Thanks to her doting Mum, my little girl Luna was lucky enough to score a custom design – it’s a cross between the Nightowl and the Asteroid Belt and has now been added to the product range as the Lunatic. It features blue and clear reflectors on black leather with silver fittings and I think you’ll agree, suits Miss Luna down to the ground.

The quality is second to none, the sheer weight and substance of these collars must be seen and held to be believed. The leather and stamping is high grade and the fittings are just so sturdy and well matched. I’ve had to ask Ruth to send me some business cards due to the number of comments and questions we get when out and about! Each collar is custom made to suit your dog with easy-to-follow neck measuring instructions sent before construction starts. They are so accurate, that out of the five holes for the buckle, the centre hole is the perfect fit. Best of all, Ruth posts her creations worldwide!

We opted for the Hands-free Leash in a matching design (clear reflectors), you’ll find some images at the bottom of the blog post with myself and Luna modelling this setup. Fantastic idea and we use it like this so often! Thanks to my brother Andrew for taking the shots of Luna and I.

Without further ado, here’s the images of Miss Luna herself modelling the collar and lead and actually not doing too bad of a job, for Luna! I think she’s stepping up her game a bit with the modelling lately, taking after her big sister Kaya. Enjoy!

Miss Luna as had her very own doggy photo blog for a while now, carried on from when Kaya was around. If you’d like to see more of Luna and keep up to date with her latest adventures, join her new Facebook Page for extra photos, videos and fun facts. Luna loves her fans!

I just love the colour and texture of the deck which brings out her melting chocolate brown eyes.

She had the full range of expressions too, from the super cute puppy dog look…

To the happy-go-lucky, “I’ll do anything for a treat!” look…

Her colouring and markings means she looks just as good in black and white!

After hanging out in the backyard for a while, it was time to venture into the park for some chasing ball games, plus a quick bit of modelling on the park bench, complete with well-timed gust of wind to send those furry ears flying. Anyone would think we set up a fan!

Then it was back to the deck for a bit more modelling in the late afternoon light.

Before heading inside to check out the light there. Luckily there were some nice big windows, so Pippi got to pose on the couch.

The white tiled floor under a big skylight also made for some gorgeous light we just couldn’t pass up. I think Pippi was really getting the hang of the modelling part at this stage, and pulled out some cracker expressions for the camera.

With all the hard work over, it was time for some fun! In true spaniel style, Pippi just loves the water and couldn’t wait to get wet.

Diving into the pool enthusiastically after her ball, making for some really fun splashing shots!

What a girl! I just loved Pippi.

“This is Lupe our 22 month blue boy. He is the center of our world and knows it. He love the dog park and the beach (but not the waves – still cant swim). Poor baby has had a rough time this last year. We nearly lost him earlier this year when he got pneumonia and spent a week in ICU. A few weeks ago he got bit on the hind leg by another dog at the spit (beach) and had to go back to the same hospital for surgery to open the wound up. Thankfully despite being spoilt rotten he’s a trooper.”

I’d actually already been in contact with Lupe’s owner as we were going to organise a play date with our two blue babies, so it was an added bonus to be able to tell her that she’d also won the competition!

I visited Lupe and his devoted Mum and Dad in Brisbane on a fine summer afternoon. They had a fabulous back deck that we spent a while hanging out on.

Being a blue Great Dane, he felt quite similar to photograph to my own Luna, except maybe a tad more photogenic and not so prone to pulling silly faces!

In fact he is a rather serious looking boy most of the time.

Who still manages to be super cute when it’s called for.

And very good at the head tilt! Most dogs have a particular sound they do this to, for Lupe it was a quiet high pitched whistle, very effective!

Lupe has an unusual ridge running down the back of his neck – as someone cleverly pointed out – a mohawk!

Along with at matching little strip of white on his chest, very classy.

After the serious modelling business was over, we took Lupe for a walk to his fabulous local park.

Where he said hello to the equine resident…

Puzzled over his Dad up a tree…

Said goodbye to the horsie…

Then topped it off with a guzzle from the drinking station, in true Great Dane style.

If you want to see more photos from Lupe’s session, visit his gallery on Facebook.

Dallas the black Labrador is just one and a half, and already she and her Mum have a visible bond.

Wherever her Mum was, Dallas was sure to be found – well except when she was off meeting and greeting other dogs like your typical friendly Labrador!

Sometimes shooting into the light can be as rewarding as shooting with it, and the following couple of shots are no exception, probably my favourites from the session.

You just can’t beat the crisp clean feel of early morning light at the beach though.

I was warned that Dallas was ‘just a bit obsesssed’ with tennis balls, and she soon found one to bring to us, demanding a game.

Who could resist this look?

As you can probably tell by the sand all over her nose, Dallas was justly rewarded for her patient modelling with lots of ball throwing.

What a beautiful, happy girl. We had such a fun morning, thanks guys!

For some reason, you don’t often see many brindle coloured Danes, it’s probably about the rarest of the showable colours. This gorgeous guy was the only one in attendance on the day.

Fawns generally dominate the showing scene and this show was no exception.

A beautifully marked harlequin – note the pure white background and glossy black patches that have a ‘torn edge’ appearance.

Speaking of glossy black!

The baby puppies are always entertaining to watch, this one was very well behaved and stood nicely while the judge examined her.

Another pretty puppy in black along with one of my favourite fawn girls.

The dogs have to show how well they move as part of the judging process, the girl above girl was flying along and looked amazing.

