What you don’t always see

We take a lot of photographs, as many of you know. We comb through them every afternoon and winnow out the ones that are too blurry or show only half a dog racing through the frame. We try to focus our blog on interesting topics and often those topics revolve around the photos we shoot. Well, that Gretchen shoots and I often participate in.

But a lot happens behind the camera and unless you are good at reading dog body language, you may never know. So here’s my attempt to explain some of the things that happen that you can’t see. I’ll start with yesterday. I posted this photo of Woobie and me getting rowdy at the tennis courts.

But I won’t to focus more closely on Ms. Woobie who is, by her own account, performing a happy dance. Unfortunately, we didn’t get her dance fully in the frame, but with a little help from iPhoto, we can zoom in on how happy this happy dance was…

…did you notice that yesterday? You may have, but sometimes our lives are too busy or we focus our attention elsewhere. Anyway, this is just the kind of thing that happens that you don’t always or can’t always see.

Today it started when Woobie and I went to walk Ollie. We found a nice little bench in the garden and we waited to have our photo taken. Actually, we waited for Woobie to look and the camera and Ollie to stay put (he’s always trying to get close to Gretchen so he can get a treat…doesn’t want to miss out on the treats!).

But what was happening behind Gretchen was that a whole carload of preschoolers was piling out of the van and racing up the stairs to somebody’s house. It’s amazing we held this pose so well.

On Rosie’s walk, she posed beautifully…

…until she saw a crow behind Gretchen and off she went, but luckily she came right back when called. Of course, she was expecting some kind of reward!

Now when Gemma walked with Zoe, they both looked in opposite directions — Gemma focused on a barking dog off in a distance and Zoe looking forward to the continued walk.

Eventually they looked at the camera…

…but while Gretchen was trying to get a photo of just Zoe, Gemma climbed up on Gretchen’s arm asking for a treat…which they both received.

Gemma also got to play with Saber, but what you may not notice in these photos is that Saber is no longer on a leash drag. Gretchen thought that since I wasn’t there and Saber wasn’t always trying to steal my ball that he might be better on his recall command…

and he was…

…when he wasn’t being held back by you know who!

Now something you may not also really notice here is that Gemma is wearing her raincoat on a perfectly sunny day. When Gretchen picked up Gemma it was raining just a bit and so Gretchen thought, “If Gemma wears her raincoat, the sun will come out” and it did.

We got to see Saber, too, but what you may not be able to see in this photo is that Woobie and I are exhausted. In addition to our work today, we went for a really long walk down by the lake this morning. Both of us are ready for a nap, but we had to finish our obligation and Saber was the last of the afternoon.

There’s a lot more that happens behind the camera, but this tired pup is going to rest up for tomorrow.

Until then,

Rubin