Do you guys recognize this little guy? Looks like Fergie, huh? Nope, it’s my buddy Dozer! Dozer’s face may look familiar to some of you because I have worked with him in the past. I did a shoot for him last year when he was just a babe, and then designed Decopaw art for him (twice!), AND he is on the cover of this year’s Decopaw wall calendar. This time our shoot at Magnuson Park was to document how big he has gotten. When they arrived I couldn’t believe I was looking at the same dog! He is no longer a mere babe!
WARNING: this post has a ton of photos, so if you have something important to do go do it first. I don’t want anyone getting in trouble because of me!
This post is for you Angie. 
Check out this incredible looking dog we met on our way to the beach. I think his name was Ollie. He was immediately striking because he only had 3 legs, although I couldn’t stop staring at his eyes, which are crystal blue, with a bit of brown in one. Gorgeous dog.
Ok, so let me tell you about Dozer. Dozer has been diagnosed with having OCD, and ADD, and OCBD (obsessive compulsive ball disorder) and a host of other conditions. He gets distracted very easily, and is always running off to check out the next more interesting thing.
What people don’t realize about Dozer is that he is actually a superhero. His name may be ‘Darling Dozer’ by day, but by night it’s ‘Daring Dozer’. What gets confused with a short attention span is actually a heightened awareness of what is going on around him in an attempt to keep his skills sharp and keep everyone around him safe and happy. He may look cute and playful, but what you see here is really a superhero doing his daily training. His favorite training instrument? The ‘tube’. More on that later.
Standing on slippery rocks in the water helps Dozer maintain really strong balance skills, which come in very handy when having to do things like cross fallen logs to rescue baby deers in distress in mountain streams. He has had to do this not one, not two, but three times already in his short life. (True story!).
I’m not quite sure what he is doing in this next shot, but hey, every superhero has their methodology.
This little guy on the rock was the smartest canine there that day. He knew Dozer was a superhero and watched and learned. He really wanted to apprentice with Dozer but at this point Dozer feels he is too green still to train a wingman- he still has a lot to learn. In another year he may think about taking the blond kid on. They exchanged email addresses so they can keep in touch. I’m rooting for the kid! His eagerness to learn won me over.
This is a rare candid moment when we see the superhero in a moment of fatigue.
What was I saying about ‘the tube’? Oh yes! Dozer’s favorite training instrument is this yellow thing with a rope on one end that he calls the tube. Why ‘the tube’? Because last year, when he was still a little kid, when he was training in London to leap from building to building, he actually rescued a pomeranian from getting crushed in the doors of the subway. He was so proud of himself that day, after getting cheered on from the subway riders. The subway train he happened to be on was yellow, just like his favorite felted ‘toy’. Hence the name: ‘the tube’.
Dozer likes doing his superhero training in busy places because he finds it more challenging. In this one shot alone I count 9 different dogs!
I knew it! You were starting to doubt me huh? Thinking that I just made this whole ’superhero’ thing up! Well, if these next shots don’t prove you wrong, I don’t know what would. Now THIS is a superhero in training!!
Check out Dozer’s back left foot skimming the water. Too cool.
Four off the floor facing right. Four off the floor facing left.
I TOLD you he’s a superhero!!
And the ‘piece de resistance’ below. We just got the shot on the right printed as a 16×24 canvas for one of our art walls in our new office, whoopee! Just hung it up today. Dogs are so cool.
As if the flying through the air part wasn’t enough for his training, Dozer finished it off by a sprint across the beach.
He may be a superhero, but he is still just a boy, and loves his parents dearly, as you can see in his eyes in this next shot.
Isn’t he handsome? (more funky processing once again alluding to an upcoming blog post).
Showing his softer side.
Dozer, the happy superhero.
If you or your pets are ever in trouble, just know that Daring Dozer will be there watching out for you, and will be there to protect, guide and love you. It may sound like a big job, but it’s all in a day’s work for my buddy Doze.
