Dog Photography

Snow Dogs!

Posted by kenleighacres on December 9, 2013
Posted in: Border Collie, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Dog Photography, Dogs, Lab, Photography, Snow, whippet. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

To say we got a lot of snow on Friday would be silly!  We got more snow than we have had in the last couple of years…combined!

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Darby, my Cardigan, had a difficult time in the soft, dry, fluffiness.

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He was having fun digging through it…

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so cute with his face covered in snow.

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I love his sweet, soulful eyes.

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Kate is just disgusted by all of the cold, white stuff on the ground.  We were at -9 on Sunday morning and 0 this morning.  The critters are all doing well, but I think we will all be happy to see the warmer temps later this week.

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Rose may be the only one that is sad to see it go.

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She was even dragging her belly through it!

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Her boy is loving it too!

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Playing fetch in the snow is a favorite of theirs.

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Evidence of the under the snow retrieves she was making 😉

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A few Felt Pups got to play in the snow too.  This Greyhound was a good sport about posing in the cold stuff.

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The Newfoundland enjoyed it a bit more!

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Deuce, our Lab, was very interested in the Felt Pup…or maybe she just wanted his bumper.

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The snow makes a nice back drop for her!

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Love the snowy lips!

Paisley

…and this is how my Whippet, Paisley, is enjoying the snow.  In her jammies, on her bed, in front of the fire 🙂

Look at her go!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 23, 2012
Posted in: Border Collie, Dog Photography, Dogs, family. Tagged: , , . 6 Comments

My son has a nutty little Border Collie and they love playing frisbee together.

I love watching them together.  His throwing accuracy and speed is WAY better than mine 🙂

Rose’s accuracy is getting pretty good too.

She loves jumping…

and leaping.  Not sure what she was doing in this picture, but it captures her perfectly!

Love the motion in this picture.

I am so happy she has a passion.  She isn’t interested in the sheep and a busy Border Collie always needs something to do.

This is by far my favorite 🙂  The look in her eye and the stretch in her toes are examples of just how enthusiastic she is about catching a little plastic disc.

Felting for a Cause

Posted by kenleighacres on October 19, 2012
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, family, Farm Life, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , . 35 Comments

I have been asked by a few people ‘how did you come up with making dogs’ and ‘why are you making them’.  My close friends/family that know ‘why’ I am making them have urged me to share a little.  So, here is a little bit of information on what the felt pups are helping support.

When our son came into our lives at 18 months old, neither one of us thought it would be ‘easy’.  Anybody who thinks raising a child is easy, is in for a big surprise.  However, we did not envision the journey would lead us to where we are now.  When they say ‘it takes a village’, it truly does and we have been very fortunate to have some incredible village members.  We have gotten some great help along the way, but lately it feels like someone finally gave us the puzzle pieces we needed to finish this very complex puzzle.

Our son has been seeing an occupational therapist for sensory issues for some time and he has glasses for his strabismus, but he was still struggling.  There is nothing worse than seeing your son struggling and not be able to help.  The consensus was that he needed vision therapy.  His eyes were not teaming correctly and that was causing him tremendous difficulties.  The price tag made our jaws drop.  This was not the first time we had been told that he needed vision therapy, so despite the jaw dropping price tag, we knew we needed to make it happen.

Who knew my love for dogs and felting would be the answer to our prayers.  I have now made 42 dogs and each one that is ordered is a blessing.  We have a long ways to go, but the path seems a little less cluttered with road blocks.  In a weird twist, my youngest niece has also been helped because of the journey we have taken (see I told you it takes a village).  She was having severe difficulties and with the help of a sensory specialist, is now on a better path as well.

I feel a strong urge to help more children and to bring more awareness to both sensory issues and vision therapy.  If you have not heard of Sensory Processing Disorder, I urge you to look at the  Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation page and learn more about it.

****This contest has CLOSED****

****As a ‘thank you’ to all of the support I have received and to all of our friends for helping us along the way….I am having a giveaway of one of my Custom Felt pups!****

To keep up with my felting adventures, you can visit my Kenleigh Acres Facebook .

Prints, cards, pups, bags, calendars, and more information on my Felt Pups can be found on my Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio website.

Meet Kenzie!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 13, 2012
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, Farm Life, Felting, Fiber. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

On my Kenleigh Acres Facebook page, I have been introducing the new felt pups as they are created.  This particular felt pup is near and dear to my heart and needed her own blogpost.

