Friday review, Jan. 15

Most of these dogs are recent arrivals and aren't in adoption yet but when they do make their debut, some of them are going to be snatched up quick.

I know this little Schnauzer, Dotty, is a bit of a ragamuffin and needs a good wash and clipping but I love the texture of its coat. Once it's through the rinse and brush cycle, it'll probably be all poofy - and much more comfortable, I'm sure - but there will always be this photo to remind it of it's rebel years.


When Austin first came in, he was so hairy and matted that he was pretty well blind because of the clumps in front of his eyes. Once shaved, he was discovered that he had some really bad infections around the skin around the eyes but luckily no damage to the eyes themselves. Now this little playful poodle is recovering splendidly with the help of lots of toys which he loves to have around.


This Jack Russell is a self confident little squirt who isn't afraid to take on the big dogs so we have to be careful not to let him get too close to them. He seems fine with some of the smaller ones his own size and even seemed to like the Schnauzer when I took them both out together.


Skye, an Airedale, is a really gentle dog with people who looks like he's got an old soul or maybe he just didn't get a good night's sleep the night before. He'll be out in out of TAS in no time.


High energy Lab cross. He's sitting here but you can see he's leaning into the wind and all ready to run at the hint of the next scent.


Update on Austin here.

For adoption information on these and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.

Adoption Update for Smiley, Boomer, Blacky, Olivia and Chub Pug

It's been a busy weekend. These guys are all adopted.

Smiley

Olivia

Boomer

Blacky

Chub Pug, renamed Gigi, is now being fostered in Pugalug Rescue and her adoption info can be found here.

Chub Pug (Gigi)

So that just leaves Irene from last Wednesday's photo shoot. I'm surprised that she isn't gone yet. She's got a real winning personality but I guess that's sometimes hard to see from within a kennel.

Cheese

One of the things I do at Toronto Animal Services is take pictures of the dogs to be used for their adoption profiles on the adoption website. Often there are time restrictions and so I try to limit my time shooting each dog to about 5 minutes. I'm not trying for art but I do try to get something with personality and in focus.

I can never guess how a dog is going to react in front of a camera. Sometimes the most placid dogs go absolutely wild when I stick a camera in front of their noses; sometimes the crazy jumpers settle right down. It's as if they know there's something strange going on and so they must react to it, do something, something different, whatever that might be.

For example, this little nutbar, Olivia, was a terror walking over to the shoot location. I brought her along with poor Irene who was straining at the end of her leash to get as far away as possible from the you-must-play-with-me-now puppy antics of Olivia. Olivia was like the spring you couldn't get back in the watch. She'd jump on Irene; I'd pull her back; she'd jump on Irene; I'd pull her back; she'd jump on Irene. It's a good thing she's only 10 kilograms because after a hundred of those pull backs, it felt like I was playing tug of war with an anvil.

Olivia

But then, as we get to the grassy spot and I pull out the camera, she whines a couple of time and then magically settles down. To look at the picture, you'd think she was contemplating the meaning of her life. Irene looks okay in her photo but I think you can see she's still a little bit frazzled.

Irene

When I take the dogs' pictures, I try to get at least a couple of shots of them looking straight into the camera. The eye contact usually works well with the human viewers although sometimes the square on face shot doesn't do the dog justice. They've often got a lot of character in the profile of their muzzle which gets lost when you see the dog straight on. In Blacky's case, I chose a 3/4 profile shot over the full on shot because in the full shot, her black furry face looks too flat.

Blacky

With Boomer, Blacky's partner on this photo shoot, there was a lot of expression around his eyes so I chose the straight on image in his case.

Boomer

Dominick and Smiley were no problem at all to photograph, except that I was a bit worried about Smiley's limp on the way back. She didn't seem to mind, though, as every so often she'd do a downward dog at Dominick trying to get him to play.

Smiley

Dominick

The last photo of the day was of the nameless pug with the protruding tongue. Chubby guy, very friendly but I had a hard time getting him to sit still. I think the only reason he did finally decide to stop trying to kiss the lens and sit down was because of the heat. I quickly snapped a few shots and got him back inside.

Chub pug

I try to take the photos which hopefully show the dogs in visually appealing poses. Sometimes this doesn't totally jive with their true natures. Like any picture in a family album or on the cover of a glossy magazine, photographs are not meant to duplicate reality. They leave out the life history and future potential. They only show that piece of reality the photographer wants the viewer to see.