Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Following in his Mother's Footsteps?

Gus did his first advertising work this morning!
Doskocil has come out with a new giant sized dog bed and he'll be on the package! His owners have had Danes for many years, and several of their other Danes have been in Doskocil ads so they got a call when the company needed another Dane for an ad.

She (Gus's owner) had to work, so asked me to take him to the photo session. He was SO GOOD!! They have had him in training classes but let's face it - he's still basically a puppy and can get pretty darned silly. It did take him a while to settle down - I had been hoping for an afternoon time so I could bring him over here to my house and let him play with his siblings for a while and get him worn out first but it didn't happen that way. But it didn't seem to matter - he strolled into the studio and met everyone, wagging and happy. And he was very willing to lay down where they wanted him to, but he wouldn't stay. Fortunately the photographer and the other people (I assume from Doskocil) were VERY patient. The set was really small and I thought he was feeling a little crowded, so I had them take a little break and I worked with him, let him get used to the bed and the close quarters and settle down a little. The breakthrough came when it occurred to me to toss treats to him - then instead of wanting to come to me for a reward, he'd lie there and look alert. Then we were able to get a LOT of good shots in different positions, by the end we were even able to squeak a toy and make meowing sounds and Gus stayed!! And looked gorgeous!!
They were kind enough to send me this photo to use on my personal web sites - it's not the one they ended up using for the package but I really like it!

Monday, September 04, 2006

Now We Are One!

Happy birthday to Kinsey's puppies!!
Actually I'm a little late, they were born Aug. 27, 2005. You could hold them in one hand - seriously!! You could.
Of course, by the next day it took both hands, and by this time last year they were already 4 or 5 pounds each.
But they WERE little at one time!!


This is Keeper - his owner sent me this picture of him with his birthday hat on. Keeper probably weighs over 150 lbs. now - good thing we don't have to buy clothing for these guys, as fast as they grow! They'd need new outfits every week!