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Many Adults, 1 Boy & 1 Dog's Montessori Life in a Singapore flat

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Find Donna

This was taken perhaps a couple of months back.

We were walking in a regular park in our neighbourhood. I looked up from my dog to see the rays of the setting sun peeking through the trees and casting everything in shadow. Not a scene I would expect from a regular park surrounded by tall blocks of flats in a residential area.

Life throws you surprises now and then, I guess.

I directed my dog, Donna, to stand a fair distance from me, her silhouette shrouded among the tall trees. I imagined I was taking a photo of Bambi in the woods.

Can you pick her out in the picture?

Sleepy dog

1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 12:00am – 01:00am


Donna watches me sleepily from her bed.

1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 01:00am – 02:00am

I opened the bedroom door to find Donna sleeping on the floor by the door, next to her bed. She got excited and maybe thought it was morning already. I dunno :P

By the time I got the camera from the study, the excitement was gone. Yawn….


So what are we doing up in the middle of the night, human??

For 24 weeks, weliveinaflat will post photos taken for a specific hour in that week.
We will cover 24 hours in 24 weeks. (I’ve no idea how we will do the sleeping hours, lol!)
More about the 1 Day 1 World Project here.

Happy National Day, Singapore!

Happy 49th Birthday, Singapore.

Gosh, even the humans’ parents are older than you. :D Bwahahahaha! *Ooops*

Over the last two weeks, the Dogs of Instagram SG group held a photo challenge with National Day as the theme. Here are some photos of Patriotic Pets who gamely took up the challenge!









So many different ways to take a photo with the flag, yah?

But for a while there, the human faced the same mental block that some of our Instafriends may have experienced for this theme.

But over the weekend before the deadline, I was flipping through the newspapers and found an advertisement that depicted well known scenes from previous national day parades. Feeling slightly crafty, I decided to cut out the picture, glued it on a hard sheet of paper and cut it to size and tadaa!

Insta-National-Day-Headdress for Donna!!

We went out for a walk with it and took some photos with the decorations that have been put up around the neighbourhood.


Donna did very well despite the challenge presented by the flags flapping in the wind :D

:D Have a great weekend, everypawdy!

Note: weliveinaflat.com has gotten permission from the original photograph owners to post third party photos. These originators have been linked and copyright belongs to them. 



Late night life of dead rat & street cats

1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 10:00pm – 11:00pm

a dead rat or mouse?
Helloooooooo, I’m dead. A dead rat. Quite dead.

blurry cat, late night shot
I think I got killed by this scary ghost cat… maybe…

cat with rat, shot from front
“What are you looking at, human???”

cat with rat, shot from top
“Did you kill this rat, Mister Cat?”

cat with rat, shot from front, different perspective
“I don’t kill dead rats,” said the cat.

I was walking home with Donna when I saw Mister Cat quietly sitting in front of the dead rat. Donna showed no interest in them but I stopped in my tracks. I shall stop insisting that the neighbourhood stray cats are not doing their rat/mouse hunting duties. Mister Cat has shown me proof. Hah!

stray cats in the neighbourhood at night
The three cats at the scene of the crime. Mister Cat is looking away.

Confession: Being very much the city person with minimal contact with rodents except to see them streaking past at night, I have no earthly idea if this was a rat or a mouse! *Ooops* But it’s nose looked quite ratty to me :D

 

Canine Vaccination and the Dangers of Leptospirosis

Click to learn more

Related
Late night life of Pet Dog and Street Cats


For 24 weeks, weliveinaflat will post photos taken for a specific hour in that week.
We will cover 24 hours in 24 weeks. (I’ve no idea how we will do the sleeping hours, lol!)
More about the 1 Day 1 World Project here.

Patriotic pets in pet photography

We are approaching Singapore’s National Day in two weeks. And the latest hash tag photo theme challenge on @dogsofinstasg is National Day.

singapore dogs national day

I needed some inspiration for this theme. So I thought I’ll take a look at what sort of photos people have taken of their pets before.

It must be my poor searching skills because the photos I found of Singapore dogs were … well, let’s just say I didn’t find many. Hmmm…

Examples.

Here’s Toby getting worried by the flapping buntings put up by the Town Council in anticipation of the day a week back.

toby golden retriever

And here’s a couple of patriotic Singapore bunnies and celebratory dogs with a National Day cake from last year… and a random dog with a patriotic scarf (can’t even see the face) from 2011.

And that’s about it!

Oh man, where did my Google-mojo go?

So anyway, the good thing about the Internet is that it has no international boundaries so we can always look at our canine buddies North, South, East, West, wherever~ to get inspired!

I said Get inspired guys… 

patriotic dogs pitbulls

Right, I think these two pitbulls, Lincoln and Cinnabun, probably partied too much already :P

I have to report though that American dogs seem to be generally quite patriotic. Or at least, I found quite a lot of them compared to dogs from other countries. (Did I do a thorough search? No. And not in native languages, sorry. :P)

So yes, let’s get inspired!!

Patriotic Pets Photography
Easy method #1 – Get a flag!

Hang a flag. Stand dog beside it or behind it (even better with backlight).

Or in Millie‘s case, stand dog under it. ;)

dog under us flag

Doesn’t matter if your flag is big or small. Smaller ones are versatile too. You can take them anywhere. Madison, the Golden retriever, has hers planted in the sand at the beach #justlikeNeilArmstrong and she seems pretty happy about it too. ;)

patriotic golden retriever with flags

Yes, yes, here I will slip in that cliché again. How good your photos get depends on your imagination. ;)

 

Patriotic Pets Photography
Not so easy method #2 – Have dog hold the flag :P

So if you’re like me and like to teach the dog something useful to make the photo even more interesting, why not train the dog to hold the flag?

Sticking a flag into the dog takes a bit more training. Not every dog has learnt to hold it in his/her mouth and parade around like Bailie the Grand Basset Griffon Vendeén here.

patriotic dog holding a flag in mouth

Donna certainly hasn’t! But we are working on that with help from this video that Mr N the tenacious terrier shared.

 

Patriotic Pets Photography
Not so easy method #3 – Suit up in a patriotic costume!

And if you would like to literally stick the flag into the dog, perhaps into folds of his/her clothes. Do make sure he/she is happy to wear clothes first, or your photo wouldn’t turn out nice.

Here’s a worried, whale-eyed little dog with flags sticking to his back. Not a good look, sorry. More pets who hate the 4th of July here.

Speaking of clothes, these are definitely an option for a Patriotic Dog themed photo. ChaCha the Chinese Crested models a pretty frock here.

chinese crested dog in patriotic frock
bert the cat in patriotic hat

Bailie’s cat bro Bert is also look spiffy with American-flag themed accessories! And of course, remember Lincoln and Cinnabun with their glasses and headband in the very first picture? Those are some pretty funky accessories as well!

If you have been having trouble getting your pet dog or cat to be happy wearing clothes or accessories, check out how we got Donna to get used to her clothes here and her doggles here.

 

Patriotic Pets Photography
Not so easy method #4 – Create a set/studio environment

This is the hardest for me because I am lazy…. too lazy to source, make, collect and set up props, including getting a bright enough diffused light source for indoors. But if you are up to it, the results can be amazing ;)

This is an undercover guinea pig… not sure what he’s doing in the limelight if he’s undercover… :P

 

 Calling Singapore dogs

With National Day around the corner, we hope we have inspired you to start thinking about taking some Singapore National Day themed photos!!

These two weeks, share your patriotic dog photos at http://instagram.com/dogsofinstasg. Nine photos will be picked for feature and one lucky photo will get a prize from our sponsor PawmartDetails here.

 

For more lovely tips on pet photography from this shameless blog, see these links!

Point of view in pet photography
Photographing dogs – Nomad Russ 10 tips reinvented
– … and Buzzfeed thinks these are the most patriotic dogs in America

Author’s note: All pictures used with permission, credited and linked to the photographer’s blogs and instagram feeds accordingly. :)

 

Dogs of Instagram Singapore Photo Theme Challenge

8 photo theme challenges, 16 weeks, 733 tagged photos, 64 features, 8 winners.

