In the mud

This is Hudson. Hudson is normally a golden retriever, but here he is covered in mud. For a recent shoot he was trained to roll on his back and wiggle - in the mud. Well, as we started training we soon found out that Hudson wasn't THAT crazy about rolling onto his back in actual real life mud - so we had to create a dry area, an island if you will, of dry mud surrounded by wet mud, so it looks like he is rolling in the mud! This is from a training session. You can hear me yelling in the background, I am asking him to "speak" as this makes him "wiggle" for some reason. All of these things you discover when you start the training process. Also if I ask him for his foot (which he is trained to lift when in a sitting position) he would throw his leg out and generally look like he is having a grand old time.

The actual shoot was hard - he had to do this time and time again and with other dogs running into the "mud puddle". Needless to say I was covered in mud by the end of the day, and quite tired.

The clip below is from another training session where the dogs have to run into the puddle (we made this puddle at work and it was quote gross)...Most of the dogs didn't mind doing this, in fact we tried to cast dogs that we knew would like it.

Hard working Labs!

Smith in a recent car commercial, shot in Santa Barbara

Since my return to Los Angeles from Louisiana, Smith and Jones have booked quite a few jobs. I had a wonderful day at a beautiful park on a lake just outside of Santa Barbara. It was crisp and cold and just a perfect day for a drive up the coast and a couple of hours work. Then more recently I did a truck commercial with them up in Big Bear. Along the way and making a departure from the automotive industry, both the boys have done still shoots for two different kinds of dog foods/treats and if you pay attention, you may catch them in a Purina Dog Chow commercial that is currently airing. They are busy boys!!

Smith