When I said I was photographing an Italian Spinone, someone (I’ll not mention who) thought I was taking a product shot of Italian ice cream. Gelato, to be exact.
This was far more exciting!
Spinoni Italiani are hunting dogs. They are loyal and friendly, and they’ve been around since 500 BC. (Who knew?) Many people confuse them with German Wirehaired Pointers…but now you can be the wiser. You can’t see from the images, but Olive has large webbed feet. LARGE. All the better for swimming!
You’re probably wondering how in the world I was able to locate such a rare and wonderful breed of dog…”Olive” is my neighbor. The girl is just a pup! Only five months old when I snapped these images. Her owners agreed to let Olive be one of my models for an upcoming pet promotion. She did so well, she became my cover girl!! (Check out my Facebook page for the pet promotion — it’ll post soon!)
What would a pet shoot be without an outtake or two?
I was trying to get one of those “I-love-my-puppy-and-my-puppy-loves-me” shots and Olive looked at me and said, “Sattacchi una forcella me perché sono FATTO.”
That’s Italian for “Stick a fork in me because I am DONE.”
Olive is just a pup, you see, and she spotted a squirrel out one of my windows. She was tired of looking model-like and would have much rathered to have dragged her owner out the door through the snow and into the woods after the squirrel.
…Which is what she did when they left.
Thank you Karin and Olive!!