Honey the Great Dane

Whew! What an exciting day!

Hsin-Yi took me to  Rachael Hale’s studio just after lunch and Rachael is such a nice human! She knew just how to talk to us dogs and cuddle us and make us feel relaxed.

She let me run all over her studio and out into the garden to sniff around, while they were setting up…

 

They had to spend a long time getting the shopping trolley ready for me – they needed to fill it with groceries and then wedge the wheels so that it wouldn’t roll away!

Hsin-Yi was also worried about my feet slipping on the slippery paper so they tried to put a furry rug down for me to stand on…

 I could hear her and Rachael discussing the pose that Rachael wanted for her book and Hsin-Yi sounded very worried – she thought that we’d never be able to get it because Rachael wanted me to jump up, with my paws on the trolley bar then turn my head and look at the camera – and then cock my ears!

Talk about tall order, huh?

I tried to get in between everybody and help supervise - but they didn’t really appreciate my contributions of slobber on Rachael’s laptop…

Then finally, they called me in to start posing…but it was really hot and I decided that I just couldn’t be bothered to jump up.

Hsin-Yi was waving treats at me and speaking in a squeaky voice and praising me and jumping around, trying to get me to jump up and put my paws on the trolley – but I just looked at her stupidly and wagged my tail…that’s my sneaky way, you see, when I’m trying to get out of doing something – I act stupid and wag my tail and hope they’ll give up!

They kept giving me breaks and then bringing me back, hoping that I would do it this time and I could see that Hsin-Yi was starting to get really stressy. I knew she was annoyed with me because we had been practising this all week and I had done it so perfectly in the supermarket carpark yesterday…

Well, finally she gave me That Look and said, in her scary voice, “Honey – UP!!”

Uh-oh…I knew when she meant it. So I gave a big jump and put my paws up – and everybody went crazy, smiling and saying “Good girl, Honey! Good girl!”

After that, it was quite easy really – I just had to keep jumping up and holding my paws on the trolley. Rachael kept making these weird noises which made me look at her and cock my ears…what on earth was she doing?

(I’m sorry – Hsin-Yi was so busy training me during this shot that she couldn’t take any photos so I can’t show you any action shots…)

Finally, Rachael was happy with the shot and Hsin-Yi couldn’t believe that we got it. I got a peek at it on the computer – hey, I actually look pretty good! I was a bit worried that I was going to look silly but it wasn’t insulting at all – it was quite funny, in a nice way.

I can’t wait to show you the photo when we get a copy!

They let me have a rest and then Rachael wanted a few more shots but these were much easier…

Rachael then said that she wanted to do some other shots with me…one is a group shot with all my friends! So we’re going back to the studio this Saturday for another photoshoot!

They had already tried a group shot with other dogs but they couldn’t do it ‘coz those dogs wouldn’t stay still – so they rang Hsin-Yi and asked if I had any well-trained friends that could pose with me. Hsin-Yi laughed – I have such a big social circle, she says that I’m like a one-dog casting agency! I have more friends than she has.

So she rang around and asked some of my friends if they’d like to model for Rachael and they all said yes!

So we’re all going to be in the book together…how cool is that?

OK – talk to you all again after the shoot on Saturday -

By the way, here is a video of me playing with some of my many friends (an Akita, Pug, GSD, Border Collie, Schnauzer and others!):

 

To read about my 2nd photoshoot, click HERE