Tommy

Meet Tommy - the Awesome and Very Handsome 9+ week old English Bulldog puppy. He`s recently enrolled in Wags`Puppy Foundation skills class. I talked about him in a blog post just a few days back.
Yesterday I had the great honour to do a photo shoot with him. What a cute Dude! 
Here are just a couple of shots of Tommy. Enjoy.

A walk with my dogs and camera

Yesterday I went on a lovely forest walk with Pinot and Maggio. Two hours of exploring, playing, enjoying, just being: and for me: photographing the dogs. I had this massive inspiration to just experiment and test different things: play with light, shadow, shooting right into the light, getting flare, trying to control it (as best as I could) - seeing what would happen if I didn't even try to control it and playing with backgrounds. 

Here I will leave you with some of the resulting images. Bless these dogs: they are truly amazing - unbelievably cooperative and happy to test and try what we're going to do next. I think they really like seeing the camera come out; they're well-paid models! 

Pinot certainly seems to soak it up and actually gets a bit frustrated with me when I tell her it's Maggio's turn and she needs to wait. She will then go on to place herself in a beautiful sit or down near Maggio and pose toward the camera - as if she's still part of the "show" - I just tell her how gorgeous she is and she seems to be happy with that arrangement. She doesn't know I cropped her out of the frame. (unless of course she reads this blog post or goes to check out the photos. LOL). 

Enjoy the photos - Maggio is sporting his True Retriever Colours: mud and muck, twigs and dirt pretty well covering his body. The measure of Enjoyment for a dog :-)

Maggio posing and doing his typical "goofy face". Pinot is impatiently waiting for her turn right below and in front of Maggio...cropped out of the frame.

And then - Pinot's turn to "smile" for the camera. Doesn't she just look like she is soaking it all up??

Play hard and then crash

They are either On, or OFF, aren't they?! This was the scene on Monday after working on the photo shoot with the Brittanys for a while. The Puppies had had a BLAST zooming about in an ex-pen, in the studio, doing all things they were't "supposed" to (having a Great Time!). Carla of Hunter's Heart commented and said it was probably the most fun these puppies had had in all their 8-week lives. What an awesome time!

Posing for photos.
Not posing for photos: but going over and kissing the photographer instead. 
Licking and then perhaps also just a tiny bit...biting her ear.
Getting tangled in her lovely long hair. 
Smelling her clothes: does she have cookies?
Tasting the camera strap. 
Licking the lens.
NOW: Getting a toy, playing tug with the photographer. 
Tasting a treat. Yummy! 
Going back to business.
Posing some more. Or not. 
Running away again. Having a GREAT time. 
Running and playing until...

Well, it takes its toll. All that exploration, all that newness of a new place. New smells. New experiences. Being a Super Model.

Crash and Burn. Just like that. On the spot.
It's hard work, man.

Photo shoot with Keva

I got to enjoy a lovely morning walk with Chris and Keva just a few days back. She's a gorgeous dog! She's a German Shepherd type - sure looks mostly shepherd, but also low content wolf. I first met Keva as a wee little one when she came to Puppy class. Recently she completed the "Manners" program and she sure is turning into a Lovely Companion dog!

The very bottom shot is my own favourite. The intensity of those eyes - yet soft and friendly as she curiously paused for just a brief fraction of a second to check out what I was doing. I really like the expression of that one :-)
Thanks Chris and Keva - and Suzanne, too! Hope you enjoy the photos!!

You are his life, his love, his leader...

 "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

    - Unknown

It's a beautiful quote, the one above. It came to me as I was deciding to post these images and looking for words to go along with them. What do you say beside images that already tell such a story of connection?

I adore seeing connection between people and their dogs. It's a a true gift - that goes both ways.
And isn't that ultimately what dog training is all about? Developing and strengthening the relationship, finding ways to connect, deepening the bond, making ourselves "worthy" of our dogs and multiplying the reasons to connect and Be Together. That's always been the idea behind the training we do at Wags.

It doesn't have to be elaborate or complex - sometimes the reasons for training and developing skills can be pretty simple and every-day. At the end of the day - It's the Journey that matters - perhaps not so much the destination... It's a good thing to ponder and be thinking about: "What's in Your Journey?"

Dog Days of Summer

Meet Summer. Yeah, that is this adorable German Shepherd adolescent-girl here. I originally met her and her peeps; Susan and Felix, through Puppy Foundation Skills class, where she started at an early age. 

Just a few days ago, I met up with Summer and Felix for a lovely outing and photo shoot. There were a few specific images I was looking for to add to my photo gallery and library, and the very cool thing looking back through the images was how well many of these images illustrate one of the things I keep preaching to students all the time: develop PLAY with your dog!!! With good skills and a keen player, there are so many training challenges that become easy and fun to work through - but more than anything, Play develops such a fantastic bond and relationship! It puts the emphasis exactly where I believe it should be: right in the middle between you and your dog - in something that you do Together. 

