I receive numerous questions on how I get my pup (I use that term loosely, she's almost four) to cooperate for their notorious Sam + Av photos. So I'm here today with the not-so-secret secret.
Truth be told, its the baby that requires the most work. The dog is just there for the treats, no lie. We got her as an eight week old puppy and began training her immediately. We've always used treats as her rewards so I think because of that she's very food motivated - she will do nearly anything for a treat. She already knew basic commands of "sit", "stay", "down" (lay), "paw" (shake), "come", "leave it", etc before the thought even crossed my mind to dress these two up and take their photo, so those basic commands definitely come in handy when taking these photos.
Like I said, the baby is the wildcard so I alway, always, always get Sam in position and dressed first. Then I give her the stay command and she hangs tight while I bribe the baby to participate. Okay, its not that bad, usually its not a bribe but sometimes it truly is. While other times she will put something on Sammy and herself and request to "CHEEEEEEESE!"
If something covers Sam's ears she typically wants to shake it off so I just give her a "leave it" and she sits still, I snap the pic, give her a snack, and release her. Honestly she's a brilliant dog and after just three or so of these photos she seemed to know what the routine was going to be the moment she saw me pull out my camera so that's helpful as well.
The whole Sam + Av series started as an accident. The baby wanted to play with some sunnies, I had another pair and put them on Sam and she just walked over to the baby with them on and I died laughing and snapped a pic.
I shared it on my personal Facebook page and people got a huge kick out of it so I started doing them weekly and posting them to my Instagram as well as a tab on this blog of mine. I've since removed quite a few of them because I've decided I don't want a million photos on the internet of my kids' faces, but there are a few still up. I'm definitely not anti-posting-pics-of-my-kids, but I just don't want every photo to be of their face, if that makes sense. So if you look at my Instagram you will see that there will be side-profile pics, or a photo from behind, or a photo where the kids have something covering a portion of their face, and every once in a while you will see their entire face. It gives them some privacy and the photographer in me has actually had fun trying to see certain shots from a different perspective so I feel like I'm forced to be a bit more creative with the shots due to trying to keep their whole face out of the photo. Sometimes its simple cropping like so:
and other times its snapping the pic mid-bite like so:
Getting back to the Sam + Av pics, I plan to bring them back with a little twist now that I have somewhat explained why I took many of them down. I'm sure you've guessed that they will likely have props to cover their faces and you'd be right! So go take a peek at some of the older ones that are still up here and check out my Instagram here and search the hashtag #SamanthaandAveryShenanigans to find loads of photos of those two getting into everyday mischief. And check back in a few weeks for their newest photo with a twist! Its sure to please.
Happy Tuesday, ya'll!
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