I tolerate their subscription, despite the magazine being published by the dirty bears in Berkley … sssssssssss … and the rather granola overtones of some of the articles.  And I have to admit that since I first discovered the magazine in the bathroom at the after-party of my first Frisbee dog tournament, I’ve always wanted my mutts to grace the centerfold with their smiling faces.

What a great concept, two full pages of loved and spoiled dogs captured in those moments that stay with us long after the dogs themselves are gone; the moments we miss when we can’t have them anymore.

So at dusk the night Celeste was due to give birth I snapped some photos of her outside on the hill in the backyard.  It was fortuitous that she was in pre-labor and panting, as my previous attempts to catch her with her mouth open and smiling were unsuccessful.  Neither of us slept that night and twenty four hours and a snow storm later we were back at home with six new puppies.  Two of them have never left.

Celeste on the lawn by AstraeanBorderCollies

Exactly five weeks later, I mocked up an impromptu photo studio in the corner of the den: made from repurposed desk lamps, a bed sheet, and some high gloss (but not pee proof) card stock.  Hold the shutter down long enough and even squirrely little puppies who think they’re getting abducted by aliens will give you a great shot.

Mercury has a sense of humor by AstraeanBorderCollies

In a quiet moment I dashed off a quick e-mail to The Bark with the above photos attached and when each new magazine came, I immediately flipped to the centerfold and scanned every line for my little cuties to be smiling back.  I even checked the smiling dogs gallery on the website.  It never happened.

Then, months later I got a letter from Claudia Kawczynska saying that my photos were finalists for publication in an upcoming Smiling Dog book, pending editor approval. Well, approval came and Mercury and Celeste are both featured in DogJoy: The Happiest Dogs in the Universe.

Don’t worry, if you missed out on having your pooch in the book, you can buy one customized with your dog on the cover. How great is that?  Here’s a preview that includes Mercury’s full page portrait. Buy one! or twenty.

It’s flattering that my regular readership has grown from 15 a year ago to over 55 today. And even more satisfying, you guys actually leave comments now. Perhaps it won’t be long until some sheeple and showple will speak up and actually debate what I have to say. I like to be challenged, I like to debate. This doesn’t seem to be the norm. The sheeple and showple have left some links from their own forums, but they seem a bit scared to bring the debate on to my turf. Weenies.

Outside the blog it’s been a great year in dogdom. I’ve bred and found excellent homes for a litter of puppies, I’ve expanded my brood from two dogs to four, and I’ve even studded out Dublin to another breeder. Becoming a breeder has been a very rewarding experience and I feel much more invested in the breed now that my theories aren’t just academic. The experience has also allowed me to talk with numerous other Border Collie breeders and trace my dogs’ lines all the way back to the beginning of the ISDS registry.

In the coming year I hope to enter Dublin and Celeste in Agility tournaments and make gains toward their Agility championships. The only thing holding us back is the Weave Polls. We’ll continue our Frisbee and perhaps work up a Freestyle routine. I’d like to find some time to get back to training on stock, although the best weekends for training on stock are usually taken up with tournaments.

When the pups are 18-months-old midyear, I’d also like to get them started with agility work and I’ve neglected their trick training so I want to make up for lost time and get them clicker savvy in the mean time. The biggest challenge is giving them individual time and separating them from the pack. Mercury has the makings of an amazing Frisbee dog as he loves the disc and he has an amazing jump. Gemma is still figuring out what she likes to do, although she’s finally asserting herself when I toss the tennis ball. She enjoys getting the ball so much that she usually runs off and gloats with it before she’ll bring it back.

Time seems to flow faster and faster each year and despite all that has happened in 2008, it doesn’t really feel like it’s been a whole year. As so many things seem to be falling apart and descending into chaos, I’m really fortunate to have so much to be thankful for in my dogs.

Seeing that I’m right in the middle of a crusade against corruption, I’m really in the wrong state of mind to write something feel-good and uplifting for inclusion in the book; although if my efforts and the efforts of those I’m working for and with are successful, more than 30 people will have a chance at rebuilding their lives. If that day comes, it sure will be uplifting and feel-good, but the road there involves a lot of hard work, legal strategy, and a good dose of luck.

So I submitted a few photos instead.

I’ve had a lot of luck with photo contests, winning the John Fielder out door photography contest with a photo I took of Red Rocks, Colorado and First Place Architectural and Best In Show in a national competition for an image I took of the Temple of Neptune in Paestum, Italy. Recently, my work was featured on the cover of the International Disc Dog calendar.

Unfortunately, photography is really the rich-man-poor-artist’s art form. Sure, it takes an artist’s eye, but much of photography is simply capturing another artist’s work, be that artist an architect, a gardener, or Mother Nature. It’s not so much a creative process as much as it is a capturing process.

Whereas my previously appreciated photos have all been of someone else’s work, or even someone else’s dog (it’s really hard taking good action shots when it’s you who’s throwing the Frisbee or guiding the dog through the Agility course), the photos I submitted for the book are all of my own pups, most of them of the puppies I just bred since that’s the closest thing to original artwork you’re going to find in the dog world. Maybe one of them will make it in, although the odds are pretty stiff, there are over 1,500 uploads to the submission gallery and that doesn’t count any pix that were e-mailed or mailed in.

Here are the shots that I submitted for your enjoyment, it just might be the only place you’ll ever see them: