My Dog Is A Super Model

Red Dog has charisma, no doubt about it. He is kind of a sleeper model; like at first people are all awed by Piper and her darting about, or they are enamored with the Wooster and his funny little ways, or they laugh at Tweed and his sillyisms. It takes a while for people to warm up to the reticent being that is my dignified Red Dog, but when they do, they love him forever, deeply. He is just that kind of dog. I think he is gorgeous, even if he is all gimpy and going grey and stuff now.

I posted this photo elsewhere recently and someone called it "making his little boy face" the kind kids make when they want something and want to make you believe they are good and are trying to charm you all at once. She asked what I offered RD to elicit this expression and I said "sheep sheep sheep of course." I guess it's a bit mean as RD isn't able to work sheep anymore these days and I shouldn't tease him with something he can't have.

My Dog Is A Super Model*

*or, you know, not

It's not always easy to get photos of funny little Piper; being as she is predominantly black and her eyes are a very dark brown, she tends to collapse into her own personal black hole in photographs. Also, every photo I seem to take of her (not including Mad Teeth (tm)) shows her with the same expression - mouth open, ears pointy -- not a lot of variety happening with Piper. Kind of how I have 30 photos of Lars in a crouch, one ear up, one ear down. Some dogs are just consistent. So I had to get a bit creative and engage her, which is hard to do with one hand while shooting with a pretty heavy camera, lens and flash in the other. I need Workers Comp for the pain in my wrist and shoulder!

A game of "Sneaky Tug" where she braces herself against a footstool for leverage.

And maybe a little lounging around too.

Tweed is difficult to photograph as well, since he is really worried about the camera. You would think the dog of a photographer would be accustomed to the thing pointing at him all the time, but he seems to think the camera is punishment for something bad he did. If he is not sitting in my lap interfering with my shots of him or anything else and getting nose smudges on my lens, he is sitting somewhere with pinned-back ears and big scared eyeballs. There is a reason people call him "Tweird." You have to jolly a different expression out of him by saying words he doesn't understand, and then you get the mildly concerned head tilt thing.

The typical Tweed expression

Elsewise, you get this: "The camera is stealing my soul."

Mr. Woo remains my favourite dog to shoot. His orangeness contrasts enough with his white to make him a bright shining star in an otherwise dark photograph, and he is fascinated with the camera, constantly posing at it. The blue eye/brown eye thing doesn't hurt either. It's almost like he knows he is super photogenic and does his darnedest to work it, baby.

"You need a shot?"

"How about a soulful/heartbreakingly adorable pose?"

"Did you get a good one? Did I do good?"

And some pairs-o-snouts photos.

Piper defends her tuggy toy against Woo Snout

Tweed and RD share a snout moment