@dogsofinstasg Photo Theme Challenge has come to an end for 2014.
Here are the winners for the 8 challenges held in Season 1.

To see more features, follow @dogsofinstasg on Instagram. :)

This challenge is jointly hosted by weliveinaflat.com,  Mango the Sheltie and Some White Cookie. Much thanks to our fabulous sponsors Feed My Paws and Pawmart for the prices this season. 

10 must-take photos on dog’s first day home

dogs first day home collage

When we first adopted Donna, I wasn’t very big on taking photos. And now it’s too late to regret that we are missing photos that would have served as reminders for all the nitty-gritty details that made up that first day.

But if you’re currently considering adoption or waiting for a new puppy from a responsible breeder then you are not too late!

Here are ten ideas of what photos I wouldn’t miss taking if I could do it all over again. ;)

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1. Picking up dog

I wouldn’t have thought of it, but it seemed part of Gentle Paws‘ standard operating procedure to take a family photo of the dog and his/her new adopted family…

donna mongrel dog

…. with heads, of course. It’s just that the humans of this blog are shy. :P

This is the only photo we have of us with Donna that day in front of the shelter where we picked her up. She was overweight then so she would perhaps seem a bit stouter than she is now.

This is more of a milestone photo. So instead of a posed picture, you can also get a friend to take a photo of the scene where the dog is being handed over to you or as you and your dog are leaving his/her previous home.

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2. Exploring the new home

A new homecoming wouldn’t be complete without a photo of the pet checking out his new home.

Since coming into a new home can be a stressful experience for the new pet, most advice regarding this transition is to let the pet explore the home at his own pace. This doesn’t mean you should let a new puppy or kitten be un-supervised, but it does mean giving him or her space to venture out a bit and explore, even if it is just one room of the house.

kitten

Hanging back gives you the leisure to take candid shots of the pet sniffing about the new home, without getting into his or her face. Taking wider shots will help show the pet’s size relatively to the furniture in the room.

This is a photo of a new kitten in the flat I lived in in my teens. I have since moved twice, so it is an interesting reminder of an old home for me as well.

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3. Profiling shots

As a new dog owner, days or months after the first day I found myself wondering at times – was this bump there when we first brought her home? Did that chip on her tooth happen before or after she came to the flat? Or how much slimmer does she look now compared to previously?

Profiling shots – front view, side view, close up on face, paws, etc – will give you the details for that first day so you’ll always have a comparison later on.

mango the sheltie before and after
The before and after pictures shows the physical improvements Mango has undergone from his first day of adoption to close a year later.

Top: when I first came to mama. Bottom: after a year! So when I was first adopted, my prev owners got my shaved down so I looked like the above. After some major nutritional changes and regular grooming, I look like the bottom picture now! Although I think my fur got even longer already. And I gained some weight :( and my tail is touching the floor! Which sometimes get stepped on accidentally. :/ – @mangothesheltie

Of course, if your new adopted dog is nervous or worried, getting too close for a close up on his face can be an unpleasant experience for the dog. So plan your shots but plan to also react appropriately to the circumstances. If the dog is unwilling, don’t force it and make his/her first day with you a bad experience. :)

Now, even though we adopted an adult dog and were not privy to her growing up years, Gentle Paws did have a few photos that documented Donna as a 2 month old at the shelter, and at 6 months, a nervous, lanky puppy in her previous adopted home.

donna puppy
Donna at 2 months, Donna at 6 months and Donna as an adult look so different from one another!

Puppies grow up so quickly so be sure to take some shots of your new puppy on that first day and also at various growth stages before they outgrow puppyhood. ;)

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4. First bath

If you’re finicky about household cleanliness, or if you adopt a badly-cared for dog from a less than responsible family that no longer wanted him, chances are you’ll want to give him a bath and have him all nice and clean before the day is over.

Be sure to take a shot of your handiwork when the dog comes out all clean and shiny from his first bath!

sheldon puppy
Here’s stray puppy Sheldon adopted at estimated two months, still small enough to fit in the sink at the time. :P Afraid he’s too big for that now!

I didn’t realize that I have such an innocent face back then – @situkangnyampah

Some nice bath pictures, though not first day home :P – Tugger and Toby

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5. Meeting the human family

Some dogs are nervous and easily worried. Like Donna, her first reaction was to evade and slink away when our other family members tried to meet her for the first time. So let the dog take her time to approach new family members at her own pace.

Depending on the nature of the meeting, it could result in a photo of a dog tentatively meeting a new human or a cosy photo like this of Cotton the Maltese safe in the human’s mother’s arms. Regardless, it’s a photo that documents not just the beginnings of a new relationship, but also a moment in a loved one’s life, so capture it!

cotton maltese
Cotton the maltese who has a seizure risk and cannot be left alone for more than 4 hours at a time on her first day home.

This photo was taken an hour after the volunteers left our house during Cotton’s first day into her home stay period… Even with us being almost complete strangers, cotton laid in my mum’s arms, perhaps knowing that she’s in her forever home and safe now. – @cottonthemaltese

Other first day home family photos: Lycan with his dad

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6. Meeting the other pet siblings

Integrating a new pet into a household with other pets make for an interesting or, in Mango’s case, a rather scary experience.

mango shetland sheepdog meets scary cat

When I first met The Boss of the house. I’m sorry to report that right after this picture, I peed, frozen in place. Now he doesn’t scare me anymore (he doesn’t mind me), unlike the other fat one. – @mangothesheltie

I’m sorry for Mango, but I also have to say candid shots like this one that captured his expressiveness are memorable. :P I’m glad he has since gotten on well enough with the feline boss of the flat.

When taking photos of new pets meeting their other furry siblings, be sure to have other humans be on hand to manage the pets so they don’t hurt each other, just in case they couldn’t get along at first sight!

Other first day home sibling photos: Witty and Abbey

Only dog in the family? How about a photo with dog’s first toy? :) Before it gets shredded :P

brownie the toy poodle

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7. What the dog did on his first day home

Capture the most memorable thing your dog will do on his first day home. Could be wriggling around on the floor, chewing forbidden furniture, etc.

Cookie’s first day at home! It’s been eight months! Right after he came in, he was busy running around the house and jumping around due to his high energy, and lack of exposure to outside (other than his old home) Resting after feeling tired from the ‘exercise’ –  @somewhitecookie

And of course, the human had to take a candid shot of the aftermath of Cookie’s zoomiessome white cookie japanese spitz
K, I’m dog tired now. 

Donna also had the zoomies on her first day home, but with regular exercise, zoomies in the house are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, I was too busy freaking out at the time as a dog idiot so I don’t have a photo of that scene!! :P

So yes, take snaps of whatever interesting thing the dog is doing, because you never know if you’ll miss that picture later on.

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8. Feeling more comfortable at home

One of the best kind of picture to take, is this – the new dog feeling comfortable at home. ;) ‘Nough said.

donut the westie

Felt at home instantly – @donutthewestie

 

9. The dog’s expressions

You may be bringing home an innocent happy puppy, or you may be bringing home a rescue who will look sort of worried.

That is natural, so don’t sweat it.

When dog has become more comfortable with the presence of the camera, capture his/her expressions to remember what the dog felt that day. It’s a good way to remember but be sure to embrace a future where the dog will look more happy and confident with you.

mongrel puppy and sheltie
Left: Witty | Right: Mango

 

10. First night at home

It is likely that the new dog will spend much of her time sleeping. It’s a coping mechanism with the stress of being in a new place.

Take photos of what the dog is doing on her first night home. And if she just happens to be sleeping, these photos can turn out to be super cute!

corgi and mongrel puppies
Top: Toby | Bottom: Abbey

This is me sleeping the very first night my parents brought me home, they were so anxious that I could not sleep so mummy gave me a star star to accompany me. To their surprise I slept soooo soundly thru the night! – @tobymycorgi

I’m not sure if most people, like us, didn’t really plan to take photos of dog’s first day home. So whatever photos we have are not of great quality. But I’m sure with a little planning, you can take good memorable photos of the new puppy or dog that you plan to bring home.

