Beautiful Boy Jim. Very very powerful looking Rottie. Good to hear that you have done such a great job breeding for excellent temperaments along with great conformation.

The worst thing that can happen in ANY breed, is to not consider the personalities of the dog. No matter how beautiful, if it doesn't have a great and kind mind. Don't breed it

I figured you'd probably know of him I have taken several moving shots of him in the group ring but being black, the shutter speed is always too slow. Painful as several of the poses have been beautiful.

I hope you are keeping some of Rowdy's pups yourself? He is a very special boy. Hallie appreciates the non sloppy kisses, she is very dainty...:)

Well...most of the time. We just came from a horse show and she went nuts rolling in horse man-dooer.

Dee Dee,
Rowdy would be appalled at the thought of a dog rolling in horse manure. Yuck he'd say. He's kinda dainty that way .

We have a Rowdy daughter out of his first breeding to an Annie daughter -- we bred the mom -- and that's Cassidy. We also kept a boy out of Cassidy's first litter which was a line-breeding on Annie's side and that's Sundance. Annie, our first Rottie, first show dog, first champion and now an ARC Gold Producer on 2 litters (one of only 8 in the history of the breed to achieve this level of production on 2 or less litters) is 10.5 years old and just took 1st in 9-11 Veterans Sweeps and 1st in 9-11 Veterans Regular Class at the Rottie National. She is a 25 inch, 103 lb Rottie girl with attitude up the kazoo.

So our current breeding stock includes a Rowdy daughter/Annie granddaughter and a Rowdy grandson/Annie great grandson. Being able to see all these dogs together playing in the same yard is really a joy. We are so very grateful that the dogs we have bred have become such great canine citizens and created further generations of really good, sound, intelligent, trustworthy Rottweilers.

Every puppy we've ever bred was delivered by Linda and me and brought up with our full involvement and love for the first 8 weeks of their lives. The results speak for themselves. Rowdy has 6 TDI-certified Therapy Dogs as part of his offspring. Annie has 10. We are more proud of that statistic than any other. We have been fortunate. We have also worked very hard to achieve these results.

Love to Hallie,

Jim

"As for the wrinkles, that's so much a personal preference. I love unstructured wrinkles in my backdrops because it gives even more softness to it visually. In fact, I often hang them with large folds to focus on the subject in front. That's why I use muslin because they're light, can be bunched into a ball and carried anywhere easily. "

This is exactly how we handle our backdrops. Wrinkles are see as 'texture.' :P

Dee Dee,

May I ask where you got the deal on the backdrops (if you did not mention it already).

James

Dee Dee,
here's an example of the "wrinkled background with folds" that I like to use for some of my show formals. This was taken at a Shih Tzu Specialty last week.



Please note that it's a proof and there is no sign in the image. That'll be added once I get the order.

Jim

Jim, Rowdy is a very handsome dog. I would like to see some portrait shots of him. His head looks lovely. How about some expressions like Dee Dee gets from
Hallie! So very pleased to hear how much importance you put on tempermant.

That would be another challenge for us Dee Dee. The many expressions of our dogs.

<<love for the first 8 weeks of their lives. The results speak for themselves. Rowdy has 6 TDI-certified Therapy Dogs as part of his offspring. Annie has 10. We are more proud of that statistic than any other. We have been fortunate. We have also worked very hard to achieve these results.>>

Jim, thats AWESOME! With all the "bad" rap those big dawgs get, it certainly has to warm your heart overall, with what they've achieved! Especially, when BREEDING temperment is one thing, and then raising social dogs/pups is the whole other thing put together!

PEople and pricing.. THey''re like, "Wow, you'll make some $$ off of that litter"..
WEll, how do you explain the TIME put into raising each little dog, to be GREAT big dogs, takes any "technical" money out of the whole scenario.
With goldens, people automatically think, "Oh, its a golden, its a great temperment"! Um....!?? NOT exactly! Won't hijack this thread to get on that soapbox, but, you know what I mean!
Back to rottie temperment..
An old neighbor of mine, was moving back to Hawaii, where the quarantine is 6 months, never mind the plane ride, and they asked me if I would find their Simba(rottie) a home. I'm like...ah, yeah, sure...not a problem(he's staying with ME!) .
I couldn't beleive that they would give this boy up! Trained in Schutzhund, their 3 yo little girl(dainty thing) could give voice AND hand commands, that which Simba quite nicely complied, and they were going to give him UP???
Needless to say, on one trip down the main road, with Simba in "Doggy disneyland" at our house, and just STARING at "HIS" Truck going by, without him in it, well, it was noticed, and they changed their minds! GEeeeeeeepers! He is an AWESOME dog.(now living in Florida I might add..Lake Mary area)
ANyway...taking a break between cuddling puppies!
Headshots...yeah...in your spare time....could ya huh?

Jim that is REALLY great. And also a compliment to you to finding so many good homes that will do things like therapy dogs international, etc with your pups! Good homes are not always that easy to find. You should be very proud of what you have done. I am not a breeder and never will be as I would keep every single pup LOL, Hallie as you know is a rescue from a shelter and all the indescriminant breeding out there drives me nuts. As long as we have so few homes that thousands of dogs (and cats) have to be killed every year, people should not be breeding like they do. Only responsible people who are truly interested in making healthier, sounder dogs like you are should be breeding, the world doesnt' need more dogs just for the sake of dogs, we need healthier, good temperamented dogs.

