Warmer Days

It is horrible outside. The wind is making the rain downright painful.  Shockingly, I was the only one at the dog park today.  Coulee, Lacey and Lola (who is back for a few nights) didn't seem to mind the wind and rain too much.  Although the last stretch was into the wind and once Lola caught sight of the van she ran straight to it.  Then she sat huddled next to it looking pathetic. I would have felt sorry for her if moments before, she hadn't been running like a wild woman without a care in the world after Coulee and the ball.

It was so miserable I didn't even attempt to bring my camera (and I can't remember when the last time that happened!) so this picture is from a few days ago when we were all feeling a little warmer and happier.

Pretender

Coulee likes to pretend she is serious and focused.

But she occasionally forgets and lets her guard down.

I wish this was in better focus but it was too funny to not post.

Sadie-miester

Sadie is staying with us this weekend.

She has been an almost perfect houseguest (we won't mention the cat poop she ate).

While a terrier is not for me, I just love the their spunk and athletic abilities.

She even let me win tug a few times.  She wasn't happy about it though.

Marlin was less successful. He had just said, "You aren't going to win", when she ripped it from his hand.  

She was pretty happy with her prize.

Miss Smiley

I was reading a photography blog the other day and Charlotte was talking about the classic cattle dog smile.

I always thought Lacey had a cute smile, but I never thought about which side of her heritage it was from.

But now that I've noticed it, there is no mistaking it!

Pest

Most days, Coulee would rather Lacey just stay away.

And some days I can't blame her.

I've discovered, Coulee prefers the deeper waters where her pesky little sister can't keep up.  Finally some peace and quiet!

Hi!

This is one of Jenny's foster siblings.  Cute eh?

Two Ships

Two ships passing in the night.

I'm not sure where Lacey is headed...

Walking Companions

These beautiful guys are joining us on our walks these days.  Meadowlarks have the most gorgeous song.

There seems to be more of them around than usual this year.  I can hear them calling to each other all through the park.

Coulee Art

Coulee has a new piece to add to her art collection.  Her last one can be found here.

Phew!

I took a lot of photos this weekend - for myself, for a client and for rescue.  It was great.  I'm tired, but happy.  Faces like this can't help but make you smile.  She was soooo sweet.

Visitor

You can find out more about her here.

More from Yesterday

I love the way you can just see Coulee's nose peeking into the picture.

Lacey managed to get the toy a lot yesterday... Much to Coulee's dismay.

She did occasionally give Lacey a run for her money.

And this made me laugh... Coulee had to take a "drink" of snow on the fly. She couldn't possibly stop and let the toy get too far away.

By Defininition

I've been struggling with the 52 Weeks Challenge this year.  I think I've been struggling for a couple of reasons:

1. I started off with some photos that I LOVED and as a result, I've set my personal bar high and I am disappointed if I don't get that every week.
2. Now that I'm officially a "professional", I feel like they need to be better than before.
3. Part of the challenge is supposed to be to plan to take a specific photo, and then to go out and capture that. 

It is this third point that has been giving me the most grief lately. I consider myself a candid pet photographer.   By definition, candid is informal and unposed. I RARELY plan my photos and even less frequently do I give either of the girls a command like sit, stay or look.  I think last year I had one picture that I actually invisioned, and then posed (and by posed I just pointed a toy in the direction of where I wanted Coulee to stand and she did - ironically it was one of my most popular and one of my favourites.  But that could be a whole other blog post!).

I've noticed lots of pet photographers say that they are "candid pet photographers" but by candid, I think they mean "not studio".  And that is fine. They take amazing pictures, the dogs look fabulous and are much more natural looking than if they were sitting in a studio.

I just shoot what the dog presents me.  For the most part, I don't try and make the dog do anything special beyond interact with toys and occasionally look at me.  And it is hard to have a plan, if you don't know what the dog is going to do.  With Lacey there are certain behaviours I'd like to capture for the 52 Weeks Challenge.  Things like: flying through the air, biting Vito's tail, running flat out with her big goofy grin, etc., but I can't go out and say I'm going to get a flying picture today because she doesn't always fly.

I can use the 52 Weeks Challenge as a way to further my photography repetoire and to practice doing more pictures that are composed and planned, but I am also going to stop stressing over fitting a square peg into a round hole and just go with the flow.  I enjoy candid photography.  I don't enjoy posing my dogs.  I'm going to focus instead on things I want to do.  Things like enjoying a snow day.

In the Dark

While in the middle of a shower this morning, the power cut out. Shaving you armpits in the dark is a little frightening. I'm actually happy there was snow outside as it was the only thing reflecting light into the bathroom. I just wish the power outage had waited until our heater had kicked in. It is chilly in here!
We are still without power... Ahhh the joy of cell phones - I can still blog.

