America's Next Top Dog Model?

Our dog park friends, Bill and Nat, are amazing professional dog photographers for Photo Lab Pet Photography. Recently, they issued a casting call for dogs to model in a few photo shoots for clients' products and services. There were certain requirements, like your dog needed to be a certain size/weight, needed solid sit/stay skills, should be comfortable with new situations and people. Cabana was a little big for their needs (I think they wanted dogs under 45 lbs), but I decided to submit her anyway (she's about 57 lbs). I selected a few good photos I had taken and included a description of her abilities, one of which is that she is VERY used to posing for pictures, thanks to my perpetual camera in hand. I honestly didn't think Cabana would be chosen, but to my surprise, Cabana was selected! Skeptic that I am, though, maybe ALL the dogs got selected. I really don't know.

So last week, Cabana and I were asked to meet the photographers at Crissy Field in San Francisco. I have lived in the Bay area for over 20 years, but I had NEVER been to Crissy Field! (If you are surmising that I don't get out much, your assessment would be accurate.) I have driven by Crissy Field many times, but I had never actually walked around and enjoyed it. It was gorgeous and sunny on the day of the photo shoot, and it was a Lab's paradise. We will definitely go back.

Cabana and I arrived early, and because I wasn't sure what the photo shoot would entail, I hesitated to let Cabana off-leash, even though there were dozens of dogs, wandering around off-leash and playing in the waves. Cabana gave me many disgruntled grunts about not being allowed to join them. But I didn't want Cabana to get wet and dirty, because what if the photographers didn't want a wet, dirty dog for the photo shoot?

But I hated to miss the photo opportunity! I thought, maybe I could take Cabana's leash off for a few quick photos. I asked Cabana to sit and stay, which she dutifully did for me. Such a good girl. I was able to shoot a few frames.

Here's my sweet obedient dog, looking off into the distance, allowing me to perfectly frame the Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge and hills of Marin rising in the background. Ten seconds later, Miss Sweet Obedient was doing this:

And this:

While I thought Cabana was serenely gazing at the horizon, in actuality, she was wistfully watching these dogs play. Who can blame her for running over to them? I laughed and had only myself to chide. I let her play for a few minutes, then took her back to the car where, thankfully, I had some old towels to dry her off.

Our photographer friends arrived, along with their clients, owners of the K9 Scrub Club in San Francisco. Cabana was fabulous about doing everything she was asked to do, except she wouldn't walk while holding toys in her mouth. But she jumped up on picnic tables when prompted, let us put silly clothes on her, modeled various collars and leashes, drank out of a bright pink collapsible water bowl, put her paws up on a rock and held the position. Cabana WORKED it, and Tyra Banks would have been proud.

After the photo shoot, I let Cabana run around all she wanted. She had earned it!


I won't get to see the photos from the product shoot until they are actually published on the K9 Scrub Club website. But Bill and Nat gave me a Polaroid shot that day, as a keepsake of the experience. Their work is SO fantastic, I can't wait to see them. If you'd like photos of your pets, be sure to check out Photo Lab Pet Photography--they love animals and their job, and it shows.

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I Left My Leash in San Francisco

In the 25+ years I've lived in the Bay area, I had never once spent a single night in San Francisco. Travesty! So this year for the holidays, with my mom and sister coming for a visit, we all decided to rent a house for 3 nights in the city. I wanted to do touristy things that I had never taken the time to do and which weren't convenient to do with an hour's drive in the way.

Good idea? Well, it might have been if it hadn't rained constantly for the first 3 days of our 4-day stay. It wasn't just a mild drizzle either--often, it came down in sheets. Also, my poor mom got the flu and spent almost the entire time in bed.

To my utter disappointment, our 4-bedroom house was not nearly as luxurious as it looked in the photos. Grrrrrrr. Its saving grace was the location, just half a block from the panhandle of Golden Gate Park. And the best thing about the house was that they allowed us to bring Cabana!

Even with the rain, I was determined to get my money's worth, and I took Cabana to the Park several times a day. Because it was raining so hard, though, I wasn't able to take my camera with me, until the last day, when it finally stopped raining.

There were stalwart runners and dog walkers at all times in the park. Living in the city, people know that exercise, especially for their dogs, is not negotiable. But Golden Gate Park is a HUGE place, and there were many times when no one else was in sight, making me feel that we had the Park to ourselves.

I really enjoyed exploring the Park everyday, going in different directions, finding beauty in each new spot. Some mornings, Cabana and I walked for 2 hours, meandering about, finding ourselves in the Haight-Ashbury district, and navigating our way back to our rental (a subtly disguised way of saying I got lost a time or two).

Here's Cabana in front of the Conservatory of Flowers. In some of the photos below, Cabana is off-leash, but I want to make it clear that I walked her on-leash. However, for the sake of good photo opportunities, when no one else was around, I would sometimes have Cabana "stay" while I walked away from her to take a picture.

Cabana is GREAT at "stay", and how else would I be able to get a shot like this?

Here we are on the beautiful grounds between the DeYoung Museum and California Academy of Science. There were several groups of people doing tai chi, even in the rain! If I lived in the city, I'd do tai chi there, too, even though I've never done tai chi in my life.

