Mountain Tails Photography

Meet Jem and Scout!

First, for those following the blog who are not breed educated:  No, Flat-coated Retrievers are REALLY not this popular.  Flatcoat owners, however, do tend to all know one another in some way, and so I do have a disproportionate amount of Flatcoats on my site.  Elizabeth was initially a Mountain Tails customer and is now a friend from Chicago who drove out with her Flatcoats for two weeks.  Two weeks which included endless rain.  We rescheduled the shoot three times.  I began to panic.  I called her one night in the gloom (no actual rain, but I do mean very dark gloom) and said “we better just take some photos, or you might go home with nothing!”.  So we took the dogs out in the darkness and I did get a few decent shots, although much too dark for action.  Our NEXT date, four days before she was headed back to Chicago, it was sunny all day.  4:30, clouds started to roll in.  4:45, I contacted her and called it off, as big drops were falling.  Fifteen minutes later, I saw blue sky in the west, and could tell it was headed our way.  She threw the dogs in the car, rushed down to our meeting spot, waited until the rain stopped, and then we shot for 45  minutes, at which point it then started raining again.

And that, folks, is weather at 9000 feet.

We spent some time trying to get them to stay where the few flowers were – this year has been particularly odd with such a late summer, that I’ve been very thrown off by what is blooming, and when.   Although this is a posed shot, I thought it was quite sweet, as they choose to sit this close together.  They are very bonded.  Scout is a five year old female, and Jem is a 3 year old male.

Enough posing!  There are lots of smells around here!  Off we go!

Scout is a wild child when not doing therapy work, which her mom does every week with her.  She is particularly good with mentally unstable patients, who might make loud noises or gestures.  This particular type of therapy work is not suited for many dogs, but Scout does extremely well at it, and has a sixth sense as to what kind of energy the patient needs.   Tennis ball obsessed, very intense, and quite barky at times, she reminds me a lot of a border collie.   When I first met her as an adult, I immediately noticed traits that would make her a natural for field work, and in fact she does come from very strong field lines.  But by then, she had already developed some bad habits and so although they do field for fun, Scout thinks tennis balls are better than birds, and that coming only when she wants to is better than coming every time.  :)

Who do you think has the ball in this photo?  Yep, it would be me.

She is intense even when seemingly relaxed, too!

Although I did get some less intense expressions from her, too.

 

With Jem, intense behavior wasn’t an issue.  If relaxing, he looked practically asleep, but thankfully the boy has a playful side too.  He is the opposite of Scout, laid back, and with little inclination to chase anything at all.

He has his charms though….and likes to come when you call him!   Come on Jem!!!   Wheeeeee!

Well, we tried to keep them out of the river as long as possible, but as you might have noticed from some of the shots already posted, it wasn’t for long!

Jem, as usual, taking the placid approach to water entry (this boy cracks me up).

And Scout, just a slightly different style.  :)

I threw a rock for Scout into the rapids and she swam and swam and swam, going nowhere at all, for several minutes.  I am not sure if she realized the rock sank (Blue tries to get them off the bottom), if she thought an object was floating out there for her, or if she was just doing it for fun!

A few more water shots:

Jem may not like balls, but he found a prized stick.  OOOOoooooooo…..very exciting stuff.  How do I hold this, again?

Oh, wait, I got it!

Uh, oh!  Sister is coming to steal it!  The chase begins, Scout gets the zoomies, and then a quick battle begins but is quickly over — Scout decides the stick is beneath her.  It isn’t a ball, for goodness sakes!

I do love Jem’s demented look in the last frame of this series, making sure Scout is really going to let him run away with his prize!

As always, I’ll end with a beauty shot of these two.  I sure had plenty to choose from.  Our 45 minutes we had with sun was worth the wait!

Elizabeth, Thank you for being so patient!  I will have your gallery in a week or two – in the meantime I hope you enjoy your sneak peak!  Kisses to Jem and Scout!  I do wish I had more time with them….maybe next summer!  :)