I made sure that everything was set-up and ready before introducing Jodie to the room. Then when Jodie was in the room, Lynsey and I spent some time with her playing with a tennis ball and a ‘tug’. She wasn’t particularly bothered by the strange equipment around her or the background paper on the floor and playing made her feel more at ease. I guess it’s all about spending the time to allow the subject to naturally get used to a new environment and become more relaxed (this is probably very true for humans too, except perhaps without the tennis ball!); it’s best not to rush into taking photos. As you can see by her placid poses in the last six shots she became completely used to the environment and was content with just spending some time with us in a different room. We removed the thought that something exciting or different was happening – dogs react to the way you behave; you must be calm and relaxed too.