maggio and Pinot are wickedly amazing retrievers. As far as Maggio goes - a Flat Coated Retriever from working lines: he came to us that way. There has never been a day of needing to "teach him" to retrieve. More so, with him: it was a matter of putting some impulse control around retrieving and quite quickly starting to use it as a "reward" for performing other behaviours first..

But with Pinot, like with many of my students' dogs, it was a different story. It was a long journey to develop play. There were days of feeling quite desperate and frustrated - wondering if I would have to resort to simply just using food in training because play didn't seem to rank very high for her. 

Thankfully, I wasn't about to give up and also had great help from people like my dear trainer friend Catherine Thomas and with her very experienced set of eyes, she was able to give us some very helpful advise early on - and a long journey of many months of "just playing" paid off. 

The end result is beautiful and Pinot is as keen to retrieve as her brother "bird dog" - and along the way, I learned many great lessons.

On a recent camping trip that I wrote about before, the kids got incredibly creative with how to use the dogs' retrieving skills many times per day. What a blast it was! We have continued the trend since returning home, and it's amazing how useful it is to have a retrieving dog.

How do you use your dogs retrieving ability around the house?

Well...for starters...we always seem to run out of toilet paper in one bathroom or another. Have you ever thought to get the dog to bring up a roll of toilet paper when you're sitting on the toilet, realizing there's no more paper on the roll nor in that bathroom cupboard?

What about getting the dog to bring a rolled up plastic bag when you need to empty out a garbage can but have no baggie to empty into?

And of course letters and mail need to be delivered to the right addressee after bringing home the mail. AND then there's the daily newspaper that gets thrown on our front porch. It needs to be brought to whoever is awake and having their morning coffee.

How about using the dog to send a note to one of the kids with a message "Dinner is ready!!"
...and being prepared that the note will moments later be returned by the dog with a new message that says "Thanks - I'll be there in a few minutes - please send up a roll of toilet paper!"

OR while camping - the thing that started it all: getting the dogs to carry the firewood from the van to the fire-pit when ready to get our evening fire going - one piece of wood at a time...

Here are some photos of what happened. What a riot - and WHAT great use of the dogs!
They felt so important, too - as can definitely be seen in some of the photos. There was some debate over who would get to carry the newspapers for starting the fire, too...although quite quickly resolved. Enjoy!

.

Help the Handler, Help the Dog

HERE'S A GOOD REASON TO WAG YOUR TAIL:
We have decided to extend the Early Bird deadline for Suzanne Clothier's upcoming November seminar!

This is one you won;t want to miss. With topics covering a wide range; there's bound to be a specific gem in here for everyone!

Not to worry: even if you've been away for vacation at the old cottage and missed the Early Bird --- not to worry: it's been extended! You have all of August to get your registration in -- WITH Early Bird Fees! 

The seminar will run over the whole Remembrance Day weekend: November 9-11, 2013 and will be held at Sit Happens! Companion Dog Training in Calgary, AB. 

So, what will Suzanne cover in November?

Starting with The Elemental Questions (TM)

...if you attended her seminar in Calgary just months ago in April, you know what profound meaning one of the questions bear; asking the dog: "How is this for you?" Well, this time, she'll delve even further as she will continue and teach us more of these, six in total, Elemental Questions.

Help the Handler, Help the Dog 

will do a dive into how handlers help or hinder dogs with body language, posture, breathing, muscle tension, expression, stance and use of space. I know I personally hear many people know and comment on the fact that "it's not the dog that needs to be trained - it's me!" - well, here is an amazing opportunity to learn about how you, as a person may be able to sharpen up your communication by understanding how you influence your dog with your body and your being.

You had me at Sniff is a whole day on the very hot topic of dog-to-dog interactions. 

When putting two or more dogs together: are we being too cautious? Too careless? Do we just "let them work it out"? or try to orchestrate pleasant encounters? What is play and what is not play? How do you recognize a suitable playmate? etc etc...

Herder, Helper, Hunter, Hugger

promises to be a Very Fascinating seminar-topic, dissecting the different myths and realities about different breeds, and breed specific behaviours and preferences that have been affected by human selection in our dogs. Guarding and territorial behaviour, low dog-dog aggression breeds, toy breeds, understanding the working dog, controlling space: the herding breeds, why and why not? the "hard to train" dogs...

The Relationship Puzzle: Cooperation, Conflict and Compatibility

"Relationship" is a popular concept these days, but what does it really mean? How do you know if there is a match or a mis-match? Can you recognize the patterns of interaction that tell the tale? How do you identify the foundation issues that may be underlying conflict and training problems? 























So: to wrap up: You can sign up with Early Bird Rates all the way through the month of August. Please help and share the word about this seminar. Suzanne Clothier is an AMAZING teacher and we truly believe each and every person learning from her will benefit the dog world as a whole. 

Registration info is available here.
Please take note of Scholarships available: if you know of a dog enthusiast TEENAGER - get them in touch with Annette to find out requirements to apply. 
Also available: SAR/ Search and Rescue dog- scholarships.