Meet Kenzie!

Here she is in her later years.

She was my first dog and it was so hard to say good-bye.  I had her for 14 years and she was my heart dog.  I have a print hanging in my office that was done by Mary Anne Radmacher and part of it says…

‘kenzie – the finest walks are the longest ones with you.  no matter what time brings you will always walk beside me.’

I wasn’t supposed to get a puppy, my parents were getting a puppy for my younger brother, but I got impatient waiting in the car.  I walked into the area where the puppies were and she crawled out from under a ledge and I knew she had to come home with me.  One of the things I will always be grateful for is that my parents let me bring her home.  My brother came home with her brother, Willy.

This makes Felt Pup #42 that I have made.  With orders stacking up and Christmas gifts being ordered, she wasn’t on my list to make, but the universe works in mysterious ways.  My mom has been bugging  urging me to make a ‘Kenzie’ for my little mascot and I kept saying, at some point I will make a ‘Kenzie’, but not right now.

Earlier this week, I was working on a Border collie that ended up turning into a ‘custom’ Border collie and the coloring wasn’t close to the same.  Funny thing is that the coloring was exactly what Kenzie looked like.  She was a Border collie/Aussie mix and had a natural bob tail.  She used to love bringing the horses in and she would have thoroughly enjoyed the sheep chores, unfortunately we didn’t have the sheep before she passed away.

She can now sit on my desk, keeping me company and herding the little felt sheep.

I’m happy to have a littler version of Kenzie in my life again and I share the sentiments of my sister that had this to say about her felt ‘Kodi’ – ‘…looks just like her and how I wish that it could come to life!’

To see more of the Felt Pups, you can visit their new website – Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio

I’m working!

Posted by kenleighacres on May 1, 2012
Posted in: Border Collie, Dog Photography, Dogs, Farm Life, Llama. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

Kate and Magoo have come to an agreement that she will give him space and he won’t harass her.

He must have forgotten their truce this morning…

Poor Kate was just trying to do her job.

Her focus never wavered though.

In time, Magoo walked away and let her get on with her business.  I wish I could have that fierce determination to not get distracted 🙂

Mountain climbing sheep

Posted by kenleighacres on April 29, 2012
Posted in: Border Collie, Dog Photography, Farm Life, Herding, Jacob Sheep, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . 11 Comments

Joan at Mud Ranch is hoping to add a border collie to help with their sheep chores.  They are going to get a trained dog, but the sheep need some training as well.  Jacob sheep can be challenging for a dog, they like to intimidate and some do a little more than intimidate…especially when they have lambs.  I offered to bring Kate with me when I came to visit and work with their sheep a couple of times.   You can read Joan’s tale of the day on her blog.

Kate and I had a slightly different take on it 😉

Her sheep have mountains and they are very good at climbing them!

I love the look on her face in this photo.  Kate had never seen anything like it!

She is used to working on flat ground without any obstacles.

The sheep thought they had outsmarted her, but after convincing her that the sheep were up there (she couldn’t see them) she went up and around and brought them back to the barn for us.

 

I forgot how much fun it could be to work ‘challenging’ sheep.  Most of our sheep are ‘dog broke’ meaning they are used to being worked by a border collie and ‘give’ to her when she puts pressure on them.  We have individuals that still like to give Kate a run for her money, but for the most part she has done a good job training them.

It took her a little while to get a feel for the different environment and the different sheep…

but she soon had them bunched up together.

She had to keep going left and right or in herding terms ‘away’ and ‘come by’, but she managed to keep them together so we could get a closer look at all the lambs.

It was much warmer than she is used to and her tongue was hanging WAY out in no time at all.

Luckily there was a little creek close by for a cool down.

Beauty Abounds!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 22, 2011
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, family, Lab, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 6 Comments

My husband entered his dog, Deuce, in a hunt test in Umpqua Valley this last weekend and I tagged along to enjoy a weekend away.  I had no idea the trial site was going to be so beautiful!

The trial was held at a ranch – what a view!

This is the view from the trial site on Saturday…

and this was the trial site on Sunday.

There were multiple trials going on at the same time and they were held many miles apart.  All of the trial sites were quite a distance from the camp area which presented a little bit of a challenge because we only had one vehicle and my husband left early in the morning.  I really wanted to watch him run his dog, so I put my walking shoes on and headed out.

You can see the campers in the background.  I was still a long ways from the trial location, but I found a lot of beauty while I was walking.

