Big Dog, Little Dog PDF
Preview Big Dog, Little Dog
Also by Seth Casteel Underwater Dogs Underwater Puppies Underwater Babies Pounce It’s a Puppy’s Life An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC penguinrandomhouse.com Copyright © 2020 by Seth Casteel Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. Photographs by Seth Casteel LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA has been applied for. ISBN 9780593183663 (hardcover) ISBN 9780593183687 (ebook) Accordingly nothing in this book is intended as an express or implied warranty of the suitability or fitness of any product, service, or design. The reader wishing to use a product, service, or design discussed in this book should first consult a specialist or professional to ensure suitability and fitness for the reader’s particular life style and environmental needs. pid_prh_5.6.0_c0_r0 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO DOGS, THE HAPPIEST CREATURES ON EARTH. CONTENTS Cover Also by Seth Casteel Title Page Copyright Dedication Introduction Photographs Acknowledgments About the Author INTRODUCTION A S A DOG ENTHUSIAST, I am fascinated with everything about dogs, and I explore these fascinations through photography. Not all of these fascinations are worthy of a published book of course, and I’m sure you would agree that a book filled with pictures of my dog Nala playing hide-and-seek with me may not end up on your coffee table, but it would end up on mine! One of my greatest fascinations about dogs is their appearance. Dogs are a species with tremendous physical diversity—coat color and pattern, type of fur, length of muzzle, to name a few. Walking into a dog park with a hundred dogs present, one could assume there were dozens of species of animals frolicking around. And while one is admiring this group of a hundred dogs at the dog park, the physical trait that stands out above the rest is their size. Fully grown, a dog can reach a weight of more than 350 pounds. And on the opposite end, 1 pound. Same species. Different breeds. As of today, there are more than four hundred recognized breeds and countless mixed breeds. That’s a lot of diversity! Another fascination I have about dogs is their relationships with one another. Just as humans have complex relationships with other humans, so do dogs. At the dog park, one dog may gravitate toward another specific dog, while ignoring all others. This doggie chemistry is always curious to watch, and it can always be explained. One of my dogs, Luna, has a dog friend named Percy. She loves Percy so much that she has memorized his name. “Where’s Percy?” I ask her. Luna goes into FULL ALERT MODE. “Is Percy here?! Where is he?” That’s when Luna will barrel down the hallway, shrieking and shouting cries of joy and excitement in anticipation of Percy’s arrival. Whether or not Percy came over for a visit that particular day is not the important thing—the point is that Luna’s relationship with Percy is worthy of a full- blown shrieking-howling sprint. I can’t think of the last time I either howled or sprinted when a friend came over. Other dog relationships are not by their choice. For example, my dog Nala’s relationship with my other dog, Luna. Nala didn’t choose Luna. Actually, neither did I. She came as a plus-one with my girlfriend, Jeanine. But I love Luna (and Jeanine, too!). Nala and Luna cohabitate. They are not enemies nor do they snuggle or play together. But Nala will walk over to Luna sometimes to check in and offer a lick to the leg to make sure everything is groovy. I do believe they appreciate the companionship, especially when there are no humans around to tell them they are beautiful or to feed them popcorn. Dogs decide how they feel about other dogs only through personal experience. There are no other variables. No influence from history, the media, politics, or opinions from other dogs, which as I see it, makes their opinion completely unbiased. The diversity of the dog relationships in the forthcoming pages is as varied as their physical sizes. For example: Pela and Dash. Pela is a Great Dane puppy weighing in at 160 pounds, while Dash is a 10-pound senior miniature dachshund. Dash is the big brother to Pela, despite being 150 pounds lighter. At first glance, it seemed to me that Dash was mostly annoyed with Pela, because she has no idea how big she is when she comes through the house, knocking over any furniture, humans, or other creatures in her way. Dash quickly corrects her for being so careless, and for a few moments Pela seems to understand and simmer down— until, of course, she does it all over again a few minutes later. Indoors, their relationship seems to be a classic love-hate situation. But when they go outdoors on a hike, they transform into comrades, seeking to explore as a team, never straying too far away from each other. Truly inseparable. Creating the photographs in this book was quite the opposite from previous dog photography experiences. With previous books I have created, including Underwater Dogs, I relied on my ability to establish friendships with the dogs in order to create unique photographs. It was a team effort. But with Big Dog, Little Dog, I simply became an observer of unique dogs and their relationships. In fact, if I had made an effort to befriend the dogs in this book, many of these photographs wouldn’t exist. With each photo shoot, my goal was to witness a special moment between friends. That is what you will find here: big dogs and little dogs, being dogs. I hope you find it as magical as I do. Nala following a dog park pal Daisy and Lexington
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