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Your Dog Does Not Have to be Well Behaved To Get Great Photos

Friday, September 16, 2022 | By: Tracy Allard

It's something I hear all the time; "You'll never get good pictures of my dog, he's crazy", or "She won't hold still long enough for you to get a good picture". I've heard them all, but guess what? The vast majority of dogs that I photograph are not highly trained obedience competitors and athletes. They're everyday family pets with busy, working families that don't have a lot of spare time to spend on training - and that's ok. 

I have tips, methods and a whole lot of tricks up my sleeve to make great portraits of your pet both in my Carrollton studio, or on location around the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex, no training required! Keep reading for a sampling of beautiful images that were made with dogs just being themselves. 

(click on any image to view full screen)

Your Dog Can be On A Leash In Their Pet Portrait Session

Let's just get this one out of the way right now - your dog can be on a leash for your pet, or pet & family portrait session. The vast majority of dogs in the pictures on my website, Instagram feed, and Facebook page were on leash - I just removed the leash as part of the retouching process as seen in the before and after below. 

Safety first, always. Nobody had it in their plans to chase a loose dog on picture day, so stop worrying and start planning your pet's photo shoot! 

Sometimes You Just Have to Embrace the Imperfect

Here's a little secret, really well-behaved dogs can be a little...boring to photograph. It's nice that they're not bouncing around the studio, but I'll take an active dog over a sedate one any day of the week. An animal that offers a lot of behaviors means we're going to photograph a lot of variety! 

Dogs that feel comfortable and free enough to behave in the studio as they do at home are a dream for a pet photographer. That means we will make images that speak to your heart and make you smile (and maybe even shed a tear). So bring on the licking, the barking, the snarking with their sibs - it's all good! 

The Most Intimate Pictures of You and Your Pet are Unscripted

For at least part of your pet portrait session, I'm going to say, "Now forget I'm here, just do all the things you normally do with your pup; the stroking, the kissing, the cuddling etcetera" and then I shut up and shoot. Everything. All of it. There's no training needed for that. Those are the honest moments between you and your pet that no one ever sees and you'll never want to forget.  

Sometimes The Best Photos of Your Pet Are Happy Accidents

What's that saying? Something like "good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere", well the same concept holds for pet photography. You'll get good pictures of well-behaved dogs, but you'll get one-of-a-kind, truly memorable photos of the active, busy ones. The ones that bounced around the studio or park, couldn't sit still for a moment and always had a glint of mischief in their eye. I'll take that dog or cat every time! 

Not Every Picture Requires a Well-Behaved Dog

When Rae said "I love it when Kevin picks up Goon and holds him like a baby", well that doesn't take any special training and created a memory for this couple that they always cherish. Pet photography is more than capturing your pet in a classic pose, it's about making images that are true to your pet's personality and the life you share with them. If you've ever said "I love it when...", then that should be captured in a photograph. 

Photographing a Litter of Puppies is a Study in Patience (and Luck)

You've heard the saying "it's like herding cats", well puppies are not far off from that sentiment. 8-week-old puppies are not trained. Heck, they're not even close to being well-behaved. They're puppies after all! 

Yes, the lineup of adorable puppies always makes a cute picture, but sometimes you meet your match - as I had with this litter of 10 standard poodle puppies. The breeder and I had ideas of how we wanted them arranged for this image. They had other ideas. After a few minutes of puppy wrangling I announced "Forget it, we're going to embrace the chaos!".  Seeing a little of how the sausage is made makes for exciting and fun pictures, so let your hair down! 

All Around the Pet Photography Circle

It's all about photographing the unruly, ill-behaved wild furkids that we love so much this week in the pet photographers blog circle so let's kick things off with Kylee of Kylee Doyle Photography shares how she navigates sessions from Sacramento to Tahoe with pups who failed obedience school and then continue clicking on the link at the bottom of each post until you land right back here and then you will have completed the circle. 

Tracy Allard of Penny Whistle Photography is a Certified Professional Photographer with the organization Professional Photographers of America; a designation held by fewer than 2,000 photographers nationwide and a hallmark of consistency, technical skill, artistry and professionalism. Tracy has three rescue dogs that her husband likes to say are the "most trained, badly behaved dogs" he's ever met. Despite being a retired dog trainer, she's still a lenient pet parent like the rest of us - unable to say "no" to those big brown eyes. 

Penny Whistle specializes in both on-location and studio photography providing pet, equine, family, couples & engagement and high school senior portraits as well as corporate headshots and commercial photography services in her studio located in historic downtown Carrollton as well as on location in Coppell, Grapevine, Southlake, Flower Mound and surrounding communities in Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas.

Let's talk about photographing your wild child!
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