New Portraits Are Up!

Year after year our kennel photographer and good friend Jeanne Schnackenberg outdoes herself taking the formal portraits of our canine athletes at SP Kennel. We are sure you’ll agree that they are fantastic as you check out our refreshed “The Dogs” page.

You might wonder why we go to the trouble of taking formal pictures? Firstly, we love to have a pictorial record of all the dogs through their life and taking a formal picture gives us a visual library going back many years. We can compare growth and development in the dogs from year to year as we compare a snap shot rather than as we see them every day. We can also easily keep a visual history of our genetic lines. Our dog sponsors love receiving “glam shots” of their dogs in their sponsor packets, and we know you enjoy seeing the formal and informal faces of our dogs on their own webpages. Last season we even supplied them to the Yukon Quest visual content team to display at the Yukon Quest Prize-giving when Dutch and Commando received their Golden Harness awards.

Photo day is a real team effort. Wrangling puppies, attracting focus and attention, and wiping muddy faces takes a good deal of time and patience. This year, along with Jeanne and Aliy, we had invaluable help from Wendy, Karolyn and Mary Beth. Thank you gals, we could not have done it without you. Really. We couldn’t.

Each year it is the yearlings that show the most change. Look at how these three gals have grown! It has been interesting for us to watch them mature as they are not our genetics so we didn’t have a clear picture of what they might look like all grown up. Check out these comparisons…

Peach

Razz

Cloud

Even with the same backdrop and similar poses to last year I reckon Jeanne has captured something different in each dog to show another aspect of their complex personalities. One year might show the playful, fun side of a dog then the next year we see a more serious side. It is fun to see the varying moods show through in picture form. Some of my favourites from this year are:

Felix

This shot really conveys a calm, friendly Felix with his sweet smile and soft expression. He was likely eyeing up someones lap to crawl into once the photo was done.

Jefe

Jefe is strong and handsome and in this shot looks to be telling us he is ready! “Let’s just stop this photo nonsense and get racing!” Check out that sparkle in his eyes. Good boy Jefe.

Daisy

Who can resist this sweet face? Daisy is a sweetheart and this picture captures an enigmatic, Mona Lisa smile and her beautiful brown eyes. I wonder what she’s thinking?

Sanka

Blue-eyed Sanka is very serious in this shot. I reckon she’s telling us she is ‘on it’ this season and we can count her IN! She looks so much like Supermodel Mama Olivia here.

You can become a fan of these dogs, and any others of your choice by hitting the “Become a Dog Fan” tab at the top of the page, or just click here.

Thanks again to Jeanne, Wendy, Karolyn and Mary Beth. Together you have made some truly special pictures!

Of course there are some out-takes! We’ll share them with you soon.

-Moira