Monthly Dog Box Subscription

Here’s a new-ish monthly dog box subscription called BoxDog. It’s a quarterly subscription and the box is full of fun items your dog will love.

All of the treats in the box are hand made by BoxDog chefs.

And the box itself is super cute! You may recognize the big brown dog on the box. It’s my Moose! He’s famous.

I did some photography work for them before the first box was launched. Check out their website and you’ll see a few more photos I’ve taken.

I did a model call on my photography Instagram page to find models. Be sure to follow me there if you’d like to hear about future modeling calls.

Here’s what you can expect in the first box, themed Miami.

Dog Walking in Charlotte NC

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Ten years ago today I walked my first dog for See Spot Run. This is so cliche but it’s true: time flies when you’re having fun.

Losing my corporate job in Nov 2018 prompted me to make a career change. In March of 2009, I got the ball rolling on starting my own dog walking and pet sitting business.

On April 4, 2009 I was officially a self-employed, woman owned business. See Spot Run was born.

I’m so grateful to all of my clients who’ve entrusted the care of their pets to me over the years.

Here are just a few of the cuties…. once in a while, I take my camera with me on my visits and snap a few photos. Occasionally my dog walking clients hire me for a full session too.

Thank you thank you thank you to all of you. You’re are making my dreams come true and I’m excited to continue on this journey.

Here are a few of the cuties I get to see: Finnegan, Topsy, Sunny, Delilah, Louis and Lucca. Ferguson and Brady are the two westies pictured above.

Instagram

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Are you on Instagram? If by chance you're not familiar with it, it's a social media site that is specifically for posting photos and videos and the posting can only be done from your phone. As a dog photographer, I started an Instagram account shortly after I started BARKography. You can check out my @barkography account here.

I really like Instagram. I follow other accounts. I enjoy looking at their photos and reading their captions. Other accounts follow me. I feel like I've gotten to know some of them even though we've never met. I actually have met a few of them. A couple of local Charlotte people and a few others across the US and Canada when I've traveled.

If you're on Instagram, I thought it'd be fun to mention some of my favorite accounts. Of course I follow a lot of dog photographers and a lot of dog accounts. YES, people create accounts for their dogs. If I'm being honest, I never know if I should comment as if I'm talking to the dog... I suppose I am supposed to do that but I usually don't.

I'd love to know some of your favorite accounts too.

One comment that I got from a florist that I'll always remember is how happy she is to always see my dog photos. She commented that she mainly follows wedding photographers, other florists, and other businesses that support weddings so she loves seeing the dog photos I post. That made me feel good.

So without further ado, here are a few of the accounts I enjoy seeing:

Viking the Lab - I don't know his story. I know he is rescued. I'm not sure why he is cross-eyed but his posts bring a smile to my face every time I see them. I laugh a lot at his posts too.

Nemocrr - Nemo the curly coated retriever is quite the joke teller. He's pretty amazing.

Dancers and Dogs - This one is amazing. I hope I have this right: 2 photographers out of St. Louis that were mainly dance photographers came up with the idea of adding dogs. Here is a link to their website and a behind the scenes photo of what they do. 

For someone who often suffers from wanderlust, I follow a few accounts that feed my soul. Accounts such as:   Wild Coast Adventures and My Banff.

Do you have Instagram accounts you always love seeing? Which ones are they?

Dog Photography in Charlotte NC

 

Dog Photography is something I have grown to love. I started See Spot Run Dog Walking in 2009 and in 2016 I launched BARKography my dog photography company here in Charlotte. Here is a link to my dog photography website: BARKography.  I write at least one blog post / week on the site.  You can see some of my latest work there and read about my journey to become a dog photographer.

When I got my first camera, I knew next to nothing about dog photography. I actually didn't even realize there was much to learn about photography. Early on I got really frustrated with myself and my camera. I didn't understand why my photos weren't any good and why they were frequently blurry. For those of you who try to take photos of your moving dogs with your phone, you know it's hard. If they're sitting still it's easier (still hard but easier) but when they're moving, it's almost impossible to get a cell phone photo.

