View allAll Photos Tagged WirehairedPointers
... she won't catch something thrown right at her, even her ball. this was the 6th frame shot, 6th ball to the head ... and she sustained another half dozen for the sake of this week's 52 Weeks for Dogs challenge: "catch"
merrick, on the other hand, is more than ready to catch ANY ball, even matea's.
by the way, this is the boy that is "highly" allergic to dogs. ;) ... always knew my girl was special.
getting packed up for a shoot ... had all the equipment ready when i glanced over and saw this. quick swap of the lenses, and here you go.
they hate it down here ... almost as much as they hate each other. ;)
they're still like this now ...
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database of more than 1400 images, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
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© Elke Vogelsang
20170603_Pjatla_TheTowelHolder
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database of more than 1400 images, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
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© Elke Vogelsang
20170603_Pjatla_StaringAtYouIsPjatla
so ... meet matea mcscruffy, the #1 52 Weeks for Dogs dog ... the first ... the impetus ... the canine-creator of this group, now into its fifth year.
for those of you who aren't that familiar with the group or new here, this group was created when i started my own 52 Weeks of Matea project. within minutes of posting my idea, dozens of flickr friends expressed an interest in doing the same thing with their dogs. ...and so, in the absence of any other kind of group that could answer the requirements for these kinds of photos and this kind of a project, the group was born.
for those who don't already know matea, she is an 11 yr old wirehaired pointer. you can read more about her story here: scruffydogphotography.com/index.php/matea-2/
my biggest challenge this year is going to be re-training my amazing girl. she is one of the most highly trained dogs ever, but she is going deaf ... quickly. in close quarters, no problem ... she's fluent in hand signals. but this is a hunting dog, and requires off-leash exercise and hunting to answer her drive and energy requirements. it's getting to the point where she's barely hearing the spaniel whistle now ... so the years of whistle work are coming to an end. new methods and approaches are required, and much work ahead...
this is my answer to this week's 52 Weeks for Dogs challenge.
"balance" ... well, although many of you would look at this photo and wonder where it is that i've answered the week's theme, for those who know me and know how heavy the scruffy dog fall season gets, you'll understand how this photo represents "balance".
the first non-shoot day in five days, i finally got my OWN dogs out for an autumn walk and their OWN photoshoot.
i need more balance like this ... balancing my own pack with the duties of the business of photographing other people's dogs.
so today, i tried to balance things with my pack ... just a little. there should be more of it, of course ... i'm working on that.
don't know what it is about this particular photo, but i can't help laughing every time i look at it.
a fuller description of matea can be found on her "set" page: www.flickr.com/photos/illonahaus/sets/372673/
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database of more than 1400 images, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
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© Elke Vogelsang
20170603_Pjatla_PjatlaIsNotImpressed
my girl enjoyed a hike last week with friends ... so nice to get out on a real hike ... just like old times.
today i got a call from a guy who owns a deer farm ... haven't heard from him in over two years because it's a rare occasion when one of his stock goes down. the last one, two years ago, had been in a snowbank for a week, so it wasn't the freshest and actually pretty frozen ... but today when he called, he had a 2 yr old buck down and there was no hope for him. knowing that i could come right away, they ended the buck's suffering, and even though i didn't manage to get the dogs out for a walk today, i DID bring them home an entire buck.
hours later in the garage, with not a bone left uncleaned, i now have 80 extra pounds of fresh venison.
matea, of course, helped with the cleanup.
and if anyone's interested -- while in the vein of raw-feeding (no pun intended) -- you might want to check out a piece i wrote as a rebuttal to a vet's extremely ignorant article on raw-feeding this past week. here is the link:
my rebuttal to some extraordinarily archaic thinking regarding feeding a species-appropriate diet
there is a link at the end of that entry which takes you to the vet's article, but if you want to go to it directly, it's here:
how nutritionally-ignorant, closed-minded vets think ...
if you're a raw feeder and would like to add your comments under the piece, please voice your opinion, experience, etc.
my girl in my favorite alley. you can take her out of the field, put her in the middle of the city, in a dingy back alley, with nothing for miles to hunt ... and this girl is still hunting.
