I continue to avoid sorting through several hundred photos of Venice, this time by going out for a walk with Wilf the dog and two of his friends Baggins and George.

I’ve written here before about Wilf’s neurotic character traits. He’s been examined and observed by a number of vets and dog psychology experts who have diagnosed his excessive obsessive tail chasing as various things such as epilepsy, and come up with various ways to cure him – none of which have worked. Fortunately with some recent work his tail chasing seems to be getting better, which is promising.

He’s also been diagnosed as exhibiting “extreme fear” when taken on a walk, which results in him not wanting to get out of the car, or leave the house unless it’s to get in a car. All this leaves Wilf as a bundle of pure energy (typical of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier breed) who gets little or no exercise.

When the opportunity to walk him with other dogs arises, it’s always worth a try – he seems less fearful when other dogs are around to take the lead (pardon the pun).

Here’s a rare photo of Wilf enjoying the great outdoors:

After the walk, we take Baggins and George back to my studio and attempt to get them to sit still for five minutes so I can photograph them. Once again I had issues with the optical triggers on the Vivitar flashes – you would think I would have learned by now and given up.

Meet Baggins:

Baggins is the Brother of Bailey and Simba, who I photographed a couple of years ago – back before Wilf had developed the worst of his current psychological traits.

And this is George, who lives with Baggins:

Two dogs at once is difficult in the extreme – I hoped to get a photo of them together but all my efforts were in vain. Sit still you buggers!!!

When I do eventually process and post my pictures from Venice, you’ll see I’ve developed an apparent obsession with panoramic photos. This seems to have continued after my return, with this one resulting from the walkies with the doggies.

Click on it for a larger version, go on, you know you want to.

Following his needless slaughter of a soft toy earlier this week, Wilf felt very guilty, and went to sit in the corner.

His favourite T-shirt is a fitting item given his behaviour.

Huge amounts of bribery are required to get Wilf to sit still for a minute, luckily he’ll do pretty much anything for cheese!

This photo may look like the precursor to a savage dog attack, but he’s actually gobbling a thrown bit of cheddar out of the air!

Good dog. Stay.

After lots and lots and lots of white paint, I now have my garage/studio finished, allowing me to force poor unsuspecting idiots in and then I take photos of them. Bwwwwahhhhhaaahahaha. Fools.

First victim is Wilf the dog, he’s so cute, after taking this photo I ate him.

Abby’s little nephew Jack is born, and following my practice with flowers and with a doggy it was time to step up and photograph some real people… gulp!

Luckily little Jack was an angel, and his parents didn’t mind me saying ‘um… left…. er… no i mean right… er… look this way, no this way, no this way.. er… umm……’ at them, and we got some good ones out of the whole excercise!