Get lucky: How to handle 5 German shepherds in Spokane

Every time my husband sees me working on a gallery of German shepherds, he gets a little mopey and says, “I want one.”

The German shepherd is his favorite breed, barring of course the Maremma sheepdog.

There’s just one problem: The Maremma sheepdog doesn’t enjoy your typical version of “play.”

My two-legged best friend would love a playful German shepherd puppy.

For about 15 minutes.

Then the energy levels wouldn’t match up, and I would be laughing at him.

5 of my favorite German shepherds

German shepherds aren’t even the most energetic of that type of working dog. Maybe that title would go to the Malinois? My brother, who has a husky-Mal mix, would probably agree.

And the ones I’ve come across are very well trained.

Especially these five German shepherds, who are retired service dogs, active service dogs and service dogs in training.

They all belong to one woman, my friend Laura, who I’ve featured here before. Laura is the founder of the Northwest Service Dog Alliance and advocates for humans with service dogs.

How does she handle five German shepherds? Plus one chocolate Labrador, Little One?

Good grief, I don’t know. My guess is separately.

Of course, it’s the only way we’ve been able to get great dog photos of these German shepherds. Here’s a peek at each one of them:

1. Lobo the elder

2. Vinny, my main man

3. Jazzlo, the bitchy one

4. Zenith, the girl puppy

5. Zander, the boy puppy

What a striking bunch, eh?

Jazzlo, Zenith and Zander have all been wonderful assistants in the Embark shooting challenge, put on by my friends Charlotte Reeves and Craig Turner-Bullock at Unleashed Education.

For the challenge, I’ve been given a different theme every two weeks and out of eight adjudicated rounds, I’ve made the top 10 twice and the top 20 four times.

It’s a great bit of fun, although it can be stressful trying to make sure I follow the instructions of the theme (y’all know me … I’m a rulebreaker!). It’s certainly stretching my skills and it’s also giving me cool ideas to shoot for (pun intended) when I’m creating galleries.

All around the circle

Each one of those German shepherds are gorgeous. Damn beautiful.

And I’m so very fortunate to have access to these dogs. They’re well trained, reaction-proof, sit beautifully and know me well enough to engage with me and my lens.

I even get my fill of puppy snuggles and kisses.

The German shepherd is a popular breed in Spokane, although I saw heelers the most last summer for my first book project, the “Paws of the Panhandle.”

In the meantime, my friends in the worldwide pet photography circle are talking about their luck, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day next week. Let’s head to the mid-west and meet Minnesota dog photographer About A Dog Photography who introduces you to dogs who are going to get lucky this month.

When you get to the bottom of Cahlean’s post, click the next link in the circle and then keep going to magical places like Sacramento, Seattle and Tampa until you find yourself back here to five gorgeous German shepherds.

That’s when you know you’re home. 

Right where you belong.