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database of more than 1400 images, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
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© Elke Vogelsang
20170603_Pjatla_GermanWireHairedPointer_Pjatla
... she's really a lap dog ... and she's a lover of all. she placed herself in friend Michelle's lap ... she greedily accepts everything anyone is doling out, and always connects with the people she meets. she would make an absolutely phenomenal therapy dog -- treating everyone like her long-lost owner and -- with her eyes and her body -- truly making them feel special. instead, it's her scruffier, zanier brother, the goober, who is certified a therapy dog instead. why? because they have the ridiculous qualification that therapy dogs have to get along with other dogs. it's a shame really, because matea loves everyone she meets, wants to connect, and just wants other dogs to leave her alone.
as such, only a rare few truly experience this amazing girl and everything she gives.
the most touching part of the evening was when Michelle asked if matea had just had a bath. matea hasn't had a bath in months. "but she smells so good!" she said, using matea as a pillow on the couch ... "right here." and she showed me the same sweet spot on my girl's head where -- even at 11 years old -- she smells like a puppy. all these years, i thought i was the only one who smelled it.
i wanted to use this photo for matea's 52 weeks project, but decided on a running shot since i don't get the chance to shoot her running very often these days.
once again, waiting till the last minute. it's just not a good year for me ... i'm exhausted and in pain ... on my way to bed where my lizard awaits.
German Wirehaired Pointers. These two working dogs freeze to secure something interesting in front them. Erie and Dacotah love hunting.
this was highly posed ... my girl is such an amazing subject. i totally wanted one forepaw ahead of the other for better dof, but she doesn't naturally stand this way ... so since i was lying on my belly, i'd ask her to "paw" and come forward, but then the paws would line up again, and then she'd be too close and i'd send her "back" ... no "back" ... back further ... then she'd sit, and i'd tell her "stand" ... then "here" "wait!" ... "no, here" "wait!" ... poor girl. she's SO patient.
... wear it with 'tude.
matea's ears have been intermittently giving her grief. she scratches and then shakes her head so much that she develops hematomas at the ends of her ears.
i've tried wrapping the ears with all kinds of things, but nothing stops her. then i thought about a 'snood' ... used to keep long fluffy ears -- like cocker spaniel and poodle -- out of food bowls, and to keep them neat and tidy before a show.
perfection!
of course, it took a while to find a snood ... but one of SDP clients who has four standard poodles knew exactly what i was after when i called hr asking for a snood ... and voila! and go figure, it's black too!
i actually prefer this shot: www.flickr.com/photos/illonahaus/6296427707/in/photostream/ ... but without the legs, it doesn't show how elegantly matea pulls off a snood.
grabbing a quick shot after our one-on-one walk and a good dinner, out on the back deck as the sun went down.
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database of more than 1400 images, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE
© Elke Vogelsang
20170603_Pjatla_Krambambuli
after agility with merrick this afternoon, i dropped him off and took matea for a walk ... just her and me. i think i need to do more of that. it's so much easier, and i think she enjoyed it a bit more. whenever she checked in - which was often - she was wagging her tail and making solid eye contact, not just blowing past. when i'd whistled her, she came in with such joy each time.
it would be good for the two of us to get more one-on-one time.
and right now she's whining as she honks her post-surgical baby.
a pretty rough night ... but it could have been worse. i slept on the single futon thrown on the library floor with matea's bed beside me ... by 1 a.m. her whining became too intense and i got dressed and helped her wobble outside into the snowstorm. she wasn't able to pee earlier and could barely do it at 1 a.m. ... she was so drunk she could hardly stand, much less squat and the result looked more like she was trying to write her name in the snow. chances are, she probably did.
she joined me on the futon after that and slept pretty soundly ... and she's got her legs a bit better this morning.
the good news is that she doesn't seem to have nearly as much pain as she had even the day before, and certainly no where near what she'd been screaming about on sunday and monday.
we're still waiting to hear the final results from the CT, since the MRI wasn't very conclusive. at first the neurologist warned me he thought it was a tumor on her spine ... i literally told him: "no, she doesn't have a tumor." call it intuition, a gut feeling, or just plain wishful thinking. after the initial results from the CT he took back his fear-mongering tumor-theory and said it appears to be just some really nasty bone formations. apparently her spondylosis is rather significant for a dog her age.
