The Joys of Dog Photography

Seriously, my hat is off to all the professional dog photographers, and maybe even more so to regular dog owners, who can successfully pose their dogs side by side with their hard-earned dog sports ribbons and achieve an acceptable brag photo.

Such a simple thing, you would think. I see them on Facebook all the time. Two generally well-mannered dogs … easy peasy. Such satisfying results. ❤️ Look. See?

Ronni’s 1st place NW3 ribbon & Element Title!
Baxter’s 1st Place NW3 ribbon!
Baxter & Rhonda with matching 1st place NW3 Vehicle search rosettes, earned one day apart.

But noooo … these three photos, far from professional quality, took quite a bit of time, effort and patience. And may I say, patience in posing for photos is something Baxter sorely lacks.

Or could it be that like me, a lot of people have dozens of blooper photos for each one that makes it to Facebook or Instagram?

For me, getting a nice picture of ONE of my dogs is challenging enough (black dogs can be notoriously difficult to photograph well, which doesn’t help), but setting two of them side by side and expecting them both to hold a pose is laughable.

Maybe I should just post a shot of the rosettes and leave the dogs out of it?

But what fun would that be? Besides, dog sports are all about the dogs – not the ribbons. The dogs love this game so much. The ribbons are a fun bonus, but it’s not like the dachshunds care about them.

So, after a trial, I have fun hanging or laying out the ribbons, whether there’s one or a handful. I ask the dogs for a pretty Sit/Stay and cross my fingers. 🤞🤞 One must keep a sense of humor when taking pictures of dachshunds.

There’s always a heckler in the room, eh?

One will sit still, the other will bolt. One will look up, the other down. Blinking eyes, backwards flipped ears and funny faces. And then one (usually Baxter) will inevitably decide he is totally over the whole thing.

I had already deleted about two dozen hilariously failed attempts at capturing a photo of Rhonda and Baxter together, with their back-to-back matching K9 Nose Work rosettes, when the idea for this blog topic struck me.

So, some of the more outrageous shots (wrestling dogs, a photo of crumpled rosettes with naught but blurry dog TAILS in the shot, etc.), you’ll have to imagine for yourself.

In the end though, the results are worth the effort. Most of the time.

Smile for the camera!!

May is Full of Promises

Oh, what a glorious morning!

Well, maybe not outside. Out there, it’s overcast, with a light breeze misting us with intermittent drizzling rain. Bare tree branches, receding snow banks and muddy earth greet the eye. But since I’m luxuriating in a morning of complete idleness, it’s glorious enough for me.

How did Rogers & Hammerstein put it?

“May was full of promises
But she didn’t keep ’em quick enough for some
And a crowd of doubtin’ Thomases
Was predictin’ that the summer’d never come.”

That is exactly where we’re at here in Alaska right now. I’m so ready for summer.

For now, I’m content to enjoy this early May morning from the toasty nest of my RV. I was happy to awaken at the reasonable time of 7:30 am (instead of 6:00 am) to a long, wiggly warm neck-hug from my best girl. It was time for a morning potty walk.

I turned the pot on to start coffee, grabbed a warm jacket and quickly accomplished Ronni’s morning toilet, still wearing my sleepwear and slippers. Minutes later, the two of us were back inside – me with a steaming mug of coffee and a blueberry scone. We have absolutely no place we have to be this morning and it feels wonderful.

I’m hoping, as the morning progresses, it will bring with it the sun. For the moment, I simply don’t care.

If I look closely, I can see the bare birch, willow, aspen and cottonwood trees are showing a hint of tightly curled bud-tips that will eventually become leaves and new growth. It’s May, but Spring is slow to show its face this year.

Not being a doubtin’ Thomas, I have complete faith that summer will indeed come. I’m just hoping it lands on a weekend.

For now … more coffee, please.

And … I’m Home Again

Threats of snow did not deter intrepid K9 Nose Work competitors this past weekend. Frigid temperatures and slushy mud puddles did not dim the smiles. It was the first NACSW K9 Nose Work trial of the year, and it was well attended.

Four full days of trialing flew by in a blur; the advanced NW3 level teams first on both Friday and Saturday, then NW2 on Sunday and our novice NW1 teams winding things up today (Monday). What fun!

The direly predicted snow never did make an appearance, and although rain and wind blew through, it was considerate enough to wait until most competitors had gone home for the day. There were several mild cases (including myself) of sunburn reported!

All four actual trial days were filled with intermittent blue sky and clouds, with the blue skies winning the battle above the Chugach Mountains more often than not. It was a glorious long weekend at Camp Gorsuch Boy Scout Camp.

I promise I AM going to get a picture of Baxter & Rhonda with their matching back-to-back NW3 1st place Vehicles rosettes … but it’s not going to happen today.

I pulled down our driveway around 6:00 pm this evening, parked the RV in its handy already level spot, hooked up the electric and stood on tired, wobbly legs looking at the looong walk across the still muddy, soggy yard to the house.

Rhonda was zonked out under a blanket on the bed and hadn’t bothered to look up when I parked. She was happy – I’d had the foresight to feed her dinner before the drive home.

After a brief moment of consideration, I turned my back on the house, stepped back into the RV and crawled into the bed next to Ronni.

It’s 8:30 pm now and I feel at least moderately refreshed after a nice, long nap. Not enough to unpack anything and move back into the house, but I might manage a mug of hot chai before bed.

There’s always tomorrow. Nite nite, all!

Volunteer Day in Chugiak

Spoiler alert. This is going to be a fairly short blog entry.

It’s 8:00 pm. Ronni and I are snugged up in our cozy little home away from home and I’m exhausted.

Volunteering at a K9 Nose Work trial doesn’t generally include as much walking as a trial day, but it can mean a long day, with a lot of it spent on your feet. We signed in this morning at 7:45 am, and other than 45 minutes for lunch (time to jog down to the parking area to walk Ronni, make a sandwich and eat it on the way back), we were busy until nearly 6:00 pm.

I’m absolutely not complaining – trials can’t happen without volunteers and I love trialing with my dogs, so I’m happy to do my part. That’s not to say I’m not going to be whipped at the end of the day.

I’m also happy and relieved to say my knee isn’t giving me ANY trouble at all, which is saying a lot after the past three days!

Our Sunday NW2 Trial day ended up being as gorgeous, sunny, blue and beautiful as yesterday. Chilly, yes, but hey! I had to break out the sunscreen! ☀️😎

8,370 steps today. Is anyone else keeping track? I’m betting my “Activities App” is going to nag me for the next month because it’ll see me as lagging behind my new “norm”.

Ronni had to put on her big girl panties and stay by herself in the RV today, which friends in the parking lot said she did without fuss. Win! I walked her early this morning before I had to check in, walked her again briefly during our lunch break, then took her for a fairly long walk after dinner. A walk that would have been longer … except it started raining.

Yep, I said raining. ☔️

But again, I’m not complaining, because my weather app says it’s supposed to be snowing right now.

I’ll happily take the rain, as long as it ends before tomorrow morning’s 7:45 am check-in. Yes, one more day of volunteering. If I can get out of bed in the morning, I’ll be there. That’s yet to be determined, but at least it’s a short commute.

My fibro is giving me fits at the moment. It doesn’t co-exist well with sudden weather/barometer changes. Hopefully, I can just sleep it off overnight.

I do usually sleep well to the sound of rain on the roof.