Biscuit and Checke’s mum was lucky enough to score a session referred by Alexis, whose four Greyhounds I photographed early last year. Initially we’d decided just to photograph Biscuit, as they’d never had much luck getting good photos of his big sister Checke. They brought her along anyway though and, well, you’ll see what happened!
To begin with though, meet Biscuit.
The session took place at a park on Mount Tamborine and after scoping out the area and deeming it safe, Biscuit was let off lead. Not 5 minutes into our session, he spotted a rabbit! Luckily with some quick thinking by Mechalle and excellent training, Biscuit was recalled and a crisis averted. Anyone who owns or is familiar with sight hounds will know this is not an easy feat!
After a bit of a shaky start to life, originating from an unplanned litter which could not be registered as racing dogs and with no less than four different homes by the age of 11 weeks, Biscuit found his way into the home of Mechalle and husband Graeme.
At just 3 and a half years old, he’s actually officially known as Biscuit CCD JDX SD SPD ET – which means he has titles in agility, obedience AND endurance. In fact, he holds the honour of being the first Greyhound in Queensland with the ET (endurance) title and the second in Australia!
What a clever boy!
With all this training under his collar, he also makes a fantastic model, staying just where we put him and responding beautifully to treats and toys being tossed around. Of course there were birds in the trees to check out too…
Big sister Checke is had a somewhat different start in life. She raced until she was three and a half, then retired. Mechalle and Graeme fostered her and when it was time to move onto her forever home, she had something to say about it – protesting very loudly – until it was decided that she would stay on with her favourite person in the world, Graeme.
On previous occasions when trying for photos, Checke had been a most unwilling model. She seemed to be a lot more relaxed outdoors though (previous attempts had been in a studio) and my sneaky long lens proved a real advantage.
Mechalle noted that Checke never sits down like this but we figured out it must have been because she was on a steep hill, how funny!
Checke was also quite happy lying down in the grass, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. What a stunning old girl she is at 10 years old.
Towards the end of the session, we managed to get both dogs sitting and laying down in the general vicinity of each other. If there is something I love most about photographing Greyhounds, it’s that they’re usually quite content to stay in the same place for a while, with very little encouragement!
To finish off, how awesome are Checke’s ears! One up, one down.
Checke and Biscuit were both adopted through a great Greyhound rescue organisation called Friends of the Hound. To find out more about adopting a Greyhound of your own, please check out Friends of the Hound Greyhound Adoption Group. They do fantastic work!