Here, life imitates art.

These two sphinx statues reminded me of Cabana, so I asked her to "down" in between them. It was a photo op I couldn't pass up.

There were reindeer outside of the California Academy of Science. I'm guessing they were there for Christmas, but maybe they have them year-round? I don't know. Surprisingly, Cabana couldn't have cared less about them.

We met many dogs on our walks, all of them very nice and well-behaved. I suppose city dogs have to be, living in such close quarters with millions of people and other dogs. These Westies are on leash, but I was astounded by the number of dogs being walked off-leash throughout the city. Even near streets with heavy traffic, by stores with throngs of people, and throughout Golden Gate Park. There are a few designated dog run areas scattered through the Park, but they were empty of dogs. It was like people with dogs purposefully avoid those areas, preferring to let their dogs be off-leash pellmell instead. The weirdest thing is that they have one large field that is designated a dog play area, but with big signs that say dogs must be ON-leash to play there. What an oxymoron! Of course, no one actually had their dogs on-leash there, which is no surprise since hardly any dogs were on-leash anywhere in the Park.

A few times, I succumbed to breaking the rules and let Cabana play off-leash for a minute or two before leashing her and continuing on our way. Can you blame me? I'm a self-righteous law breaker, try as I might to not be either.

As they say, when in Rome....Strangely, though, no matter where I was in the Park, I saw park rangers go by at least every 10-15 minutes. Maybe they don't enforce the leash laws, though. Or maybe people get tickets and don't care? It's a matter that must be investigated more thoroughly, on my next stay in SF!

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Treasure Island

Despite having lived in the San Francisco Bay area for over 20 years, I had never been to Treasure Island until today. My older daughter and I, along with Cabana, braved the rain-soaked roads to see if we could find any treasures at the dog-friendly Treasure Island Flea Market.

Cabana wore her yellow raincoat, for protection from the elements and for looking cute (more for the latter than the former). Nesquik was at the event, giving away free chocolate milk. Too bad Cabana can't have a taste, but she sure matches the truck, down to the black line along the bottom. Except that Cabana hasn't been side-swiped, which is more than I can say about the truck.

The rain didn't keep too many people away. The historic World's Fair building was packed, making shopping, especially with a 55-pound dog, a bit of a challenge. Here, Cabana seems to be looking around to make sure no one is going to step on her tail.

Outside, the booths were much less congested, and we were able to shop our socks off. The socks were a great deal, and my daughter and I each bought 4 pair. (After seeing these photos, I realize more than ever that Cabana's raincoat is too small for her. See her scruff bulging out the top? I recently bought some fabric to make her a better one, but we've had so little rain until now. Once I make the new raincoat, we'll likely have clear skies for months.)

Two of my serious sock selections are made of the softest organic cotton, mmmmm. The other two, I couldn't resist--how can I call myself a dog-lover and not have at least a couple pairs of dog-themed socks? I guess it's true what they say about one man's treasure....

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Renegade in San Fran

Today, my whole family, including Cabana, drove into San Francisco to attend the Renegade Craft Fair. It's a craft fair that's geared for the teen/20's crowd, very hip and trendy, rather than the usual old-fashioned "grandma" craft items, although vintage is "in", so who's to say what's old-fashioned and what's new-fashioned these days!

Here's Cabana smiling and posing for me at the yacht harbor at Fort Mason where the craft fair was held.

We were strolling through the aisles when this dog collar booth caught my eye. Of course, I had to check it out, and I had to take a photo of Cabana in the booth! But she was very distracted by something under the table and wasn't compliant about posing. The vendor at the dog collar booth was nice enough to bring out a dog treat and helped me get Cabana facing the camera. After finally getting my shot, I looked at the vendor's face and realized that I knew her! Her name is Jessica, and we used to work together over 10 years ago, when we both worked at a scrapbooking store in San Rafael, probably less than a mile away from the Guide Dogs campus.

In fact, I have often thought about Jessica because she was the first puppy raiser and true "dog person" I ever met. All her scrapbook pages were filled with pictures of dogs, which I thought was slightly unusual at the time. Little did I know how like her I'd be some day! She raised for Canine Companions, and I still remember her career changed dog, Ocean, a beautiful lab/golden cross. She used to bring Ocean to the scrapbooking store sometimes, and I was amazed that this dog was a "flunkee"! She could do all kinds of tricks and could even read words--of course, she wasn't really reading but had been trained to point to the correct word. Ocean is now 13-years old, which shows how long it has been since I've seen Jessica.

Now, Jessica has a little beagle, in addition to Ocean. She didn't have Ocean with her, but she did pull the beagle out from under the table (so that's what was distracting Cabana earlier). I think she is the cutest beagle I've ever seen.

Jessica also makes some of the cutest collars and leashes I've ever seen! They are handmade from natural and eco-friendly materials. Check them out at Aroo Studio.

One final shot of Cabana with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Walking along Chrissy Field and across the Golden Gate Bridge with Cabana are on my dog bucket list. I can't believe we haven't done those things yet!

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