P#15: An Adorable Photo of a Dog Kissing a Boy

It's a Mater of Instinct

My fifth picture was a specific image I needed for Is My Dog a Wolf? I needed the friendly kissing shot because it's a dog behavior that's actually left over from the wolf days.

A wolf puppy can't feed themselves when they're young, so when the adults come back from hunting, they lick the mouth. (click the image for a larger version)

It's instinctual in all the adults in the pack to throw up for the puppies so that they can eat the food. It's gross, I know, but the kids love it in the book. This licking behavior becomes an act, showing that they're submissive and that the other is dominant.

When your dog goes and tries to kiss your face, he's actually saying, "I know you're the leader." He's not really asking you to throw up but it's leftover puppyhood and leftover instinct. It's a cute picture. You either love it or hate it when the dogs kiss your face or clean your ears.

No Kisses on Command?

If you want to get your dog to do give a kiss, it's almost guaranteed that they won't do it on command.

"They always lick my cheek but now that the camera's pointing at me they don't want to." I hear that a lot.

In this shot, I actually smeared baby food on the boy's face. I usually use peanut butter because it's nicer, but this little boy was my cousin and he agreed to allow lamb baby food to be smeared on his cheek.

That Weimaraner just loved it. We had all the pictures we needed of his cheek being licked.

This goes back to needing to figure out the behavior that represents your dog, and then figuring out how to set it up so you can catch a shot of him acting that way.

To Conclude

Dogs aren't always willing to be themselves on camera, and they rarely kiss on command. Jenni Bidner used creativity and some baby food to get this picture of a dog kissing a boy.