So, here are some of the photos from our photo shoot just the other day. Hope you enjoy! THANK YOU Felix and Summer for being awesome models! Thank you Susan and Felix for doing such an awesome job getting this girl off on such a great start! And Thank you for teaching her how to play with you! It is a gift that will stay with her (and you) for life :-)

I LOVE seeing the intensity in the play! It is just simply gorgeous and it is easy to see just how much fun she thinks this is, too! In the image below she is frozen - ready to pounce the moment she is given permission! Can't you just feel the intensity?

See the impulse control Summer is showing in the photo above, too? Love it! And she's 5-or-so months old!! 
Closing off with a beautiful portrait of a very beautiful soul. OH Those Eyes!

Photo shoot with Elroy

The journey to create more images for photo galleries, a new website as well as for illustrating articles has started :-)
Meet the handsome Elroy. Here are just a few of the photos from our morning last week. Thanks Jen and Elroy for coming out and being such awesome models!

I think this is my personal favourite of them all - what beautiful connection! 

Elmo

This is Elmo. He belongs to friends of the family. The first few photos are ones that have only been shared privately so far but as I added to the "Elmo collection" this past weekend, it felt timely to share a few photos here as well.
We were visiting just before Christmas, and it just so happened that Elmo had paid a recent visit to the groomer and being that my camera was with me - I decided to snap a few photos of the Handsome Fella.

The red bow from the groomer was just too adorable and perfect on the red chair.

This past weekend we had the pleasure of having Elmo for a couple of sleep-overs and of course a few more photos had to be added to the Elmo-collection. He's such a lovely dog; easy and sweet - by day 2 he was fitting into our household as if he'd been here for a long, long time. The dogs were all at peace and co-existing as if there was nothing more natural and usual. 

In these final and most recent shots, I love how his hair has grown and he seems to be sporting a bit of bed head in these shots taken on Sunday morning. "King Elmo" - just awaking from his Beauty Sleep :) What a Great Dog!

Am I brave enough to say it out loud?

It's February and it's time to "spell it out" and put down some Goals for 2013 in Writing. I've been collecting strength and strategy / wondering if I will be brave enough to actually verbalize it? 
Some of you know I come from a Visual Arts background first and that Dog Training  - like for most of today's Trainers - is a second career. The super short version of my first educational background is that I did a Master's in Visual Communication - having had a love and passion for all art as well as photography for a long time. My first real job out of University was working as a Freelance Photographer for  the Daily Gleaner in Fredericton, NB. Simultaneously I held a part-time job as Media Production Assistant at UNB; assisting in the department of Media Services and catering to the University's Visual needs. Well - fast forward about 15 years and photography was for many of these years left aside while pursuing the second Passion of my Life: Dogs. I didn't know whether I would ever return to Photography or not. For a while - as film cameras everywhere were replaced by Digital cameras - I didn't even have anything other than a point-and-shoot digital camera. Couldn't justify spending the money on a good DSLR if I wasn't going to be "shooting for real". My focus has, for the last 10 years, been entirely on Dogs! The Training and Behaviour part, that is.

And the years rolled by as I immersed myself in the Learning of All-Things-Dog. All my darkroom equipment from days past became obsolete, film cameras collected dust and became obsolete...and the knowledge I seemed to have gathered - much about printing and darkroom techniques: also became obsolete.

But as months have turned into years and years translated into a Wonderful and Fulfilling career working with Dogs in a Training Capacity - it feels like it's now time to start merging my Two Passions; to pick up the camera again and Really make a commitment to shooting. I have no idea where this will take me or what will unfold. Just know it feels so right that I must put it down on paper. My Big Goal for 2013 is to "Shoot lots of Dogs" - yeah yeah that sounds bad for a "dog friendly trainer" - doesn't it - but maybe that's part of the reason I enjoy that juxtaposition?! 
Therefore, over the next few months I am going to be mixing blog posts about training with lots of posts with Photos of Dogs. I hope you'll enjoy the Visual Component that is to come! A new Year, a New Journey - I hope you'll check back often to see where this Road might go?!
I have no idea - but I'm excited!

random thoughts of the day...

Can't help but smile back when I look at this happy face displayed by Pinot. What a privilege to be owned by these happy and completely faithful characters we call our "Companion Dogs". Pinot is truly a side-kick dog...if all of society would allow for a constant "daemon" to be present - she would be it :-) (If you wonder what a daemon is - you can check it out here: the Golden Compass)

My other buddy, Maggio, is currently not feeling 100% after recently being diagnosed with pyelonephritis (inflammation of kidneys). You can see a bit of his his bare and shaved belly in this photo (as necessitated by the ultrasound to check him out last week).
He's being treated for it, but the poor guy's immune system is not completely happy about antibiotics. 
What a journey it is to live with someone suffering from allergies, and what a learning curve it's thrown me for. While saying all of that - it's been very educational and brought much positive with it: we've made some amazing contacts and perhaps foremost; for me, the journey has been a real first-hand eye opener into "Options" - that there are multiple ways to view healing and health. I've been personally blown away by what holistic medicine  - in the hands of a skilled practitioner - can offer. Through this journey, which started as a VERY frustrating wild-goose-chase looking to identify "allergies"...I have found a holistic vet I simply adore;  and my own views to the body, health and healing have really been impacted. 
And so the journey continues in different ways with each of these remarkable dogs...