his recommendation is metacam for life and quite likely restricted activity. i'm not keen on either of those prospects with this girl ... but i keep replaying our short hike on sunday over and over in my mind -- putting her all into hunting and digging up voles, flushing eight deer, and sailing over the winter-dried weeds -- just in case those are some of my last memories of her with complete freedom.
still, i think there's a good dose of denial going on with me ... like when she's finally burned off the last fumes of this crazy anaesthetic she'll blast out the back door and bellow at those damn squirrels and will be ready to flush that small herd of deer again.
this is NOT the end of the road for this proud, stoic, and much-needed girl.
aslan doesn't play the way mirren used to.
and for those who don't know it, this is a breed that commonly kills cats ... probably 50% of the wirehaireds i see in rescues can't be adopted to a home with cats or have already killed the family cat, thus their landing in rescue. it took work and leadership to develop the relationships matea has with the four cats who have been in her life. now she just wants to play. however, if one of the neighborhood cats gets into our yard and can't make it to the fence fast enough, i know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that she will kill it ... and it will be swift. it's why i always look into the yard before letting her out ... but having already put the fear of Dog into two of the neighborhood cats that barely escaped, i haven't seen them back.
things are fine now, but earlier today matea had some kind of irritation with her ear ... scratched it and then started shaking her head ... too much. she quickly started to develop hematomas at the end of each ear. it's happened before, but i didn't want it to get as bad as it did the last time.
the bandaged ears wasn't very effective ... well, except for some truly pathetic photos.
so i took her to the vet's but really, there's not much wrong with her ears. got some burows drops and i'll use them tonight and tomorrow, but really, she's not really shaking her head much anymore and the swelling of her ear flaps has almost entirely gone away.
well, i did try to do something more original for the 52 Weeks for Dogs "red" challenge ... some of you will, no doubt, remember the red blanket from matea's old shot a couple of years ago (below). i use it rather extensively in the scruffy dog portfolio.
the idea this week -- with the "red" challenge -- was to use the same blanket and, instead, use her tail instead of her head. but matea was having none of it. i hadn't realized how 'down' her tail generally is ... and unless i followed her around for the entire day with the camera and red blanket in hand, waiting for something to spark her inner-pointer, i'd never get the shot i imagined.
it was hard enough getting this ... matea's back and hips are clearly bothering her and she no longer is able to sit for more than a few seconds. so ... this is what you get. i may post a few of the outtakes which involved a pain-in-the-ass merrick getting in on the action.
this was a real contender: www.flickr.com/photos/illonahaus/6019214325/
after spending 8 years working on matea's fear issues with other dogs, gradually lessening her reactivity through dozens of classes where i continued to work her around other dogs ... matea was utterly blindsided by a huge boxer several weeks ago. she was attacked from behind, neither she nor i realizing the dog was even there until it was on top of her back, biting her head. nothing provoked the dog except her wagging tail as she was being petted by an older couple. a completely insane attack.
and with it bubbled back all of this girl's old fears. her reactivity towards dogs she would normally not even look at in our neighborhood is alarming, although we've made some headway already.
we've had several meet-ups with a local trainer and some of her students -- usually after their class or a run -- where matea and i can join their little pack and do some walking. she's been doing well ... only a few snaps at an unruly, young GSD in our group ... but that was an easy prediction.
today, instead of merrick, i took matea to the monthly group walk. it was perfection. even Tami, the trainer, had been thinking along the same lines i had: that matea should walk up front with her and her mini-pack ... the rest of the dogs (a couple dozen) falling in behind. she feels less threatened that way ... and gradually we can work up to her being in the middle.
but today she did well ... rubbed shoulders and cheeks with her buddy Winslow, a dog belonging to one of Tami's clients and steadily becoming one of matea's 'rocks'.
i think matea also finds comfort in Tami ... knowing that, like me, she doesn't take any shit and, as such, the dogs are under control.
the other dogs in the group aren't so much ... matea got goosed a few times, but she doesn't even turn around or look back ... she just jumps forward and wants to get out of the situation.
i wish we had these walks every weekend.
so tonight matea is exhausted. a lot of psychological work ... and then a 4-pound venison neck for dinner. she'll sleep well tonight.
i had wanted to photograph her with the other dogs but i have to be on my guard in those situations, so ... you get this ... matea sporting her awesome leather muzzle ... so wonderfully wide and ample that even in the heat today she was able to let her tongue hang out and pant deeply.