So have fun with your dog’s first day home. Take pictures but be mindful of the dog’s level of comfort with the camera. Some dogs hate the camera.

The main thing is have a great time with your new dog and make him feel at home. ;)

Do you have other great photo ideas that you wouldn’t miss taking on dog’s first day home? Share with me in the comments! Thanks!

Singapore Dogs on Instagram – Show us your dog’s first day home was like! Details here.

dogs first day home collage

 

*All photos reproduced with the kind permission of the original authors of the photos. 

Better Pet Photography – Tips & photo apps!

Love taking pictures of your dog?

Sometimes, you can just crop and turn a bad picture into a good one.

But other times, the lighting may not have been fantastic… Or the picture seemed off… but You just L-O-V-E the way your dog looked in it.

Is there a way to make the photo better?

see the difference in your pet photography - before and after!

Photo apps to enhance your photos

Sure! If you took the photo on your mobile phone, here’s some mobile photo app effects that could possibly help spruce up that photo! They are useful too for normal non-pet photos as well. Haha!

Apps to manipulate light

Apps to manipulate colour

Apps to make the photo artistic

 

Themes in Pet Photography

Now if you prefer #unfiltered and apps are not something you’re keen to use.

Or you already have some awesome pics of your dog, and you’re running out of ideas how to take a different photo.

Maybe your photos of your dog look the same all the time – same pose, same expression, boring! You might wanna check out some great examples of photos of dogs along these different themes below. For inspiration. :)

Pet photography themes

Hope you find these resources useful.

We’ll be back with more awesome dog photos next week  in our Pet Photography Themes series.

*I’m just taking a break from it this week because I’m wasn’t feeling well over the weekend, and so was unable to work on it. Sorry! :P 

9 quirky dogs catching things #catchseries

Doggy facial expressions can change in a blink of an eye. And unless you film a slow-motion video like this Pedigree ad (Phantom Camera at a 1000 FPS (frames per second) ), a lot of the dog’s emotional and facial expressions could be missed.

“I noticed that my dogs make the funniest faces when catching treats,” says Aki (@bordernerd), who shares photos of her two retired search and rescue dogs on Instagram. “So I decided to photograph them catching different things … balls, kibbles, treats and such. Bubbles gave me the funniest pictures.” – souce instagram blog

#catchseries dogs catching things

And that was the start of the #catchseries on Instagram.

I love how pictures taken of these dogs when they are fixated on catching treats or toys flying at them could end up showing a range of different expressions. Whether it’s your own dog or somebody elses’, perhaps there will be some cute and quirky expressions that make you laugh when you look at them time and time again.

Here are 9 different dogs with their different expressions when faced with a flying object heading for them! ;)

 

9 quirky dogs catching things #catchseries

 


pit bull dog catching things
\\ Wondrous things fly here //
Bella

Pit bull. Female. 2-years-old. New Jersey, USA.


pit bull dog catching things
I am a ninja! Ooops!
Max
Pit bull. Male. 3-years-old. New Jersey, USA.
Available for adoption at Ferndog Rescue Foundation. He loves to play.


miniature pinscher dog catching things
I fly… like in the Matrix. 
Pepper
Miniature Pinscher. Female. 4.5-years-old. Rescue. Los Angeles, USA.
Pepper was rescued from a high-kill shelter in Los Angeles at around 8 months old. Her foster mom Wendy fell in love with the very sick and fearful puppy. Pepper has not looked back since she was adopted by Wendy. She went to training lessons and her signature move is jumping up on Wendy’s command.


mix breed dog catching things
It’s coming. It’s coming. It’s coming 
Porter

Mix breed, maybe Dachshund-German shepherd. Male. 2-years-old. USA.

