Yeah, the Humane Societies are great. Word of advice if you contact one to take pictures...I guarantee there is someone already there that takes pictures that will think you are trying to take their volunteer position. I had a lady really made at me one time b/c all of her pictures were being replaced on the adoption website by mine!


I never worried about cleaning up the shelter dogs, but as you can see, a lot of them are pretty sick, so if you go bring Kleenex. Also, do you notice the little speck of blue in the left background? That's one of those screw-in dog retainers. I would always tie about a 20 foot long lead from the retainer to the dog. Then I would just work around the dog and try to get shots that cut out the lead (if I couldn't, I would photoshop later). Obviously using a small show collar would be nicer too, but I never cared about that since I wasn't doing this professionally. These retainers are super nice for shy dogs. Tie them up, pull out the telephoto lens and tripod, and get away from them. Plus, you don't have to worry about the dog jumping on a handler.


Two last thing that are pretty obvious...put a little squeaky toy in your pocket. The one I used was a little Gorilla. They spark the interest of some dogs, and some dogs could care less. The ones that could care less are often receptive to other dogs. Have a handler walk a dog behind you if you can't get a dog to look at you for a shot. The dog below was super shy and could have cared less about me or a squeaky toy. He's looking at his old roommate that was being walked behind me.