Another Doggy Day

Whew, too much happening today. Tonite is puppy picture taking night, and I still have not found my tripod. I rarely use it, but it should make for a steadier camera when taking these pictures. And where are my extra batteries? Gotta remember to put the memory card back in too - it's currently in its computer slot, as I was downloading pictures I have not had time to put on the website yet.

Tom has the finest photography equipment, but I make do with a series of moderately priced point-and-shoot cameras for doing puppy pictures and miscellaneous dog shots. Although I once took a photography class and briefly belonged to a camera club, I was wise enough to pass on yet another expensive and time-consuming hobby! My current camera is a simple Canon PowerShot, which takes "good enough" pictures without a lot of bells and whistles.

I am heading over to Tom's after work, meeting Jess there to get the project accomplished. But before I can go over there, I have to get Joy shipped back home to Tennessee, as her flight leaves later this afternoon. She's a delightful dog with a totally charming personality, and we've enjoyed her stay. Hopefully she will have a beautiful litter, with pups as sweet as she is. Ah, another hour of vacation time lost. Hard to accumulate it when there are pups, and I'll have to take additional time if I ship one or more of the puppies later. Thank goodness I live close to the airport (and not under a flight path).

The stacked shots will consist of a sitting shot with an emphasis on head and expression, standing front and rear shots to show the width, straightless of front legs, and how they stand on their rears, plus shots of each side of the puppy. We do both sides, because Dal markings vary so much, and many of them will have better markings on one side or the other - and we always hope for the best markings on the "show side", the left side that the judge sees when the dog is stacked. Hopefully the pups don't take after dad in that respect - Argus has OK markings on his show side, and near perfect markings on his "off" side. Bad planning!

The side shots will show the puppies outline (overall shape), proportions, neck length and shape, angulation, body shape, topline and tailset, underline, whether they can correctly stand over their fronts, and give us a general idea of how the dog will look as an adult. I rely heavily on puppy pictures, and also on Jess's observations of what she is seeing as she stacks the pups. Some pups "go together" beautifully, with no work at all, while others need more work to stack. It tells us a lot about their personalities too, and how they are about handling. Because Jess is a relative stranger to them, it is also excellent socialization.

We try to just stack the pups, rather than relying on food which can distort the look. We see a lot of pictures with "peanut butter spoons" where the pups are licking/chewing on a spoonful of something tasty while the pictures are being shot. We do that as a last resort, trying to get nice natural images. Digetal cameras make this a lot easier and a whole lot cheaper, as we can afford to take lots of throwaway shots to get the right pictures.

Tom is starting to agonize over the homes and whether or not they will be "good enough" for his babies. He'll be just like the doting father who finds all his daughter's potential suitors to be lacking. :-) I've got excellent homes lined up, all previous Dal owners, plus a couple of good reserve homes too.

Things are progressing well on leasing the lovely Ch. "Violet". Her hip xrays looked good and have gone off to OFA, and her CERF (eye) exam will be coming up soon. If all goes well, she will join my dog family next month, and be bred to Argus, with spring pups on the horizon.