I belong to an organization that photographs shelter dogs, so that they can be seen at their best and improve their chance of adoption. Most of the photos taken by the shelter itself are of a very frightened dog, in an unattractive surrounding with fluorescent lighting. We take the dogs outside in the shelter yard, let them romp a bit, wait until they are tired enough to give us the time of day and then try to catch their personality on film.

For instance, this dog, Sasha, is part German Shepherd and part Pembroke Corgi. But if you only saw her face, you’d think she was a large dog, thereby erroneously scaring off people who don’t want a large dog. So I attempted to get her body in the shot so that you see she’s a German Shepherd head on a Corgi body. LOL. He/she (I swear I can’t remember – the name Sasha is a boy’s name in Russia, girl’s name everywhere else) was the sweetest little house dog. You could tell by the way she sat on the park bench as if it were a sofa. Lounging is a learned skill for domesticated animals, and she was lounging very comfortably and accustomed to being petted, especially behind the ears.   And she was all about the treats, unlike some of the other dogs who eschewed all manner of bribery. I don’t know why her owner surrendered her, but she was loved before she got here, that’s for sure.

This is just my initial post – I’m in a hurry, but I will update this with her shelter number and links to other pages with information on her, as well as photos and profiles of the other two dogs I photographed that day.

UPDATE:  This dog was saved from the shelter by an area rescue! Not sure which one, but if you’re really interested, I could find out from my shelter contact.