Dogtography. Kaylee Greer
energy of the atmosphere you’re creating before attempting to try again.
1.5
Paw Up
Or, the “I am preparing my escape at any desperate moment” body language cue.
If you happen to be the owner of a small dog yourself (cough cough, Chihuahua! Cough cough), you will probably immediately recognize this body language cue. That’s right, the “paw up.” This behavior most commonly represents a dog that is tentative or in a state of indecision or discomfort. The paw is typically held up in relation to the primal fight-or-flight reaction system that’s built into all animals. If you see this—even if your pup model doesn’t quite act on it—they are reacting to stress by preemptively preparing themselves for flight. This little paw up is a good sign that should remind you as the photographer running the show to take it just a bit easier and slower with your dog model, and to pay attention to the overall energy of the shoot. I find that doing something as simple as taking a five-minute break for a little jog and a drink of water gives the dog a chance to relax and reset, and then the little paw up suddenly meets the ground and all is right in the world again. As a note, don’t confuse this behavior with the one that is done by certain hunting breeds like English Setters, when they deliberately lift a paw up as part of their point toward game birds they might discover in the wild.
1.6
Panting
As people, we love to anthropomorphize animals. What I mean by that is that we love to assign human qualities to other, non-human creatures. If you want to do a quick exercise in the art of anthromorphization (guess how many times I had to type and re-type that to get the spelling right?) just go to your local zoo and stand in front of any enclosure of your choice. Now just sit back and wait because in mere moments you will hear lots of human-made narratives by various passersby and onlookers. Statements such as “Oh look! He loves to snuggle!”; “Oh wow, that hyena is such a nice guy!”; “He’s so happy! He loves to watch the sun set!” People assign human emotions and qualities to animals all the time. In fact, Disney’s been doing it since most of us were just tiny seeds of potential inside our parent’s loins. OK. Ew. Too far.
This is a phenomenon we are all guilty of, and especially so when it comes to the dogs in our lives. So why did this particular diatribe come in the section on panting? Easy! When we see a dog panting who may be extremely anxious or stressed out, we often associate that open mouth, tongue out sort of look with the closest human expression we can associate it with: a smile. And what does a smile equal? Happiness, of course!
“Oh look! He is so happy!”
The truth is, panting can be a sign of extreme stress and anxiety in dogs. In brachycephalic dogs, it can be a sign that they’re struggling to breathe. Sometimes, I can pinpoint the very moment I need to stop a shoot before the point of the dog’s over-exhaustion by the level of panting alone. It’s very easy to confuse a hot, exhausted, stressed out dog with a happy dog. This is where your keen eye for dog body language is going to come in to make your photo session go as smoothly as possible.
On another note, panting is one of those canine body language cues that can be a bit challenging to interpret. Panting doesn’t always mean that a dog is stressed out. Panting can also happen in relation to a dog’s level of exercise, or, more commonly, simply the heat of the day. On a very hot day it can be very difficult to get any photographs at all with your dog model’s mouth closed, since his open mouth is his only real facility to expel heat. Oppositely, if you are trying to go after a “happier-looking” expression for your images with a dog who is not inclined to panting, you might try to pause the shoot and play ball for five minutes or even take the dog on a short leashed run to get him panting just slightly. That pant action creates an open mouth that can help boost the happiness factor to the overall feel of your image. Of course always do this responsibly and make sure you know when panting turns negative.
1.7
FIGURE 1.7 Besse Mae’s exaggerated pant, super curly tongue, and wide-open whale eye suggest that she’s gone from having a good time to having a way-over-the-top, totally overwhelming time. The excitement, crazy camera gear, and warm summer afternoon temperature all combined to create a challenging atmosphere for one sweet little dog to handle. If you can train yourself to notice the difference between a happy pant and one that moves into a place of anxiety, you’ll be a step ahead of the game at managing the energy for best results at your photo shoots. Seconds after I shot this image of Besse, we took a big break and enjoyed some cool water in the shade.
Case Study: Junie the Serious Seawitch
I adopted a gorgeous little monster of a dog from the shelter recently. As soon as I got her home, I found pretty quickly that she is quite a unicorn of weirdness and wonder when it comes to her energy and personality. Junie is unshakeable. Junie is what we call “bomb proof.” Because of this, however, Junie has one expression on her face at all times. And because I swear she got squished or something when she was in the womb, her unchanging expression is a bit reminiscent of what we might call an RBF, or “Resting B*tch Face,” of course. Based on this, when I first started photographing her, I found that all her images made her look completely unapproachable. She looks like a sour skittle. Like an unamused, entitled little fur-covered rebel who would do a stealth poop in your garden and run without remorse. In other words, Junie is the perfect case of a dog who needs a little pixie dust in order to make her come across as charming and likable in photos as she is in person. The solution? Exercise the bajeeze louise out of her before attempting to take her photos. It doesn’t always work, (because remember, unshakeable!) but about 50% of the time, if its warm enough out, a lengthy frolic in the grass will get her panting lightly for a few minutes, which transforms the face on the left into the one on the right.
Ah, yes. Nothing a little pre-photoshoot trickery couldn’t take care of.
1.8a
1.8b
Whale Eye
This is not any reference to Moby Dick and his gorgeous little peepers. This is dog training slang for a body language signal that dogs give with their eyes. “Whale Eye” refers to when a dog is prominently showing the whites of his eyes. The biological, primal, instinctual reason for this phenomenon has more to do with making their eyes as big as possible to see as acutely as they can to scan for any stimuli than it is to do with crazy eyes. Here at my house, my dog Joshua gets these a lot—when the crazy eyes come out, you know you’re really in for it. In Joshua’s case, these eyes almost always mean that he’s about to get a bout of the “zoomies” and really get wild—or that he’s about to get a new toy or a very high-value treat and his anticipation is reaching max levels of excited stress. While in Joshua’s overexcited whale-eye case, his overall feeling of excitement is a positive one, if a dog gets too stressed in either direction, you risk him heading into the red zone, which is a behavioral place that it’s hard to pull them back from. It’s super important to keep an eye out for whale eyes on your shoot, and try to calm and maintain an even energy if you’re seeing any signs of it.