Dogs catching treats
 

Last night I thought it would be funny to throw treats to our dogs and photo them in mid-catch.

And it was.

http://cellar.org/2003/catch-1.jpg

Dogs eyes really open up to light indoors. So when you take a flash photo, they get the dog-equivalent of red-eye, and it makes these two look even more insane.

http://cellar.org/2003/catch-2.jpg

http://cellar.org/2003/catch-3.jpg

So this afternoon, outdoors. The thing is, they shouldn't get their bellies full of these treats. So you can only take so many pics. Otherwise I would do this all afternoon.

http://cellar.org/2003/catch-4.jpg

http://cellar.org/2003/catch-5.jpg

I need to go to manual mode on this camera and set it to focus on their noses instead of autofocusing on the ground.

If you're going to start posting cute dog pictures I will fuck you up
 

What are they, Toy Boxers?

./NBN/Confirmed Dog Lover

Almost - Boston Terriers.

Great pics UT. Hellhounds for sure. Post these pics on your front door to keep the Jehovah's Witnesses away. :D

Just photoshop out the treats first :)

Dagney

Funny!!!
 

It's my trusty Nikon CoolPix 950, which was the state-of-the-art digital camera in 1999, and still a fairly decent one now.

Liar! The camera rules, because it set the standard in pimp cameras. Now, if I were buying today, I would probably get a PowerShot G3, but godDAMN is the Coolpix 950 appealing. And talk about crisp pictures! That stuff still looks good, even today. What a camera.

That camera lives up to its name - cool pix!!

Are you tossing the treats and then taking the pic real quick, or is someone else doing the tossing? I'd love to try this with my own hounds.

One-person operation! With autofocus on, that means I had to hold the shutter button halfway down (to hold the focus) while throwing the treat and timing for a slight shutter delay. A tricky maneuver.

The 950 was indeed the mighty pimpin camera of its day. For web purposes you hardly need anything else, actually.

Hm, I may try this with my SLR - no shutter delay, there. My hounds are a lot bigger too, so there's less distance between my hand and their mouths. This will make an interesting weekend project!

:D

Haw! Awesome!!!

Leus, that is wickedly funny. I am p.i.m.p. (pissing in my pants).

Can you provide a higher res version? I've got to have it.

Great job! :thumb:

I know whatcha mean. When Al was still a pup, he had a lot of trouble jumping up on our bed (it's a king size that's pretty high off the ground). Sometimes he would almost make it then bounce off the top edge, and when he did make it he would have to scramble his legs to get a good footing.

I thought it would be funny to take a picture of him in mid-jump, which quickly proved much harder than I thought. I had to throw his toy down the basement stairs, wait for him to run down to fetch it, then run into the bedroom, jump on the bed, turn around, set the focus, and wait for him to run in.

I had a Kodak DC280 at the time, and the delay between pushing the shutter and the picture being taken was about a second, so it was very difficult to time it so he was actually mid-jump. This is the best I came up with:

I have an old dog that has a similar problem...although you miss everything in a still pic...I'd have to make a short mpg out of the whole effort but he's so cute trying to get up onto a bed.

When my roomie and I get new beds (higher no doubt) I will make him a ramp so he can get up without straining his ancient, tubby body!

Brian

Thank you. If my english were any better, I could make it funnier.

Larger version here.

Leus,

That's brilliant! Very amusing!

And Tobiasly, love your pic too. What a cute pup. Dogs offer hours of entertainment, don't they?

Oh, my doggie used to have the same problem. Now I have a problem when she sneaks into my room and jumps into my bed, since she's now 40 kilograms of pure rottweiler :D

PS: 40 kilograms is about 88.2 pounds, for any person living in countries where medieval measures are still in use.
PS2: Shoud I mention that weight is not the only problem? "You smell like a rottweiler" should be considered a pretty good insult ;)

Well, now that he's full-size, he has no trouble whatsoever getting up there. In fact, I'm sure he's made himself quite comfortable on my half of the bed while I've been gone, and it will take a bit of training to get him to return to his designated spot at the bottom of the bed.

Letting him sleep on our bed wasn't really a conscious choice.. at first we kept him in the kennel during nights, mainly to housebreak him, and during the day we wouldn't let him in the bed. He looked so pitiful though, standing on his hind legs with his little puppy head peeking over the top with a look that said "why can't I be on the big fun bed too, guys?"