Pretty pink flowers along the side of the road.

Water lilies on a pond.

Just as I was about to turn the corner and head up the hill, I looked up and saw this…

A bald eagle that I surely would have missed had I been driving.  There were a lot of ponds and the Umpqua river close by for this guy to find his meals in.

The ranch had a lot of animals – cows, sheep, peacocks, and horses.  This mare and foal were very eye-catching.

I’m glad I was able to watch my husband run his dog – they are becoming a great team.

Getting ready to send her…

done with their run and honoring the next dog.

She earned her Junior Hunt title last year and this weekend, they got their first Senior Hunt ribbon.

This scene ties in nicely to what I am feverishly working on now…only 2 more days until Black Sheep Gathering!!!  I hope to see you there and if you can’t make it, I will be posting lots of pictures.

Coursing Ability Test and lots of fun!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 3, 2011
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

I know blog posts are supposed to be timely and such, but does it count if it ‘feels’ like I took these pictures yesterday???

I recently took pictures at a lure coursing trial and it was the first trial held in Oregon that offered the new Coursing Ability Test  through AKC.  This event opens the world of lure coursing to all breeds of dogs instead of just sighthounds.  I am so glad AKC decided to do this because it was so much fun watching these dogs chase the plastic bunny.

Bedlington Terrier

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever

German Shepherd

Vizsla

Husky

 and a very funny Bull Mastiff

She thought grabbing the cone at the end would be fun 🙂

Even the little dogs came out to play…

Pekingese

a tiny Chihuahua with a HUGE personality

This Doxie was my favorite 🙂

As always there were lots of sighthounds and they continue to take my breath when I watch them run!

Greyhound

Ibizan

Whippet

Pharaoh…almost catching the bunny

Rhodesian Ridgeback

All of the photos from the weekend can be seen on my That’ll Do Photography website.

Finally…warmth!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 6, 2011
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, family, Lab. Tagged: . 6 Comments

Is it crazy to think 41 degrees is warm?  I would never think this in any other season, but after having temperatures below freezing for several days in a row…41 feels kind of warm!  Unfortunately, with the warmth comes rain, but I think I am ok with that.  I really don’t like being cold.  My brother lives on the other side of the state and the temps have been in the -20’s.   I think I will stay on this side of the mountains and I will definitely stay on this side of the country!!!

While it was dry and cold and before the rain came, a friend wanted me to photograph a couple of her dogs.  We set it up for today, but then the forecast changed and the rain was coming sooner than planned.  So, yesterday afternoon we met at the dam for a photo session. 

The first dog she wanted pictures of was her lab, Tru.

She runs agility with him and he was such a good boy.

The ducks kept swimming by taunting him.  They couldn’t get him to move though…look, but not move 😉 

The other dog she brought for pictures was Piper.  She is a rescue and absolutely adorable.

My son really wanted to bring her home or go find one at the pound just like her or keep our eyes open for one just like her.  He ended up being ok with having his picture taken with her. 

Luckily, we also brought Rose and Paisley.  He decided that Rose really was the only dog he wanted.  

She was so happy to get out and stretch her legs.  She likes to stretch out like this and then pull herself across the ground with her front legs!  She was spayed a couple weeks ago and has been crate bound.  She was thrilled to get out and run and jump and spin and play! 

I think we were all happy to get out and stretch our legs!  I love the view here and the clouds were so pretty yesterday.

Enjoying the dry weather, but dreaming of sunny skys, shorts, and flip flops!

A high flying dog!

Posted by kenleighacres on August 26, 2010
Posted in: Border Collie, Dog Photography, Dogs, family. Tagged: , . 4 Comments

 We have been going to the creek a lot the last couple of weeks and we have discovered that Rose LOVES the water.  She has also inherited her mother’s obsession with retrieving.  A dog that loves to retrieve and swim is made for Dock Dogs!  A little searching on the internet found a club in southern Oregon, not far from our house. 

Jumping off a dock into water is a little different than jumping from a bank, so we weren’t sure what to expect.

 

It didn’t take her long to figure it out!

She didn’t act like a novice for long!  We all took turns throwing the bumper for her and quickly realized that getting the dog to jump off the dock is the easy part.  To maximize the length of the jump, you need to throw it in a swooping arc up – not too close and not too far.

She is a great swimmer and was quick to bring the bumper back to us…

and then begged us to throw it again.

He had so much fun with his dog!

She may be small, but she makes a big splash!