Talented Friends

One of my flickr friends gave me some advice on how to go from this...

to this....

Cool eh?!

It Never Gets Old

You know the kind of jokes that make you laugh every time you hear them?  The frisbee from Life is Good, is like that.  When I watch Coulee with it, it never fails to make me smile.

PS - When Marlin got home he asked why Coulee had a weird wet/dirty spot on her forehead.  :)

Cool Artist

As is the way with the internet, I clicked on a link, which brought me to another link, which brought me to yet another and then suddenly I was here - Wasco

I was browsing through his awesome galleries when suddenly I noticed a little download button at the top...  Did that mean what I thought it did?  Sure enough!  He is actually encouraging you to download his drawings.  Cool!  This one was one of my favourites.

This guy is even cooler than I thought - Draw A Dog. He will draw your dog if you donate $100 (or more) to a rescue.  So he gets nothing, you get an awesome drawing, and the rescue of YOUR choice gets a donation.  Seriously, seriously cool.

I'm off to donate to the Windy City Canine Rescue but I have to decide if I want a sketch of Lacey or Coulee....  I think I'm going to get Lacey done.  She is a little more "cartoonish" than Coulee.

Rare

It is very rare that both girls just stand next to one another.  If they aren't actively playing together, they aren't usually all that close to one another.  I definitely have no problems getting pictures of one of them, without the other one in the background.  I guess I should be thankful for that.  But I sure wish they did this more often.

This is not my favourite photo for many reasons - the colouring is weird (and I can't seem to fix it), Coulee looks particularly disheveled and for once, I wish Lacey didn't have a toy in her mouth.  But I still love it.  It shows how different they look from one another, and they are almost touching (and not with their teeth). How amazing is that?

This is more like it...

Lacey is trying her best to coax Coulee into a game of wrestling without crossing the line and pissing her off.

They don't look nearly as regal but much more in character... except for Coulee's expression.  I'm not sure what that look is all about!

Spring

Lacey always gets a spring in her step when she gets to the toy first.

It is especially cute when she is the only one who wants the toy in the first place.  It doesn't diminish her joy at all.

Yummy!

It almost looks like her cheeks are stuffed full of sticks too!

Bed Wetting

Two nights ago, I went to bed about an hour before Marlin, and Coulee decided to keep Marlin's spot warm until he arrived.  When he came up, he booted her off the bed but discovered a wet spot where she had been laying.  A big wet spot.  So big, it went through the blankets and sheets and into the mattress.

A few weeks ago we had been finding pee - at work and at home - but it took us a while to figure out that it was Coulee who was doing it.  At work, she is in a room with Lacey, Vito and Pixel and as Coulee has NEVER peed inside we couldn't believe it was her.  Same thing with at home. Then it happened when Lacey was crated at home but Coulee was loose.  We tried to convince ourselves that the pee was there before Lacey went into the crate and we just didn't notice (and some how didn't step in it getting her into the crate).  But finally, we put the pieces all together and realized that Coulee was the common thread in all of them.

Why did it take us so long to figure it out? Because we just couldn't believe it. Coulee would be horrified to pee in the house.  She was almost instantly house trained as a puppy - she learned so fast.  We thought we were brilliant... until it took us a year to fully house train Lacey.  Obviously we weren't the brilliant ones.  ;)

Anyway, we took her to the vet and we found that she had an infection that could be causing the peeing.  Turns out, the peeing caused the infection so while we cleared up the infection, we didn't stop the peeing.  And again, there was evidence that we ignored. On the day of our follow-up appointment for the infection, there was a big wet spot on the floor at work that we managed to convince ourselves was spilled water.

But we couldn't ignore the giant wet spot in the bed.  Although trust me, we tried.  "Was she licking?  Maybe it is just saliva..."  Yeah. Saliva that leaks all the way through to the mattress.  We are seriously dense.  I'm surprised we didn't consider if it was me who wet the bed!

So it turns out she has Hormone Incontinence which is pretty common in older large breed females who have been spayed.  She'll need to be on medication from now on and now we just need to figure out which one we want to go with.  We'll be researching things this weekend but if anyone has any advice please let me know.  While I trust my vet, I'm trying to make an informed decision. I'm not really a holistic kind of person, but at the same time I hate the idea of being on constant medications so I want to make sure the medication I pick is the best one for her.

Coulee isn't letting it get her spirits down.  She has been having too much fun with her chicken to care.  Which, by the way, is a great dog park toy - impossible to lose and flys great in the wind.

Look Who's Coming to Dinner

(Both pictures were taken with Lu in the same spot just minutes apart with the same natural lighting.  Cool eh?)