Things your Dog needs to know for a Photoshoot
Lots of people worry that their dog isn’t well behaved enough for them to book a photoshoot, or that they need to be trained better. The only thing that your dog really needs to know is recall. Recall is a safety issue, you need to know that you can get your dog back in an emergency without having to chase them down, if they’re running towards traffic or if an unknown dog is approaching. As long as they have recall there are plenty of shots we can get and both you and your dog can have a fun and relaxed photoshoot experience.
A dog knowing how to sit and stay allows for posing to be a bit easier, and certainly helps in group shots, but its not essential. Anything beyond that really isn’t necessary, although it can certainly make for some fun photos if they do have other commands or know any tricks. Dogs that can jump and retrieve can create some impressive photos.
It’s much more important to capture you and your dog’s relationship now, at whatever stage in training you are at than waiting for them to be “fully trained”. No dog is ever “fully trained”, they are always improving their skills and learning new things so don’t wait for a moment that will never come.
These are some images we tried to get recently of my two puppies. As you can see they weren't interested in the photos and found all the smells and everything else around them much more exciting. I still love these photos though. They show what real life is like with these two, full of all the mischief they get up to and that sometimes there are more interesting thing to do than listening. I'm just glad that we finally got round to taking some photos with them, as much time as I spend behind the camera I often forget to get in front of it. An image doesn't need to be perfectly posed to capture memories and I will look back on these photos with a lot more laughter and joy than I would a photo where they both listened and sat next to me.