golden retriever dogs catching things
I got it. It’s cool.
Sammy
Golden Retriever. Male. 2-years-old. USA.
His buddies are Boomer, Alice and Neon. Ages 1-4.


border collie mix breed dog catching things
I just open me mouth and it will fly in. Easy.
Fugee

Border Collie mix. Female. 3-years-old. Los Angeles, USA

shetland sheepdog catching things
I am gojira!
Alphie
Shetland Sheepdog. Male, 3-years-old. Taiwan.
He is a happy-go-lucky ball hog!

german pointer dog catching things
Imma… Imma… Imma…
Lexi
Germain Shorthair Pointer. Female. 10-months-old.


border collie dog catching things
It’s here! It’s here! What do I do? What do I do? It’s here!
Dewey

Border Collie. Male, 5-years-old. Rescue. Springfield, USA.

So many different interesting expressions, yah?

Let’s make a #catchseries photo!

So I’ve been trying to make a #catchseries photo for days now and I have to say, my failure rate is really high!

Here are the outtakes for the first attempt outside during our morning walk.

donna dog catching things outtakes
Outtakes

Problems

  1. My aiming is really poor so you see Donna’s head going sideways.
  2. My timing is really poor so Donna usually has caught the treat when my camera takes the photo.
  3. If I throw high, Donna tends to leap out of the frame so her head gets cut off.
  4. If I throw low, the shot is usually blur since I don’t have the time to hold the camera steady before clicking.
  5. The treat I was using was really light so it kept blowing away in the wind before Donna could catch it! Haha!

You know what?

I either need a tripod or a second person helping me to throw treats. Or both! … And heavier treats, of course.

This is the only somewhat sharp action shot coming out from that session.

donna dog catching things
Do you really have to take pictures when somebody is trying to snatch treats from the air, human?

donna dog tracking things
The lighting was even worse indoors, so the only somewhat sharp shot came from Donna keeping still tracking the flying treat just before jumping for it. Haha!

So I took it outside for one last try on the balcony.

donna dog catching things outtakes
Outtakes

donna dog catching things
Finally, a shot that I am pleased with more because of the way the photo is cropped than the quality of the capture. Oops ! And no she’s tracking but not catching the kibble yet. So I suppose it doesn’t really count as a #catchseries photo! – – The backlighting was obviously an issue but the over exposure did show up that flying kibble really well. :P

In conclusion, I guess the #catchseries of photos can only be executed well if you really spend some time to set up, take control of the lighting, have the camera stable and maybe an extra hand to help throw treats well.

Oh, and a dog that likes to catch treats, regardless of whether he is a good catcher or not. Haha! (Yes, I have been told today that some dogs actually don’t try to catch a treat thrown at them. Imagine that!)

Ending off with funny videos of dogs who aren’t so good at catching stuff ;) At least, they try!


via Barkpost – 6 insane videos of dogs catching things

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Do you have any tips for getting a good photo of your dog catching treats?

Perhaps a good action shot app for mobile photography?
Or a camera with canine face recognition! How well do those work anyway?
Share a photo if you have one!

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References
These dogs trying to catch things are awkwardly perfect
@bordernerd’s canine #catchseries

 

Note This post is in no way an endorsement or recommendation of the Pedigree brand of pet food to you. I only used the video because it was very well made, regardless of what pet food brand it is advertising. We do not feed Donna this brand of pet food.

Copyright and fair usage
With the exception of the black and white photos in this post belonging to me, all photos on this post are copyrighted to their respective authors. The first image is derivative of all most of the represented authors, so I imagine each author would have rights to the specific portion of the image they created. 

They have generously agreed for me to use their photos on this article. If you feel that I have misrepresented you in any way, please let me know and I will amend ;)

I picked the photos based on the image and concept and also only if the creator is happy for me to used their photos. While it was difficult to have a representative mix internationally, I’m glad that there was a mix of some different dog breeds. 

The photographers’ Instagram user names are clearly identified on the bottom right corner of each photo so you can easily find them on Instagram. So feel free to go check out some gorgeous accounts ;)

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