Wags has hosted Suzanne twice in past - What have past participants said about Suzanne? 

"Loved it all!! Especially impressed with pacing: Powerpoint, dog examples, questions, interactive…using leashes together. Nice variety. Suzanne is amazingly informative, knowledgeable, entertaining and made the information clear!"

"My favourite part of the whole weekend was "How is this for you?" Dogs don't lie!"

"The Information overall was Fantastic. Very helpful organizers and staff."

"Favourite part was the Observation Skills taught: Learning to ask the Questions, and to listen to the dog's answers!"

"Suzanne is incredible knowledgeable. And she's got a great way to share her information - great analogies and humour - and great patience :-)"



Finally - check out Sit Happens! - our venue as well as Mungo's Books - our favourite source for dog books .Mungo's will again be present and looking after everyone's shopping needs and desires before start each day and during breaks and lunches.

Please just ask/ email or comment below if you have questions. Hope to hear from you and see you in November!!!

Who do you see in the mirror?

Have to share one more image right now from the modeling shoot I did just the other week. 

This is such a sweet little conversation, a fleeting moment in time: a dog and a person mirroring each other in beautiful symmetry - a photo impossible to "stage" - only possible to capture. 

Modeling photo shoot

A few days ago I did a modeling shoot and have just shared a few shots for Wags' unlimited fans on Facebook. Here they are, too for those not part of the FB world.

Tala Rain and Twillow Rose are two young therapy dogs; both Shiloh Shepherds.  Both stunningly beautiful dogs. Their owner and "co-therapist" Straja was one of the people who replied and graciously offered to participate when I put out a Model call a few weeks back. 

I had met Straja and Twillow before and I knew I would be in for a treat to be taking photos of them together!

We spent a couple of hours together, initially in the studio, and then going outside - having a great time.
These shots are just a first few in a series of images of these lovely, lovely souls. 

Dogs have come to mean So much in my own life; and knowing what that magical bond can feel like - I LOVED photographing Straja with her dogs! The bond is tangible :-) just gorgeous. 

Capturing the connection between people and their beloved companion dogs is truly an honour and something I hope to be doing much, more more of in the months and years to come. Stay tuned as I share some more images soon from the two model shoots in the last month!

And PS - If you'd like to take part in a model shoot in the future or want to be kept in the loop about upcoming photo projects or specials - please DO sign up for Wags' newsletter here.

Day-hike with the family and dogs

Pinot and Maggio enjoying a small dip, and cool-off in one of the cold streams we encountered.

Yesterday we took the whole family, dogs and my friend who is visiting from Finland, on a gorgeous, fairly strenuous and  simply stunning day-hike through Sentinel Pass in the Lake Louise area.

Short synopsis of the day:
Through Larch Valley to Sentinel Pass, over Sentinel Pass into Paradise Valley, down to Lake Annette and through the forests down to the Moraine Lake Road.

19 km, 7+ hours, more than 2 liters of water each, 2 sandwiches, multiple mandarin oranges, and a few much-appreciated sugary treats...
Tired legs but ecstatic minds.
My friends' super tech watch reported 2100 calories burned.

Going up toward the Pass.

Almost at the top of the Pass. Maggio's real name isn't Mountain Bluebird for nothing :-)

Coming down from the Pass toward Paradise Valley side - a fairly steep and extremely rocky 500 meter descent, probably not enjoyable for someone with a fear of heights. The kids and dogs were amazing - they just "go with it" and get down.

Once down the steep and rocky descent off the back of the Pass, Paradise Valley opens up and the scenery is - once again - completely surreal. 

It was still several hours to get all the way down from here and yes - all got tired - and we finished our last drops of water in the last 20 minutes of walking - but happy, content and Exhausted - we made it all the way around the circuit. Had a big dinner at home and slept a solid night's sleep.

The final photo (bottom) is again from the top of the Pass. Absolutely stunning scenery!! The hiking in "our backyard" is simply unreal. 

Our kids at 10, 13 and 14 are like Mountain Goats and seem at home wherever we take them. The dogs, having both grown up in the Rockies, too - don;t miss a step, never stumble, trip...just simply amazing hiking partners. 

Camping adventures

Where a door closes, a whole other possibility will open up. 

Isn't that true with most things in life. 


Through a series of events, I have learned to see that this also holds true for camping and I am quite sure my whole family will actually be forever be grateful for the "inconvenience" we experienced with over-booked provincial campgrounds we encountered about 4 years ago. We had planned on camping in B.C. at a popular provincial campground, and went there without a reservation: hopeful that we would still be able to find a spot for our tent. But the whole campground was jam-packed! It looked more like a parking lot than a nature-experience.

There were only "no reservations/one night only" spots available, and anyone who has set up a large tent with all necessary sleeping arrangements for a whole family for one night, only to tear it down the next morning to go and find a new spot for yet another one night only/ knows that this is not very much fun and the constant setting up and tearing down will really start to take the fun out of "camping" very, very soon. 

