Welcome to week 41 of your 52 week pet photography blog circle! This week’s topic is “Treats”, and I wanted to introduce you to Honey Bear, “strawberry loving dog” from my recent Memory Photo Session.
When it comes to photographing dogs, one might think that the use of treats is the first thing to come out of my bag. Not true. Food is a great reinforcer for dogs when it comes to dog training, but some dogs become a bit “hyper focused” on the food. This is especially true if the food is coming from the dog’s owner. Ideally, my goal is for the dog to focus on me, preferably with an adorable head tilt 🙂 For this response, I start with sound – duck callers, coyote callers, kazoos, squeakers… anything to capture a dog’s attention for a split second!
Meet sweet senior Honey Bear. Sound? She wanted nothing of it! She didn’t look or respond in any way. I had some liver treats that I tossed – she lost patience with searching for those haha! Mom and I brainstormed: “How about we try asparagus and strawberries? She can see those much better, too!”
We got out the healthy treats and guess what? Strawberries for the WIN!
It was so much fun to see Honey Bear running and jumping for strawberries in her backyard. There was so much joy! This sweet gal was recently diagnosed with cancer. She showed us her strength and did not let on one bit that she was going through any health challenges! Here are some of my favorite images of Honey Bear enjoying her favorite treat, strawberries.
Honey Bear is adorable and I love the images of her catching her strawberries!
Great shots of Honey Bear in action going for the strawberries. Beautiful bokeh.
The colors in these images is jaw dropping, so beautiful! I love how you brainstormed on how to get Honey’s attention…asparagus made me laugh out loud!