To finish off, another harlequin. This was her first show back after giving birth to 11 puppies!

For more information about this show, please see the results here and a gallery of all photos here.

The location this time around is the beautiful Berry Island Reserve near Wollstonecraft in Sydney. What a beautiful location – it had it all! The exposed sandstone near the water’s edge had the most amazing colours and bright green moss too.

There is a cute little cove on the harbour complete with sandstone, sandy beaches, shells and pebbles and even little rowboats dragged up on the beach to allow people to access their boats moored in the harbour. By the way, how much more grown up does Boo look, compared to his photos of three months ago?

Some people arrived in their little boat while we were there and Boo was instantly captivated.

A captivated dog is a good dog! Sometimes it’s the perfect recipe for getting them to stand still and focus for more than two seconds at a time. What a handsome boy he’s grown into.

The shot on the left wins hands down as my favourite from the session.

Gotta love that early morning light.

Just to give some perspective, here’s one that almost-but-not-quite made the final cut… what a silly cute boy Boo is!

And for even more perspective, this is what we saw of Boo for about 90% of the session…

Asha the American Staffordshire Terrier is just over a year old, definitely the baby of the family. Although young and very playful and active, Asha is quite clever and quickly worked out just what I wanted from her. A very focused girl when there are treats on offer, she discovered the how to work the vending machine (me) and developed into the perfect little doggy model.

I couldn’t resist getting a shot of her frog impression.

What a pretty girl!

Doggy details.

Asha loves her beanbag and posed beautifully on it for me.

No furniture is out of bounds for these lucky pooches (sounds a bit like my house) so we tried some shots on the great vintage lounge seat.

After the serious business of modelling, we headed down to the yard for some relaxing and playtime.

When her beloved Great Dane boy Xander sadly passed away, she decided that now was the time for her to treat herself to a puppy, after so many years of taking on adult dogs and foster failures.

So, meet Giselle! Giselle is a beautiful merle mantle girl with big brown eyes, the cutest black and pink muzzle and a most endearing expression. Never fear though, she knows how to assert herself in her pack as well!

Those big brown eyes look amazing in both colour and black and white.

Love those little white whiskers!

As a final note, Giselle is a total water baby, and super smart too! She loves playing with the garden hose and actually grabs it in her mouth, hauls it over to her water bowl and fills the bowl with water. Don’t believe me? Check out this video of Giselle when she was younger, doing exactly that. Plus more of Giselle and her water-baby ways.

Last week I had the pleasure of heading up to Brisbane to have lunch with Narelle and spending some time taking pics of all the little munchkins in both litters for her website. Nineteen in total! I was in heaven. I get to go back when they are four weeks old and take some more. They will be running around by then so something tells me it will be a bit more of a challenge.

Being a harlequin litter (the Great Dane colour of white with black patches), it’s always a bit of a lottery to see what comes out. Generally there will be harlequins, blacks (with varying amounts of white markings on the feet and chest), mantles (also called bostons) and merles (the mousey grey colour), with variations including whites, merle mantles and lightly marked merles, often called ‘merlequins’.

Narelle and co-breeder Stordansk Great Danes was lucky to get a total of seven nicely marked harlequins out of nineteen puppies, which is quite good! Always depending on conformation (how they are structured), the showable colours are harlequins, blacks (the less white the better) and mantles. Unfortunately the merles are not a showable colour in Australia, though I think they are gorgeous.

You can see all the photos here – Keisha’s litter – Jazzie’s litter – and read and see more about the dams and sire here. In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite shots.

All the puppies minus one, from one of the litters.

What a face! Don’t you just want to kiss his nose? This is a mismarked mantle/black puppy.

One litter had a total of five harlequins – four girls and one boy. Due to the way the genes work, harlequins will almost always display some merle patches along with black patches.

Gorgeous little merle mantle.

This merle boy was the chubbiest of the lot.

The only male harlequin out of 19 puppies, this little guy is pretty special.

A ‘merlequin’ (harlequin marked merle) and his merle mantle brother. These two mirrored, I have an number of photos with them doing the exact same pose mirrored, right next to each other!

Expect more photos at the end of May!

I wasn’t too worried however as the Great Dane Club of NSW held their bi-annual Championship Show on the Sunday which I had the pleasure of photographing. So many beautiful dogs made my job super easy and I thought I would share a few of my favourites.

A couple of gorgeous mantles (bostons in the USA).

Another stunning mantle boy on the move.

I love this moment between this big baby boy and his ‘mummy’.

Another of her baby boys.

A cute little blue girl from the same breeder as my Luna, see any family resemblance?

She is such a bright, alert girl and totally up for a cuddle when I went to say hello later on.

Big blue boy with the most lovely quiet personality (excuse the tongue out, it was quite a warm and steamy day).

Fawns always outnumber the other colours and this show was no exception. This boy took out Best in Show.

With his daughter taking out Runner-Up!

The structure and look of a Great Dane’s head is quite an important aspect of judging and is something the judge pays careful attention to.

This fawn female took out the honours in the special class of Best Head. Although the cropping of ears is illegal in Australia, handlers will often hold the ears up to enable the judge a better view of the outlines and shape of the head.

One of my favourite fawn girls.

Looking spectacular on the move.

Lined up for judging.

Last up is this beautiful little black girl. What a cutie!

For more Great Dane show photos, just head on over to my site www.greatdaneshowphotos.com and click the Sydney April 2009 link.