Advertisement Photoshoot — or, Faking a Naughty Dog

Laev, after faux holiday destructionI had a great idea for a training advertisement, all seasonal and humorous. And I had a great photographer to hand. To shoot it, however, we’d need to take a crazy, fractious dog who had been trained to polite house manners and make her look again like a stereotypical “bad dog.”

It was a ton of fun.

Alena is not only a trainer with CIA, but she’s also a photographer and studio artist (check out her amazing pet portraits!). We created a distressing scene — fallen Christmas tree, destroyed packages — and put Laev in the center, wrapping ribbon and lights around her.

Laev was a pro — not only did she tolerate the ribbon and lights (even twinkling lights draped right over her eyes), and the camera lights and flashes, but she gave us dozens of poses with her too-cute chin rest for adorable pictures. Yes, she’s quite willing to work for stale popcorn!

She also helped to dress the set — you can see her helping to distress a box in the video.

httpv://youtu.be/s-jogFOfBqQ

We ended up with some great shots! What do you think?

You can watch for the finished ad at the Historic Artcraft Theatre, in Franklin, IN — one of our favorite places to enjoy classic film and locally-grown, reasonably-priced popcorn. It was leftover Artcraft popcorn for which Laev was working during the shoot!

About Laura VanArendonk Baugh CPDT-KA KPACTP

Laura was born at a very young age and started playing with animals immediately after. She never grew out of it, and it looks to be incurable. She is the author of the bestselling FIRED UP, FRANTIC, AND FREAKED OUT. She owns Canines In Action, Inc. in Indianapolis, speaks at workshops and seminars, and is also a Karen Pryor Academy faculty member.
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