Today is as the title suggests, National Golden Retriever Day. I’d love to know how many of you out there, have or have owned a Golden Retriever?

Back in January 2019 I had the honour of photographing the very beautiful Belle. Only a youngster at the time think about 9 months old and a very much loved family pet but exceptionally well trained. All I can say about Belle, is that she was so graceful to photograph the session consisted of a variety of shots which did include some nice sitting/lying down shots. My clients often want a mix of posed and natural and there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Wherever possible I just let dogs just simply be dogs and leave them to explore their surroundings. As a dog photographer, I have to be pretty quick.

As it is National Golden Retriever Day, I thought I’d give you all a little fact about myself in my younger years. When I was 16-17 years old, I used to show Golden Retrievers at County level. The day before involved many hours of bathing and grooming the dogs going to the show, too high standards = show standard. I was just a mass of wet threw hair monster by the time I had finished. There were 3-4 dogs to get ready. Back in the day, I showed what I call a Honey coloured Retriever (similar colour to the Labs we call Fox Red), as he was a darker Golden colour in comparison to the standard light Golden ones. Sadly, the judges never really took to him, yet he was just so stunning with the most striking head he just never got placed – that’s the joys of showing!

I’ve also included a few images of a Golden Retriever working out in the field as you don’t them too often, well I haven’t in any case. First off thought, please do watch the short photo slideshow of Belle.