After walking almost every morning since August of 2019 - the start of the school year with my loyal and trusted companion Lucy Mae! I thought we needed to celebrate the end of the school year, but not the end of our walks with a little Portrait session of her this past Saturday.
Lucy, to put it mildly, is probably the most stubborn dog I've ever had - and I mean she's got her own opinion on how things should be sometimes. That stubbornness really kept us from taking her on walks because she could get out of her collar and old harness then take off. She get's fixated on things I.e. birds, squirrels and anything else she deems as being the "enemy". That was very scary for us when she was about a year old and pulled that trick and then ran towards a very busy street, thankfully she didn't go into traffic but rather along a fence line until we could get her attention for a treat.
Anyway enough about how she use to be - flash forward to late July - early August 2019 and good old Facebook Ad's You know the ones that appear because Facebook or Amazon or whatever seems to be listening to all your conversations! I know you know what I mean!! Anyway we must have been having a conversation about dog harnesses because all of a sudden I start to get these "Pug Life" ads for what appeared to be a well constructed, easy to put on, and more importantly escape proof dog harness. They seemed pretty awesome, but you know it was a facebook ad, anyway Molly and I talked it over and Molly ordered one for Lucy Mae, in Pink of course! Well a few weeks went by and then the "Pug Life" harness arrived! It was everything they said it was and more! We got it adjusted to fit Lucy Mae and from that point on we started our walking daily walking routine. I have to say that I was worried that Lucy would be a chore to walk wanting to sniff everything, but it's quite the opposite. She's all business and keeps me on a great pace even when she's "ground sniffing". She's learned to "wait" on command and "mind your own business" when we meet other dogs. She's lost a lot of that stubbornness - enough that I can let go of the leash put her a wait and take some pictures.
She really made me proud on Saturday when we were making these photographs. The last one is probably my most favorite that I've made of her to date in the 5 years we've had her. I did not know when I was focusing her with my medium format Bronica GS1 film camera, but right behind me was another dog. Her ears went to alert, but she stayed at wait. I guess she was "Minding her own business" because her daddy was making her picture, and that was more important to her than that other silly dog! Anyway we've logged quite a few miles since August, averaging about 3 miles a day. I've had to adjust her harness to fit snug twice because she's lost weight from our walking and I'm down almost 20 pounds since July.
I'm so grateful for her companionship and motivation to go on our walks, and even though she doesn't say much, she's a great listener and now proving to be a fantastic model!
If you would like to schedule a time with me to do some portraits of your 4 legged furry friends make sure to click the schedule button after the pictures! $200 get's you two rolls of film on your pet and 5 unretouched 5x7 proofs and 20% off a 24 inch or larger portrait.
Cheers!
