How to Deal with a Vocal Dog during a Photo Shoot
Dogs bark for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they’re scared, sometimes they’re demanding, and sometimes they’re just being needy. If your dog’s barking starts up during your photo session, you can try a change of scenery or change what you’re asking him to do.
If it’s still a no-go, get creative. He can’t bark if his mouth is occupied by something else, so try giving him a toy, bone, or treat. Snap a few off when his mouth is busy (but don’t underestimate the power of a photo of him mid-bark either!).
It happens very rarely, but if you happen to encounter a pooch that simply won’t give up on the barking no matter what, you can still get some decent closed-mouth photos. Randall happens to be quite the barker, so the photographers devised a technique during the shoot that enabled them to get some photos of him not barking.
Every time Randall ate a treat, he’d stop barking to eat it, and the photographers had about two seconds of bark-free time while he swallowed and caught his breath. This image was captured during those precious two seconds in which Randall was in between barks!
27mm, 1/250 sec., f/4.0, 125