He got less and less happy with the kennel at nights, often waking us up in the middle of the night several times with his whimpering. So we moved the kennel into the basement, figuring if he didn't see us maybe he'd be better about the kennel. Big mistake number one. I put him in the kennel for the night, but every time I would try to leave he would start carrying on at the top of his lungs. I even waited next to the kennel until I thought he was asleep, but that didn't work.

It was late, and I didn't feel like hauling the kennel back upstairs next to us. So I figured he could sleep in our bed, but just this once. Ha! Second big mistake. He would have absolutely no more going into the kennel at night after he saw how much fun it was in the Big Bed with Mommy and Daddy. Luckily, he was mostly housebroken at this point, so we relented and let him have his way (not like we had a choice in the matter, really).

No, it's perfect the way it is! I love "Undertoad's Mad Dog" and "Other Undertoad's Mad Dog"! :D

Thanks, and yes they sure do. I love to tell stories and share pictures of him.

You've got some beautiful-looking greyhounds. It has become obvious that we will need to get Al a playmate when I return home, as he has not outgrown his codependency as we hoped he would when he got older. He still has a rather difficult time with being left alone during the day, and hopefully another pup will help with his loneliness.

I had thought about adopting an ex-racing greyhound, but I'm worried about how Al would take to suddenly having an older dog in the house, since he's used to being the only one right now. We'll probably just end up going to the shelter again (with Al too, of course) and pick one out that seems like a good fit.

This sounds like the Ten Rules For the Dog for new dog owners:

- The dog is not allowed in the house.

- Okay, the dog is allowed in the house, but only in certain rooms.

- The dog is allowed in all rooms, but has to stay off the furniture.

- The dog can get on the old furniture only.

- Fine, the dog is allowed on all the furniture, but is not allowed to sleep with the humans on the bed.

- Okay, the dog is allowed on the bed, but only by invitation.

- The dog can sleep on the bed whenever he wants, but not under the covers.

- The dog can sleep under the covers by invitation only.

- The dog can sleep under the covers every night.

- Humans must ask permission to sleep under the covers with the dog.

LMAO Toad. That's pretty much exactly how it went for us, step by step.

Bwahahahahahahah!!! God Damn, UT. You nailed it with that one.:thumb:

Tobiasly,

If there's a greyhound adoption agency that has a kennel near you, you can take Al there and have him meet some of the available dogs (there's a list of agencies available by state here: http://www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/directory/list.cfm). It will give you a chance to see how he feels about other adult dogs, and if you find out after you take one home that it's not working for you, you can take the hound back. You don't say how old Al is, but you can get an ex-racing hound that's as young as 18 months, which is really still a pup in big-dog terms (these are usually dogs that wash out during their racing training). Occasionally younger pups are available too - as a matter of fact, I know of a litter of grey pups in Indiana right now ...

One thing that's real nice about greys is that they are used to having other dogs around so they usually get along pretty well together, especially if they are close in size.

As for the bed thing - our old grey no longer likes to sleep on the bed with us - I think he sleeps deeper now than he did in his younger days and doesn't like us moving about - and the young one actually prefers his crate at night, though he's perfectly happy to help with any naps you might want to take during the day :) . We no longer make the bed, as he gets up there and makes himself a nest after we're up and out. Strange how one 70 lb. (that's 31.8 kg to you, Leus ;) ) dog can take up almost an entire king-sized bed all by himself!

I'll give it some thought, windhund. I'm still in Kuwait right now, and we're definitely not getting one until I get back to the States -- Al is all my wife can handle right now (he just turned 1, BTW).

But one of the other Lt's also has a greyhound and is considering getting another, so he's been talking them up to me too.

My plan is, once we get another dog, to get two doggie beds and sit them on the floor next to our bed -- or maybe even find some sort of furniture to set them on, so they're at the same height as us. I think Al would be better about sleeping in his own bed if he had some company. (We wouldn't even mind it, but even with a king size bed, it'll be awfully crowded with me, Elizabeth, and two large dogs!)

By the way, UT you posted 5 pictures. Do you remember how many you took to get these masterpieces?:confused:

Probably about one in four shots was worthwhile.

Wow, thay's pretty damn good, considering what you were attempting to capture. That's a lot of treats too.:D