Well, impossible to shoot anyway. Yesterday, we drove an hour North of Orlando to visit our show vet to examine Cassidy prior to breeding her next heat and to do prelims on Sundance. A very good friend lives in the area and she asked if she could bring her recently-finished 20-month-old Rottie for some headshots that we need for a Dog News Ad.

So, after the exams and Xrays (Cassidy is just fine; Sundance's Xrays look wonderful), we took the boy out back to try to get some shots. There were two problems with this:
1. the boy, Chili, has received no training whatsoever and so he won't sit on command, stay on command or do anything on command. And

2. his owner can't hold him. He's 132 lbs. and he's just too strong for her.

So, after 30 minutes of struggling to get him to stand still long enough to get a few shots -- none with his ears forward by the way -- I finally gave up. On the way back to the car, the vet came out and, since she co-owns this boy, I asked if she would hold him for a few shots. By now, Chili's tongue was half-way to the ground and he was panting because it was 85 degrees in Orlando yesterday. So, inside we went.

Against a pretty nothing back wall, we had the vet hold the lead to accent his head and one of her assistants hold a cat to get his attention. Now, I don't advocate the use of "live bait" with any animal but I figured we had him under control and the cat wasn't all that afraid of the big lug.

Here's the result of the shoot.



The shot will be cut out for use in the ad. Exposure at ISO 320 was F8 at 1/200 using the 580EX flash bounced off of the ceiling.

I posted the results of the shoot on pbase and the owner called last night just thrilled that she had a "serious head shot of her boy". And, considering the situation was "impossible", we're pretty satisfied. We've ordered extra treats for the cat .

Thought you'd enjoy the story.

Jim

Using a domestic cat as bait, that is a new one for me

Nice shot

John,
well, the dog has no food drive; no toy drive. He's basically a total butthead . A very nice, very sweet and very large total butthead I might add.

So how do you get the attention of a dog that looks the other way when you toss a cookie or squeek a toy? The cat was available and it worked. Not my choice or my decision but "no cats were hurt in this photo session".

Jim

LOL, Jim. I don't understand Rotties, though I find them to be such beautiful creatures. Their temperments seem so different from Rottie to Rottie. Some seem like the most gentle creatures in the world, and others make me a bit anxious. :P I am glad that no cats were hurt in the process of getting the impossible shot.

James

James,
I find them oddly consistent behaviorally. I guess it depends on your personal experience. The boys -- generally -- are big klutzes that try to be so very macho but are really big sweethearts.

The girls are the brains of the breed -- kinda like us humans in that respect . They truly run the show and are very in tune with their owners.

What I see are vast differences in how the dogs are brought up and trained. All my guys -- even the ones that aren't show dogs -- respond to stimuli like food and toys. I play with them and I train them. I use toys in play and treats in training. So when I come across a "show dog" that doesn't respond to either treats or toys, I wonder just how the heck the owner ever trained it to do anything. Which in this case kinda answers itself since the dog has no training and has probably never really played with his owner.

Sigh. What blows me away is when a large dog -- like a Rottie or Akita or Great Dane is actually frightened when I toss a toy to get its attention. THAT really worries me about how it was brought up.

James, you need to meet some good Rotties. I'll buy Rowdy a ticket and let you know which flight he's on .

Jim

Ah - Cat bait. I've used it several times. This is a 10 year old bitch who would stand still, but wouldn't close her mouth. The owner finally resorted to baiting her with a kitten, as the bitch was really fixated on the barn cats. Again, no kittens were harmed in the capturing of this image.



One of the shots in the "kitten" series was used for a generations collage. This wasn't the final version of the collage, but it will give you an idea. Left to right, granddaughter, son/father, mother/grandmother.



When I was showing my first Champion Jagger (CH. Ebon's Who Do U VooDoo), I had friends who would routinely hold up toy dogs outside of the ring to bait him when he was in the BOB competition. He was rather fond of a black Brussels Griffon puppy.

Julie,
love the collage!

Yeah, you use what works as long as everything is under control. Our cat, OJ, has already told me that he is not to be used when that dog comes for formal portraits . But I have this toy cat that waddles and meows so that might work .

The collage reminds me that I have this "dream" shot with Annie Fay, Rowdy Eugene, Cassidy Ann and Sundance The Destroyer all together on one shot -- live! That would be great grandma, grandpa, mom and kid. Great grandma will want to eat the kid but other than that small problem, I think we can pull it off. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jim

There was a equine photographer who worked for almost an hour at trying to get ears from a horse. She finally resorted to grabbing up an old dead cat(yes, it was a dead cat) and waving it around. She FINALLY got the photo.

They are all lovely photos and the trick is figuring out the dogs trigger!!

Oh, Jim, you are such an optimist. Usually I do collages because it is next to impossible to get dogs altogether looking the same way, etc. etc. People love my collages because I can get the best shot of each dog and meld them together. In the case of the collage that I posted, grandmother would have killed granddaughter had we had them anywhere near each other.

This shot is not a collage and has been the only one I've ever been able to take of 3 together. This is mother on the left, her son in the middle (who I tragically lost to bloat on 12/31/07) and her daughter on the right. I would much rather have had the daughter facing like the other 2, but I turned and saw them standing/sitting together and grabbed the shot. 1 second latter, they were scattered all over the place.




The collage below was done because I was looking for very specific head positions to lead across the frame -- 3/4 to almost profile to absolute profile. These 3 dogs were great together, but I never could have gotten the look I wanted. This is a family photo of some of my Danes. The 2 end ones are brother and sister, and the middle one is the daughter of the one on the right. Sadly, I lost my Stoney (left 3/4 shot) on 12/3/07.

Julie, those are fabulous images, very very well done!