Annabel

[rpcrowe]

Annabel was a stray that we rescued from a local shelter. The shelter had her posted on their site but no owner showed any interest which is difficult to believe since she is such a beautiful dog. She did not have a tag or a microchip to identify her owner. However, even though we don't expect to lose her, she carries our group's I.D. tag and is microchipped in our rescue group's name...







I strongly urge all dog owners to identify their dogs with microchips. That way, the dog will be identified at any shelter or vet and could be returned to you. Microchipping is not that expensive and is great insurance for your beloved pet. Any vet can microchip your dog - vet fees vary...

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely captured, Richard. What a beautiful dog.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks, Annabel is a darling. She came to us with her buddy, whom we call Celeste and who is also a lovely girl. Celeste appears to be a purebred Maltese. I suspect that Annabel is a Shih Tsu + Poodle mix...

Celeste is the more reticent of the pair but, I have made her my friend today. Annabel is more outgoing and likes everyone.

These two dogs are closely bonded (far more than might happen running the streets). Celeste was also clean and nicely groomed. I suspect that they were living in a home together...

[IzzieK]

Both pretty girls you have there...I hope they get to go to a nice loving home. Our Roxie (blue heeler) is also a rescue. Well, I rescued her because she was about to be put in a pound. We think she was abused so we worked on her a little bit longer than all our dogs and she is OK now after a year. I hope people don't do that to their dogs. I am glad for people like you who get to give them another chance in life.

[rpcrowe]

We were recently fostering a goldendoodle (golden retriever + poodle), Sully, whom I am sure was abused...



Although Sully bloomed while under our foster care, I noticed some symptoms of abuse. I brought him a chew stick. We use Bully Sticks about 12" long and let our big dogs have them until they whittle them down to 6" or so and then switch the sticks to our little dogs (that's recycling)...

As I was offering him the stick to chew on, he cringed and backed up. That is a definite sign that someone had hit him with a stick.

OTOH: Our own Goldendoodle, Holly, is absolutely frightened of a fly swatter. We have had her since she was 7-weeks old and we know that she has never been hit with anything...

[IzzieK]

One of our dogs is a corgi my husband called Short Legs (real name: Huey -- from the Huey helicopter. His dad is a chopper pilot hence the name). Anyway he barks at the flyswatter even before I use is if he saw me picking it up. Also when we grind coffee in the morning -- he hates it so we send him out for his morning duties with Roxie then grind the coffee. Or we go to the garage to grind the coffee... I think dog's protective instinct don't like sounds like how the flyswatter sound when we kill a fly because it resembles the sound of gunfire. Just a thought about our dogs -- all three of them are scared to fireworks and gunfires.

[Sn0wy]

I really like these pics - especially the way their eyes sparkle

[rpcrowe]

SnOwy,

I shoot my dog portraits using an on camera Canon hotshoe flash (I have several ranging from the 420EX to the 600EX-rt and pretty well use them interchangeably for these photo shoots). I modify the flash using a Joe Demb Flash Diffuzer Pro www.dembflashproducts.com
The modified flash provides the catchlights in the eyes of the dogs. I will generally use fill flash outdoors for the same reason; providing the catchlights....