But My Dog Does It at Home! Why Training in New Places Matters

I was recently listening to a podcast featuring a dog trainer from Australia, and something he said immediately made me think about my photography clients.

It was one of those light bulb moments where suddenly something I see all the time during photo sessions made perfect sense.

Let me start at the beginning.

When a client reaches out to schedule a session with me, one of the questions I ask is about their dog's training and behavior. Most pet parents tell me their dog knows the basics—sit, stay, down, etc.

And before we go any further, let me make something very clear:

Your dog does NOT need to be perfectly trained to have a photography session with me.

Trust me. I've photographed dogs who sit beautifully and dogs whose interpretation of "sit" is more along the lines of, "I'll consider your request and get back to you."

We can work with both.

But having a solid understanding of basic behaviors like sit, stay and down can definitely make a photography session easier—for the dog, the owner and the photographer.

Here's where things get interesting.

"But He Does It Perfectly at Home!"

Fast forward to the photo session.

We're in a new location. There are unfamiliar smells, sounds and people. Maybe we're outdoors with squirrels, dogs and interesting things happening around us. Or we're inside a studio the dog has never seen before, with lights, equipment, backdrops and a strange lady pointing a camera at them.

Suddenly...

"Sit."

Nothing.

"Sit."

Dog looks away.

"SIT."

Dog wanders off.

And I can see the owner's stress level beginning to rise.

Eventually I hear some version of:

"I don't understand. He does this perfectly at home!"

And THAT is the important part.

At home.

Dogs Don't Always Generalize the Way We Think They Do

The trainer on the podcast explained something that made this so incredibly clear.

Dogs are very good at associating a behavior with the environment in which they learned it.

You may have taught your dog to sit in your kitchen.

Then you practiced in the living room.

Maybe you practiced before meals or while standing in the same general area of your house.

Your dog becomes really good at it.

But then you take that same dog somewhere completely different and say "sit," and suddenly the picture has changed.

Different location.

Different smells.

Different sounds.

Different distractions.

Different surface under their feet.

Different person standing nearby with a camera.

The behavior you thought your dog completely understood may not actually be as universal to them as it is to you.

We think:

Sit means sit anywhere.

Our dogs may be thinking:

Wait...you mean that thing we do in the kitchen? You want me to do that HERE?

Teaching, Training, Proofing...and Maintaining

The trainer broke dog training down into stages that I thought were such a helpful way to look at it.

Teaching is introducing your dog to a new behavior and helping them understand what you're asking.

Training is repeating that behavior with clarity, structure and expectation until your dog understands it consistently.

Proofing is where we start changing the picture.

Now we practice that behavior in different locations and introduce things like:

• Distance

• Duration

• Distractions

• New environments

Can your dog sit in the kitchen?

Great.

Can they sit in the backyard?

How about the driveway?

At the park?

On a walking trail?

Outside a pet store?

While another dog walks past?

In a completely unfamiliar building?

Each time we change the environment or add a distraction, we're helping our dogs understand that "sit" means the same thing no matter where we are.

And then there's maintenance—continuing to practice those behaviors throughout your dog's life so they don't disappear simply because we stopped working on them.

One Thing I Did Right With Finn

Looking back at my own training journey with Finn, one thing I'm really glad I did was take her everywhere.

We practiced in new locations constantly.

We went to parks, stores and unfamiliar places. We worked around distractions. We practiced behaviors she already knew in environments where things suddenly weren't quite as easy.

At the time, I don't think I necessarily thought of it as "proofing."

I just knew that I wanted her exposed to different things and able to work with me wherever we went.

And that became incredibly valuable—especially when Finn eventually became my photography muse and model.

She learned that the behaviors I asked for weren't just things we did at home.

They traveled with us.

Why the Studio Can Be Especially Challenging

I think this concept becomes even more important with studio photography.

A studio can be a VERY strange place for a dog.

It's an unfamiliar, enclosed space. There may be photography lights, flashes, backdrops, equipment, noises and smells they've never encountered before.

And unlike an outdoor session where we can walk around and give the dog some space to explore, the studio is a much smaller environment.

Some dogs walk in like they own the place.

Others need time to figure it out.

Neither response is wrong.

But if your dog has never practiced their familiar behaviors somewhere unfamiliar, asking them to suddenly sit, stay and relax in a photography studio can be a pretty big request.

So Here's Something I Want My Future Clients to Know

If you're planning a photography session with me and you're thinking:

"I'm not sure how my dog is going to react to the studio..."

Bring them by beforehand.

Seriously.

If you think your dog would benefit from visiting the studio before their photography session, I would be happy to arrange that.

Come in. Let them sniff around. Let them explore. Let them meet me without the pressure of having their photograph taken.

Practice a few sits.

Practice a down.

Practice staying in one spot.

And maybe most importantly, practice simply relaxing in the space.

If your dog needs more than one visit, that's okay too.

I'd much rather help your dog become comfortable with the environment ahead of time than have you both arrive on session day already worried about how things are going to go.

You Can Prepare for Outdoor Sessions, Too

If you're having an outdoor photography session, you can use the same idea.

If possible, take your dog for a walk in the area before your scheduled session.

Let them experience the smells, sounds and distractions when there's absolutely no pressure to perform.

On session day, arrive a little early. Take a walk. Let them sniff. Give them time to take in the environment.

Then practice some of the behaviors they already know.

Sit.

Stay.

Down.

Relax.

Reward them.

Have fun with it.

You're simply helping your dog understand:

"Oh! We do these things here, too."

Your Dog Doesn't Have to Be Perfect

The point of all of this isn't to turn your dog into an obedience champion before their photography session.

I don't need a perfect dog.

And I certainly don't expect one.

Part of my job as a pet photographer is knowing how to work with dogs who wiggle, wander, get distracted, need breaks or decide that the squirrel 40 feet away is significantly more interesting than anything I'm doing.

But there's another part of the equation that I think we sometimes forget:

We need to help our dogs understand what we're asking of them.

If they've only practiced a behavior in one environment, we can't necessarily expect them to understand it everywhere else.

So the next time you ask your dog to sit somewhere new and they stare at you like they've never heard that word before, remember...

They may not be ignoring you.

They may simply be looking at an entirely new picture.

And that's where the next part of training begins.