As a professional dog trainer as well as a professional pet photographer, this is a post that I've wanted to write for a very long time. I cover this in every single basic obedience class that I teach - we were all taught the WRONG WAY to greet dogs! Bending over them and sticking our hand in their face is just about the worst way to greet a dog!
Potter is owned and loved by one of my dog trainer friends, Ashton, and when I had him in my Carrollton studio recently for a portrait session, I asked her if we might take some pictures for this post and she agreed to man the camera while I got totally inappropriate with her dog (it's good to have friends like this). So all photo credit goes to Ms. Ashton Murphy for this post (I did set everything up though, but she pushed the button).
Let me set the scene; Potter is a great dog. Well socialized, friendly and super well trained. He sort of knows me. We'd just spent the better part of an hour photographing him, but Ashton was handling him; I was behind the camera. Ashton and I discussed how he'd tolerate some fairly inappropriate behavior from me and she was confident that he'd be resilient enough to handle it and maybe we'd capture some reactions. Boy did we capture some classic reactions! Potter gave us a few text book "I am NOT loving this" reactions and rest assured he and I had a cookie party afterward so I could apologize for being so rude.
(click on any image to view full screen)
5 Comments
Feb 1, 2022, 10:28:26 PM
Nancy - Awesome post and the images to demonstrate were great.
Jan 30, 2022, 2:14:28 PM
Darlene - Tracy, you did an awesome job with this post! Your pictures are perfect! And great dog to represent the "body language". Nicely done!!!
Jan 28, 2022, 2:16:24 PM
Elaine - I am sorry, but that whale eye on Potter photo made me chuckle so much. Because it was so very true. His look is priceless (truly a dog that tells you things just by facial expression). We are so on the same page about the right and wrong things to do when greeting dogs. AND, love the Lili Chin link. I am going to download some goodies for sure. Great blog!
Jan 28, 2022, 11:31:28 AM
Nicole - These photos are gold! I love that you were able to show the details that you don't know until you know, and now your readers will KNOW. The last photo is so sweet!
Jan 28, 2022, 10:39:32 AM
Terri - This was really informative and those pictures illustrating the dogs reaction are perfect!