Photo lessons

They say a picture says a thousand words. About three years ago, I bought myself a Nikon D90 and started learning how to use it. I had one central goal. In an effort to better understand how they move and interact, I wanted to view dogs through the lens of a fast camera. What a powerful tool my Nikon is proving to be!

Several weeks ago, on a beautiful walk with my friend Susan and our dogs, I got lucky and captured this exchange between Thyme and our friend’s Brittany Spaniel, Henry.

 

If you saw this shot in isolation, you may very well come to the conclusion that my gorgeous, utterly socially appropriate dog is aggressive towards other dogs. This single snap shot shows a great deal of effective communication between two animals who have known each other for well over a year. Thyme is telling Henry to get lost! What would you need to see to know whether or not Thyme was a reactive dog or not?

Take a look at these pictures snapped on the walk before this picture was taken. Look at what Henry is up to!

If Henry were a person, he would probably wear loud Hawaiian shirts,  speak very quickly, be a little too loud and stand a little too close to people. He would run, not walk wherever he was going. People would love his happy, high jinxs but he would push tolerant people with personalities like Thyme’s until they had had enough! Eventually they would tell him to BACK OFF! He would take this information only semi-seriously. He would try really hard to change a little bit ... but he would struggle and be back to his brash ways in no time :)