OK off my soap box I know I'm preaching to the choir but I get so worked up about the overpopulation of dogs (it's criminal to kill animals who are healthy and nice just because we don't have the space) and people are breeding tons of puppies out there just to make a buck.

Thanks for the tips on the muslin, and that pic with the shih tzu is great I do like that textured look! I guess it's the folds that bother me. Balling it up makes sense. The folds are nice too. I would prefer totally flat...but "textured" is very acceptable. I like the look of most canvas backdrops but some do look like a Sears background which I don't like at all.

James the name is Canfield, have you been to their site? They have some in stock specials with good prices.
http://canfieldstudios.net/Web%20In%20Stock%20Specials.htm

I like the quality of the backdrops, I have never seen a real high priced one to compare but these are just great.

Peggy Sue! I am so sorry, we must have been posting at the same time because I just now saw your post above here. That is a great tip on twisting the muslin opposite ways before balling it up. I will try that. I know what you mean about some looking good and some not as you envisioned. I'd love to be able to go into a store and see them all set up and try them out. I will usually grab a backdrop image and cut out a light dog and a black one in photoshop and set it on top to get a general idea but it still does not always look the same in real life. Trial and error! I think I will get a steamer as well just to see how it works and if I like it. It would be so nice to have a permanent studio to leave things set up in!

OH MY GOSH you just compared me to my most favorite photographer ever. LOL!!!!! I am nuts over this guys work, and thank you VERY much...but I don't hold even a part of a candle to his stuff. I am a realist and know my shots are in their very infant stages and have a loooong way to go but it's fun to practice and play. I have his book Horses...and I have been trying vainly to figure out a way to take studio shots of horses with a backdrop, umbrellas, etc. I would like to set it up in an arena because I know a slight wind would carry my umbrellas and strobes away not to mention spooky horses in the mix. But man that would be fun.

I also spent a lot of hours trying to figure out how he had those backdrops made. I love them, they look very earthy. I have looked everywhere for something remotely similar but no luck. I am sure they are custom made....just wonder how he did them? My backdrops look so cheesy after looking at his.

There is just a little info in the back of his Horses book on how he works. It sounds like he soaks his canvas (he calls it a canvas or tarpaulin...wonder what the material is) before a shoot then hangs it between two poles to dry to get the wrinkles out. He used a huge 33 foot by 33 foot canvas for horse shows, that weighed 88 lbs. (I weigh 99 lbs so don't think I'd be toting that thing around alone!). He also talks about all the problems the crew would have setting up with winds, etc.

Any guesses on how he did that backdrop??

His work excites me more than any other photography I've seen, I can imagine the thrill of seeing what he gets after each shoot! Beautiful stuff.

OK this is freaky now I see another post from Peggy Sue and one from Marta that wasn't there when I started my above post! I have gremlins!

Peggy Sue, dog expressions would be a GREAT challenge! I'm up for it!!!

Marta, speaking of Schutzhund, Hallie got her Schutzhund title last summer...:)
http://www.deedeemurry.com/temporaries/hallie_article.htm

Marta,
the only dog in my house that I would consider doing Schutzhund with is my Golden, Crash. All the others have too soft a mouth .

Dee Dee, I agree with everything you say about breeding and about rescue. We have a rescue girl in our home named Marion Louise. She was found running around a commercial parking lot and I was called because she's a Rottie. She was heartworm positive, pregnant and had never been in a house and was therefore not housebroken. We treated her heartworm, spayed her and I housebroke her (took 3 months) and at the end of the housebreaking period, she was sleeping in bed with us. She'll be with us forever. I am on the Board of Directors of the Gulfstream Guardian Angels Rottweiler Rescue organization and we've placed dozens of good Rotties into good homes over the past 12 months. I am constantly amazed at the sweetness of the dogs we see come into rescue. There are those that are just too aggressive and we don't place them. But the others, we place them in good homes and give them a life.

We have bred 3 litters in 10 years. I've never bred any bitch more than twice and I hope I never will. I only breed when I want to keep a puppy for myself. You're right. There are too many dogs out there and far too many Rottweilers that have been abandoned for all the wrong reasons. Our breeding program is predicated on finding good homes. That is the key to making sure our dogs don't end up in Animal Control.

I'll send some headshots of Mr. Rowdy and his grandson Sundance this week. Thanks for giving me a reason to set up a portrait session .

In my view -- prejudiced beyond all understanding -- Rottweilers are very powerful dogs that want to be trained and want to be led. My Rotties understand their role in our household. All Rotties need to have that basic understanding. I've only been challenged by a Rottie once in my life -- thank you Lord -- and I won that confrontation. That dog crawls into my lap whenever I see him now and licks my face to tell me I'm his alpha. They are tough enough to challenge but smart enough to accept the answer. Which makes them smarter than most people .

Photos to come.

Jim