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5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

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5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

“Can we bring our dog with us?” is one of the most popular questions my clients ask. My response is, “YES.” Being a dog mom, I understand the importance of including pet in portraits. Our dogs, Rex and Pearl, are part of our family unit.

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

1) Make sure your pet is freshly groomed. You want to look your best, and so should your pet!

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

2) Exercise them before your session, if applicable. I know exercising a cat seems silly, but your dog will love it. Take your dog on a good 20 minute walk before your portrait session. This will use up some of their energy and help them be relaxed for our time together.

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

3) Treats and Toys! If your pet has a favorite treat and/or toy, bring them along. These work great for encouraging good behavior and help keep your pet’s attention.

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

 

4) Bring a pet sitter. I like to include pets in the first part of our time together. For the safety of your animals I would not recommend putting them in your vehicle alone. Ask a friend or family member to arrive 15 minutes into your photographic experience. They can return your pet home while we finish our time together.

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

5) Only bring your pet if they are able to be in public and work well with other people. This is for your safety and the safety of your photographer.

5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures

Over the years, I have had zero problems with photographic experiences involving pets. Having great communication, up front, is the key to this success. 5 Helpful Tips When Incorporating Pets in Pictures_0002

A couple bonus tips:
How to encourage your clients to interact with their pet for a natural feel.
1) At the session, ask your clients to tell you about when they got their pet. This always helps relax things at the start of the session and gets everyone in a happy mood. Pets can sense when their owners are stressed. Creating a calm environment is quite helpful.
2) When working with dogs that know commands, like sit, it is best to have one person in charge. For example, only one person should be giving the command, “sit” to the dog. Too many people shouting out commands can confuse and frustrate a dog.
3) As the photographer, bring a squeaky toy, or learn a few high pitch sounds you can do with your mouth. Yes, you will feel ridiculous, but you need to get the pet to make eye contact with you and your camera.

The last piece of advice I will leave for photographs is that if you are not comfortable, say no. If you are uncomfortable with the pet, or type of pet, you will not be able to provide your clients with the photographic experience they deserve.

 

Comments

  2. Kristen Poynton Chidsey says

    I am giggling at the thought of getting our puppy into pictures. With your tips, it may just be doable–but she is worse than my 10 year old son who hates pictures at the moment!

    Reply

  3. Heather Shirley Heinlein says

    Oh family photos with pets…We have a few with our dog that turned out pretty good (as long as you can get her looking at the camera 🙂 )…our cats – not so much. Thanks for these tips!

    Reply

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