National Train Your Dog Month and the monthly Positive Pet Training Blog Hop happen to coincide with our first real glimpse of winter. Just a couple weekends ago, we were out throwing a tennis ball for Cooper in shorts. Today? Icy, snowy, gray, the kind of weather where you have to bundle above your eyeballs for a walk around the block.
So, I started thinking about training, most of which we do outside just to have more space, and how to keep focused even during the coldest months. And then a lightbulb went off! Okay, actually, a couple people asked the same question on Facebook and sparked my idea. When I posted our Christmas pic and our New Year’s pic, the same question kept coming up: How do you teach your dog to pose for pictures? So, for this month’s hop and for National Train Your Dog Month, I challenge YOU to train your pup for the perfect pic. {Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the photography aspect of taking a good pic. I honestly know nothing about that. I need to learn. I currently use my phone and have no idea how to edit a photo. This is simply about posing your dog!}
Here’s how:
First up, you need a solid stay. I firmly believe the position doesn’t matter. Figure out what your dog is most comfortable holding for a couple minutes. I know formal obedience trainers might not agree, but for me, a comfortable dog is most important. As long as they stay in the same spot, I don’t care what position or even if they shift. For Emmett, it’s definitely a sit. For Cooper, it’s usually a down, but he has wonky back hips, so I let him alternate as long as he stays in the same spot. I actually did a post for The Honest Kitchen’s blog about teaching your dog to stay, which you can check out here as step one.
Then, you need to proof that stay to photo “stuff.” This is, I think, where people end up throwing up their hands. You will likely be placing your dog somewhere specific, then stepping back, then aiming your camera, then focusing your camera, then adjusting a light here or there or closing a blind or moving the pile of unfolded laundry out of the frame, then trying to get your dog’s attention (or dogs’ and, perhaps, cat’s!). None of those are typical proofing activities when teaching stay. Add them in as you work on adding distractions and duration to your stay. Distractions include costumes, btw! If you don’t normally put your dog in fancy bandannas, like above, or elaborate Halloween costumes, that stay may not hold once you do. Work on it in a low-pressure situation with tons and tons of treats and praise.
Finally, you must have a “watch me” down pat! Your room is well-lit. Your dog is a ninja stayer. You line up the shot, and… he’s looking at your shoulder or your shoes or the loaf of bread on the counter. This is something we have taught and reinforced like maniacs because, well, Lucas was a maniac! And Cooper is a maniac! We needed a solid “watch me” as part of reactive dog training. For them and for Emmet, we taught it in the most simple way possible: Hold up a treat between your eyes. When your dog looks, click and treat. Add the “watch me” verbal cue when he’s getting it right away most of the time, then start to phase out holding the actual treat. We added in a hand signal–finger pointing toward the nose–because sometimes that’s just easier. {Bonus: Emmett’s losing his hearing. More on that another day. But I am so grateful we’ve taught hand signals with everything!!}
That’s it! HA! 😀
Those are three very long steps that require time and patience. And gobs of treats! The thing is, it’s FUN. And now that it’s winter, you have all the time in the world to work on tedious things like stay proofing. With the end goal of a fabulous picture, though, it’ll be totally worthwhile.
By my calendar, the next photo-worthy holiday is probably Valentine’s Day, so get to proofing! I want to see those lovey photos!
Oh, wait. I almost forgot. How do you train your cat to stay for photos? MUCH easier: You don’t! Simply pose your dogs, plop a box down where you want your cat, and reward your pups for holding the stay until the cat cats and climbs in the box. Snap pics as fast as your fingers can to get hopefully one with her looking the right way. {Hint: Spray cheese really, really helps to get her attention, but it also results in lots of tongue-out outtakes, like our Valentine’s Day 2014 pic!} Here’s a slideshow of how it went down:
So, what do you think? Up for the challenge of training the perfect picture pose?
This post is part of the Positive Pet Training Blog Hop, hosted by Cascadian Nomads,Tenacious Little Terrier and Rubicon Days. The hop happens on the first Monday of every month, and is open for a full week – please join us in spreading the word about the rewards of positive training!
I can’t get over how handsome those two look in their bowtie get-ups! Great post!
I know!! They actually just slide onto their collars!
Posing for pictures is what my dogs consider their job! I simply say, “time for a picture,” they turn, get comfortable, and I remind them to “stay” as I back up to shoot. Even if I don’t really want or need a photo, we’ll stop and pose just so they get to feel like they did their “job,” especially in the boring, cold, rainy winter months. I recently started using a target mat to teach Amelia a “stay.” She loves a click and treat for her “sit” and “down” but as a cat, “stay” is not in her nature. I can’t take a box everywhere, though, so hopefully my little target mat is going to help her be a part of more fun photos.
Happy New Year and National Train Your Dog Month! Thanks for joining the hop.
That’s so cute!
I think the target mat is a brilliant idea. I may have to give that a whirl… 🙂
Thanks for hosting the hop!
Mr. N has a very good photo stay. I think it might be better than his normal stay lol! He naturally poses too. People often comment on it and of course I reinforce it with lots of treats and praise.
It helps that he’s so naturally adorable!! 🙂
I’m fortunate in that all three of my dogs have a solid “wait.” Neeko and Bruce are both good with watch me, and Faolan will look straight if I’m holding a treat over my head!
Your dogs are SO photogenic. Truly, you can’t take a bad one of those three!
Ha! Great post! We have a whole routine when we get our Christmas tree, using a tripod and setting the DSLR to take 10 pictures in a row on a timer. We do this about 10 times, and there’s usually at least one shot where both humans and both dogs look good. We always get one where the dogs are snarling and biting each other’s faces too…
That is GENIUS! And I bet those outtakes are the best ones! 🙂
These are such great tips! I never thought of using the “watch me” command for this (though we might have to brush up on that a bit). Luke is the only one that is really good at posing…all three of them together, and Sam too…. forget it.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who gets the photo all set to go, and then realizes that I have something like laundry in the shot! I’m trying to get better about clearing the area before I start taking the photos!
If only I knew how to Photoshop those laundry piles out of pics, it would save so much time! And retakes! 😉
We’ve got a ‘conveyor belt’ of El Nino storms headed our way this week, so this sounds like a good indoor project!
Do it! Do it! And document it on your blog!
Who told you I have a blog!?
Great photos and the captions were too funny! I can usually get Raven to look at me but its only for a second . We usually dangle a treat also. He’s an old man and has decided that he can just about write his own ticker so he doesn’t always listen to commands as well as he used to. Its the “grumpy Old Man” syndrome
Sometimes it’s just that one second you need to get a good one!
That said, I feel you… Emmett’s not exactly wanting to hold positions for too long, and he feels his age has earned him a respite!
I love photon shoot based training! The more you train, the more cute options you have. Nola will rest her chin on the floor, wave, sit pretty, tilt her head, ect. It’s so fun to teach it and then capture it.
You are the only other person who has actually said that they train their dogs for photos. I do all that you said, except the watch me part. I enjoy capturing their expressions as their eyes roam around the environment. I also teach them different poses…
Thanks for a great post!!!!!
Now that’s cute! I have seven dogs and I didn’t realize that I was already training them when I ask them to sit still. I have a lot of their photos!