Fast forward to today and I am in love with dog photography. I love my camera. I love learning new things about photography and I love trying out new lenses. For my birthday, I got a lens that allows me to take really close up shots that are super sharp and clear. I love those types of photos: close ups of their eyes or their fur. I feel like I can see my dog's soul through his eyes. I know I'll cherish the photos that I'm taking of them forever.

I think cell phone photos are great. They're great for capturing the moment but if you want to ever print out your photos, your cell phone photos aren't going to look very nice. I'm a big advocate for printing your photos. Even before I got into photography, I'd print my photos. I have a zillion photos of my first 2 dogs Sam and Sloan but none of them are very good. I'm so glad that the photos I have of Willow and Moose are nice quality, printable photos.

I saw a stat recently that 20-30 year olds are the most photographed generation ever but their kids and grandkids won't ever see photos of them in their younger years because all the photos are cell phone shots - the ones people never print.  There's a hashtag #printyourphotos (I'm not making that up!)

If you'd like photos of your dog, contact me. Don't wait. Time goes by too fast and you don't want to have any regrets about not having decent photos of your furry kids.

Do Dogs Remember Each Other?

I'd love to know if dogs remember each other. I did a BARKography photo session earlier this week with Baxter, a dog that used to live in Charlotte and now he lives in Florida. I was introduced to Baxter and his family through my neighbor Tiffany. I'd done a photo session with Tiffany's dog Jack and when Baxter's parents saw the photos, they wanted to have a session with Baxter and they wanted to have photos of the 2 dogs together. The dogs used to play together all the time when they both lived in Charlotte. I did an early morning session with just Baxter and later that day, I met up with Baxter at the Mint Museum and Jack joined us there. Seeing the two of them run around and play was a lot of fun.

I've been thinking about it a lot since then and I wonder, do dogs remember each other? I have no scientific reasoning behind this but I think they do.

I know there are studies about a dog's memory and many say dogs don't remember things but I tend to question that. I think they remember certain things or events. When we rescued our black lab Buddy, he cowered if you lifted your hand over his head. I feel pretty certain he'd been hit in the past - he had to remember that and seeing a hand raised over his head made him remember being hit in the past, right? I can tell you over the last 6 years of his life, he was never hit again.

When Baxter and Jack saw each other, the first thing they did was sniff each other. There were a few other dogs around so they sniffed them all too but then they ran around together and played. I even captured a quick pic of Baxter giving Jack a little lick on his nose.

I do think dogs remember each other. Perhaps it has something to do with their sense of smell. Perhaps they remember the dog's scent. Seeing Baxter and Jack together was really sweet. I'm so glad I was there to witness it.

If you want to see more photos of Baxter, head over to my BARKography blog where I wrote a post about our time together.

Moose and the dog sitter

I am a dog sitter and when we go on vacation to Hilton Head like we did last week and take Moose and Willow with us, we have to hire a dog sitter. No joke! This dog sitter hires a dog sitter WHEN the dogs are on vacation WITH US! And that's because of our crazy Moose.

We were hoping that his separation anxiety would be better this trip but no, he didn't like being left in the house alone. He isn't destructive but it stresses him out. I'd love to have a doggie cam set up to see what he does but actually when I think about it, that might break my heart to seem him stressed.

So, Moose didn't get left alone very much in the house. Luckily (or not so luckily for me), I'd planned to do quite a bit of work while we were on vacation. I have a ton of back office type of work that I need to catch up on so I'd planned to knock some of it out on vacation... and I did. Moose was happy to have me around.

We did plan to go out to dinner a couple of nights while we were there so the dog sitter came and stayed with him. He's a funny dog. As soon as she got there and we'd go to leave, he followed her back into the house, perfectly content that we were leaving as long as someone was there with him.

Yay for the dog sitter and for her helping us and The Moose while we were on vacation! Do your dogs require special attention or treatment when you're on vacation?