Two dogs; a bucket of water and a tennis ball

I hadn't planned to have another blog filled with my dogs but this was a very spontaneous albeit amazing shoot that I had yesterday.  The dogs were all asleep in the living room; the sun was out and it was my birthday.  I wanted to something that I love to do; photograph something.  So I got out some strawberries, a huge vase of water and shot away.  Then Luke came out; which in itself changed my whole shoot.  First he came to see what I was doing.

Then he thought he'd have a little drink out of my water bucket.  Once he did that the wheels were set in motion.  I ran and got a tennis ball.

I always play with the dogs in a kiddie pool filled with water; they love to retrieve anything out of it.  But this I thought would make for some great shots, I was right.

After a few bites the ball sunk.  Hmmmmm?  After checking the ball was broken, which again was a nice surprise for the shoot.   Both poodles have learned to go underwater, it is a process which usually is quickly learned.  It is very funny to watch as they learn about breathing vs. not breathing under water.

Tilley is the pro; only her Vestibular gave her a hard time with regards to aim.

Luke gives it a go again; he isn't a huge fan of getting his eyes wet.  It takes a while to get past that.

And he's past, but the ball is very deep down.

He can clearly see it on the outside; now just to get it from the inside.  I thought I'd shoot the mouth in the water shots but as the game progressed it made for great real life shots as Luke tried to figure out how to get the ball out of the deep water.

Tilley shows him how to do it again; as you can see her aim is off but she does get it.  She's not a quitter.  Luke watched Tilley retrieve the ball over and over.  For Tilley there is no figuring it out; you simply get the ball.

Another try while Luke watches.

Luke gives it another go.

Just missed it again.

So, so close.

But Tilley snags it yet again.  Just after this shot Luke gave Tilley a huge growl, he was getting frustrated and took it out on her.  No doubt because she kept getting it.

He just needed to be brave; something that Tilley excels in.  They love this game and everytime Tilley got it out, they both stared at the ball until it was put back into the water and it began again.

Almost.

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!