P#15 Q5: What Is the Best Way to Capture My Dog's Personality In My Dog Photographs?

It's All About Understanding

Jenni Bidner: That's a great question and one I don't usually get, so I'm glad it was asked.

Capturing your dog's personality in your dog photographs comes down to understanding canine behavior and understanding your dog. You want to know two things.

Why is the dog doing a certain thing and what is it that defines his personality to me? Then you can either coax the dog into that sort of look or activity, or you can set it up.

My children's book, Is My Dog a Wolf? deals with dog behavior.

A basic obedience instructor will be able to help you quite a bit. There are also a lot of good books out there on dog behavior. Figuring out what a behavior is and why they do certain things is a key part to dog photography.

Communication and the Right Cue

My German Shorthaired Pointer is a search and rescue dog and that means we train long and hard at a very serious activity where we're looking for lost people and we're helping the police. It can be very stressful for the dog because he has to think a lot, and frankly, thinking exhausts a dog more than running. It's a very serious activity.

When we're training and trying to learn something new, we do a lot of play activities. Children learn very well through play as well.

I've actually developed play signal that lets the dog know, "Now we're playing, you don't have to be obedient." I can actually bend down and give this little fake play bow and say in a silly voice, "What have you got there? I wouldn't steal that toy from you."

My dog immediately knows he's in play mode. He almost instantly goes into a play bout or is jumping around -- he's eight years old and you would think he was an eight week old puppy.

If you don't have that kind of a symbol, you can just develop it. Every time you play, use a certain voice or certain words and your dog knows that it's time for fun.

If that dog starts realizing that we're into fun, and photography is fun, they'll stop being that serious or tortured looking dog that you might sometimes get when you pull out your camera.

Maybe the part of your dog's personality that you want to capture in your dog photographs is that your dog cleans your toddler's face after dinner every night to get the scraps of food. Set that up.

If you can't set it up, smear peanut butter on your child's cheek, and let the dog lick away. Have some fun.

If your dog is usually very curious and smells everything, but today he is not smelling stuff, dab a little liverwurst on the flowers and you'll have his face in the flowers. Get creative.

Decide first what it is that makes his personality special. Is he a clown hound? Is he very serious? Do you love those wrinkles? Then figure out how you can actually initiate that behavior and bring out his personality for your dog photographs.

In Conclusion

Our dogs are so much more than cute faces and fur. If you want to capture your dog's personality in your dog photographs, you need to first understand his or her behavior, and then learn how to draw those behaviors out at the right moments.