December 18, 2003
The final shot
9:30 p.m.
I'm sure it's not a big secret that I occasionally put Dusty in a sit-stay or down-stay and set up cute photographs of her. What probably isn't as obvious is how difficult this is to do sometimes.
Tonight, I was feeling all Christmasy, so I decided to photograph Dusty in front of our little tree. The tree is up on a couple of storage chests, so I thought it would be cute to capture Dusty sniffing the tree - you know, while standing on her hind legs with her front paws braced against the storage chests.
Yeah, great idea. So I grabbed some dog treats and got to work. I don't have a command for 'Hey Dusty, put your paws up here and look cute' so I settled for patting the side of the storage chest in an encouraging way.
Dusty complied - she's always happy to do just about anything for a piece of kibble. I wasn't quite getting the shot I wanted - it was difficult to cue her and get the right angle. I kept gesturing to her, encouraging her and that's when she did it...she jumped right up there next to the Christmas Tree.
I was stunned. She's never jumped so high before!!! The tree was teetering on the edge and Dusty was pretty surprised too. I spoke reassuringly to her, then gently got her down.
I guess the lesson is, 'be careful what you ask your dog to do, because she just may do it!'
