Motivating Mutts
I often get asked ‘How do you make the dogs sit and get those expressions?’ And the answer is - I don’t make them do anything…
My goal is to provide a comfortable, relaxed space so that they can be themselves - I don’t ever force them to do anything they don’t want to. But the absolute number one thing you need to take pictures of animals is patience. You need to give the animal enough time to get to know you, and the space you’re asking them to work in - and if that requires play and cuddle time, then that’s just a hazard of the job… :P
The minimum time I’ll schedule a shoot for is an hour - this is because that initial adjustment period of the animal getting to know the space and see if they feel comfortable with you is vital. You will not get a relaxed, genuine photograph if they are not settled. Full stop.
Now I use flash in a large majority of my work so I also like to see how they react to the pop of the flash - some animals do not care at all, and others are most definitely not a fan - so I need to work out if we can make them comfortable with the light or if that particular animal will only get more stressed the more it is exposed to the flash. If the latter is the case, I will stop the shoot - I will never force an animal to stay in a stressed state for the sake of a photograph. It just means maybe we reschedule to an outdoor shoot, or I can try and use continuous lighting - meaning the light won’t flash.
Next is to find what the animal likes other than treats(I like to try and delay giving treats for as long as possible) - this could be toys, or their humans, or sometimes it can me me or the crazy sounds I make - thankfully there aren’t too many videos of me making weird noises out there! Whatever it is can again be discovered in that initial settling in period, and then I can use that to move eye lines or encourage particular facial expressions.
I also have a large collection of various squeakers thanks to my staffy, Sia - she has a talent for surgically removing the squeakers from toys (much to the disappointment of my other dog Ludo who actually likes to play with the squeakers still inside the toy) but this is useful for me as now I have a collection of various noise makers to grab different reactions and looks from my subjects.
It’s also important to take breaks while you’re shooting - animals can get frustrated doing the same things over and over again so it’s important to mix things up and have a play or a cuddle to keep them interested in this weird place they find themselves in.
Finally of course there is food - now food can be a way of getting a lot of dogs to do anything very quickly - but if you give them too much in the beginning then they’ll also quickly get over doing whatever you’re asking them to do - and they’ll get full. I like to test my flash with food, and then try and use something else in the beginning or only give very very tiny bits of food to them so we can get as many reactions from them as possible.
All of the dogs in my photographs have graciously allowed me to take their picture and hopefully I’ve been able to provide them a fun experience while also capturing their genuine character.