One thing you often see Husky owners say is that they’re like potato chips … you can’t have just one. When I met Karen I told her it was nice to meet someone else with four dogs – it makes me feel almost normal.

Due to age and health issues and various levels of training she wanted to do the shoot at home, so I was lucky that there were plenty of different areas of interest (unlike my own piece of grass surrounded by Colourbond fencing).

I started with Tasha. Maybe because she reminded me so much of Ivan, the Husky we used to own.

Tasha is seven and according to her bio “she will not do anything you ask of her” – like most Sibes! She liked my treats though so she wasn’t too hard to work with.

Next up was Leo, the baby of the pack.

Leo has been to puppy school and obedience classes and he’s personality plus, so he was lots of fun to photograph. In fact, he was quite put out when his time was up and he had to go back inside.

The shoot was booked in August and a few days before it was scheduled I got an email to say that their eldest, 13yo Seamus, had bloat and had been rushed into emergency surgery. Luckily for him he lived to tell the tale, but as you can see in the photos he’s lost quite a bit of weight and his hair hasn’t grown back in places yet. He also has arthritis so he finds it hard to sit down and stand up repeatedly.

From a personality point of view Seamus was the most like Ivan. He has a big presence and a stare that almost made me roll over into submission.

Last up was Miss Stella. She’s the latest addition to the Leavy household. She was adopted from AMRAA a few months ago. She had lost most of her ears to fly bite and they thought she would be overlooked by other adopters because of it, so they welcomed her into their pack. She’s a sweetheart.

A few times in the run up to the session Karen had mentioned that the most important shot to get was her family with the four dogs. I thought it was going to break me for sure! After a couple of minutes spent wrangling everyone into position I managed to get the money shot in about three clicks of the shutter button – go me.

Their album and canvas order is currently in production, but if you keep an eye on my Facebook page I’ll share photos of them when they’re ready.