So it was after one of these experiences four years ago; myself with three kids and two dogs in tow that I said to my kids "that's enough...we are out of here! surely we must be able to find someplace where we can stay a while. this is just not enjoyable." and we packed up; went and gassed up the van and wondered where to go next. It was in that gas station that I casually struck up a conversation with a friendly gentleman stating that we were on the look out for great places to camp; might he know of anyplace to recommend? Did he ever! He pulled out a map of BC / one of those free maps you find in every gas station and pointed to the small brown tent symbols strewn out all about the map...those brown symbols indicating a whole "underground" of camping / free camp sites all over the place! Surely we had noted these small symbols on the maps, but without any information about what they were or any road signs pointing us in their way - they had remained symbols on a map - nothing more.

The free camping spots are all off paved roads, and you really have to know about them to find them as you venture in on gravel roads, sometimes more like washboards than roads - but most are still accessible by our mini van without too much trouble, and once you find your destination you are in a place of peace and solitude/ very unlike the busy provincial campgrounds that is the only thing we had known of until our first and "forced" experience of Free Camping.

Now that we have seen and experienced what that can be like: there is no turning back and doing things the commercial way anymore. I will forever be grateful for that one turn in events, which  forced us to look outside the beaten path and find an alternate way of enjoying what we all call Camping.

At many of these free campsites; there are no services. No running water, no showers, no water slides, no mini putt, no entertainment, no check in counter, no power, no guest services, no laundry facilities, no toilet paper in the outhouse and that; *the outhouse* IS the only luxury you will find. in short; there are none of the things you find at all the big "fancy" camp grounds. And that's probably what keeps the majority of folks away; and that's fine, of course. But if you are Iike me, and think you might enjoy trying these lovely free sites and simply don't know about them (like we didn't know about them) / then, that's a different story, and that's why I decided to write about our experience.

What you get instead of all of the "luxuries" outweigh all of those things in our minds; first of all true privacy: at our favourite lake,  there are only a few campsites to begin with and they are spread out far and wide with lots of privacy between each. There are a few picnic tables, and if you are lucky, you might get a site with a table. On our first visit, we didn't have a table but on subsequent visits we have always managed to get access to a table.  In total there are only about 10-12 sites and this time we counted only 4 other sites being used! Peace, tranquility, quiet and close to nature are the only appropriate words coming to mind describing it there. You wake up in the morning to the song contest of loons, listen to the squeaking of ground squirrels during the day and if you are lucky; as we were; you will get to see deer and other wildlife use the lake as a water hole at night, as well as fish jump high above the water, turtles swim around and share the waters with you as you go for a dip.

This was our third time back to the same place and we all saw the excitement of the dogs as we approached on the washboard, gravel road.They, too remembered and got SO excited arriving there! For the dogs; it means freedom, amazing access to swimming, lots of hiking, exploring, retrieving in water as well as on land, more swimming, snoozing in the shade with the wind blow-drying their wet fur...and surely one of their favourite "duties": prewashing all the dirty dishes and making sure we have no left overs to worry about storing ;)

I can't help but think this type of camping represents the kind of togetherness every dog dreams of. 

Miss Pinot, moments before she decided she WILL actually take up dock diving. Here, she hadn't made that decision (yet) and was looking rather stressed about how to make this call..or whether it's even worth a try. "I AM a sheltie, after all". LOL. What a character, this one.

Pinot, has always been an amazing traveler and has a beautiful appropriateness about her when it comes to being "on" and "off" (ie ; being able to settle and relax after activity periods end). With one very short exception she was off leash and completely free the whole time. Maggio has a tendency to loop and stress a bit more, gets rather obsessive about toys and can't really turn his retrieving desire OFF and needed a bit more management to begin with but was actually better on this camping trip than ever before. Likely; his ability to relax a bit more this time was a combination of now being in a place that's starting to feel familiar, together with a natural anti stress formula we all swore REALLY made a difference.

Not quite sure what to do...as you can see. She wants to go in, but dock diving is a new concept to this girl. She learned to swim in this very lake when a little 8-10 month old youngster..but diving off a dock??? not so sure it's a good idea.

BUT THEN something happened (maybe our encouragement that she CAN DO IT...and look at this - all brakes still on she decides to give it a try...but then, look at the next image!!

WAHOO - Dock diving sheltie! This is jump number 2 and look at the different body language here! Holy moly. Now a diver extra-ordinaire! 

Of course, its hard to compete with Maggio's confidence and flying ability. He'd do this all day long and never start to think it's boring.

After five amazing days away, we're back home now and unpacking and remembering through photos and stories. What a great camping trip! It's moments like the fun dock diving event and swimming across the lake multiple times per day that bring us back year after year. The water is warm, you can actually swim and bob around on pool noodles (unlike in the glacial waters we have here at home in Banff). I'm sure we'll go back - if not a couple more times this summer - then next summer for sure...

the other awesome dog

It is only fair to share one more photo today as I only showed you ONE of the two awesome dogs yesterday. So, here we go. Above we have the Handsome Barney demonstrating basic obedience skills. Below a quick example of how I am using the image right away :-)