First, and most importantly, I need to apologize to Willie. I needed a photograph for this blog and I exploited Willie to get it. While Maggie played with a neighbor's dog, went on a long walk in the woods, and worked sheep at a friend's, Willie got to 1) lie on the rug and 2) put on a Superman costume so that I'd have a picture for the article. When I went to buy a costume for the photo, my local, large pet store (Mounds) was almost out of them. The shelves were basically bare. Lots of empty shelf space, suggesting that lots of people had bought Halloween costumes for their dogs and cats. (Costumes for birds? Please tell me there aren't any...). According to the National Retail Federation, pet owners spent $350 million dollars on costumes for their four-legged family members. That's a Read More
Archives for October 2015
Sheepdog Clinic Heaven
Willie, Maggie and I spent the last three days in sheepdog heaven at a Patrick Shannahan clinic hosted by Laura Wentz. Imagine watching brilliant dogs work white wooly sheep framed by the reds and oranges of fall in the midwest. Sweet. (And okay, a tad chilly when the wind came up.) I brought the camera along and got some good photos of Patti Summer's Shay (fitting, since she is always taking great photos of other people's dogs). This image is a great illustration that sheep herding is not just about your dog going to the right or left around the sheep, or walking up when told. It's about communication between the dog and the sheep, and what the sheep learn from the dog's behavior (and vice versa). Here, a balky ewe is evaluating Shay, and deciding how committed Shay is to taking Read More
Resilience: Can We Increase It in Dogs?
I worked with a dog years ago, a little buff-colored foxy thing, who had been rescued from abominable conditions. She'd spent years tied up in a barn, expected to pump out puppies for a daily feeding of kibble and a bowl of nasty, green water. And yet, she sashayed into my office like she'd been raised in heaven. She trotted into my office and came over right away to say hello. She loved people and got along well with other dogs. Her owners brought her in because they needed help with house training, not because she had any other behavioral problems. Soon after, I met a retriever mix who had been raised from puppyhood in a wonderful family. He had everything going for him. Good genes. Well socialized. An enriched environment. And yet, after being attacked by another dog (no injuries, Read More
Fall Photos
A light post today, while I work on a content-rich one for next week (following up on last week's post about trauma and dogs). After deciding to post only photos today I struggled to come up with some interesting photos that I've never taken. I've been photographing the dogs and the farm for seven years now, and there are just so many photos of dogs, hay in the barn and flowers that one can take. Or so I was thinking. But then I remembered my Contemplative Photography class, and its inspiration to see the world in new ways. I decided to come up with a theme, like "texture" or "color" and go look for it with my camera in hand. "Edges." That's what I came up with. Edges... the boundary line between one thing and another provides a wonderful contrast, and thoughts about where Read More