Little Dax & Bailey’s pet portraits were done at their local pet friendly park, where they (and their human brother) met me on this beautiful early morning. Dax and Bailey are regulars at this park. But they were not there with their usual human. And of course, they didn’t know me. And you could see the two dogs were a bit weary of what was going on. Especially Bailey. But we took our time with the portrait session, giving the dogs time to settle down. They sniffed around the park. And they spent a fair amount of time sniffing me and my camera. Bailey still wasn’t completely convinced and made sure to stick close to her human brother. But her curiosity did occasionally get the better of her giving me the opportunity to get some beautiful individual portraits of her.

It’s all about patience

Almost all my pet portrait sessions take some extra time. And I plan for this. In this case these dogs were a bit nervous. In other cases dogs are sometimes super excited. Sometimes they are just completely oblivious to me (and their owners) until they have done a thorough sniff of the area. Or until they have run around enough to blow off some steam. But what ever the case is, I always prefer to take my time, giving the dogs time to get comfortable and relaxed with me and my camera.

Your dogs don’t have to be trained to be photographed

These two dogs also didn’t have much formal training, and while they were well behaved they didn’t know commands like “sit” or “stay”. I only mention this to show you guys out there that your dogs don’t have to be super well trained angels in order for them to get cracker photos. Yes, having a dog that does understand commands does make a portrait session easier. But it is definitely not a necessity.

Let me know about your dogs

Pet portrait tip: Share a bit of information about your dog with me, or any photographer you use, to get the best results. In this case it was these dogs favourite word. They love biltong and clearly often get fed it. But they have also learnt to associate the word with their favourite treat. And even though on this day their human brother forgot to bring their favourite snack, we were still able to use the word to get our desired reaction out of them. Try this at home the next time you are taking pics of your dogs – use a word they associate with something they love and watch the cute reaction you get. Although I would also highly recommend you do give them that treat or take them to that place once you have used the word 🙂 Also don’t expect this trick to work for all dogs – I know my one dog in particular goes and does zoomies whenever she hears her favourite words. So again, know your dogs, and share what you know to help your photographer 🙂 PS. Share those pics you manage to get of your dogs & their reactions – I’d love to see them! Are you wanting portraits like Dax & Bailey’s pet portraits done for your pet? Get in touch – let’s take some incredible pet portraits for you!