Black Dog Syndrome

This week we have a ton of super cute puppies, but looking through my photos I noticed that we have a large number of black dogs. I wrote a blog in 2012 about how other rescues have a hard time finding homes for black dogs....they just kind of fade into the background. If you want to see that old blog click here.

I have two black and white dogs, at first glance people can't tell them apart, but they are so different I don't know how people can get them confused.

After I wrote that blog in 2012 have tried really hard to give an extra effort when taking photos of black dogs. I would love to try some black on black photography with some of these puppies, but have not had time to really work with the technique. Hoping the photos below will be help to find all of our black dogs homes.

Looking forward to getting all of our cuties adopted this week. This week we received some puppies from a rescue in Oklahoma. The rescuer was told there was a mom and pups out in the forest. They went out and retrieved the mom and pups, but back at the car, the mom jumped out. Thinking they left a puppy behind they followed mom back into the forest where they found two other moms with litters of puppies (3 moms and 22 puppies). We were able to assist this rescue by taking eight puppies that were ready to find their forever homes. So happy they reached out to us!

Take It To The Next Level

This is becoming a bit of a mantra for me in everything that I do. Regarding the puppies, we are trying to make changes to become better and more efficient.

If you haven't already seen it, we are doing a fund raiser in order to purchase food for our puppies. Any little bit helps. If you can pass this along to friends and family to get the word out, that would be greatly appreciated.



What happens when the competition starts doing the exact same thing that you are for photos? We need to take it to the next level. I have some ideas but would love to hear your ideas. What do you like in our puppy photos? What can we do better? I really need help regarding indoor photos - we have a limited amount of space to work in, so after a few photos they all start looking the same. Please comment or send me any information (funds@coloradopuppy.org) so we can Take Photos to the Next Level!

Finally - I am looking at the calendar and cannot believe that it is already the end of January and this is the first blog entry of the year. I will work on getting better.

Here are just a few blooper photos that will hopefully scratch that itch of not having any blooper photos for a whole month.

Until next week :)

Time to Reflect

This is the last weekend of 2013 - a time to look back, reflect and see how far we have come.

In 2013 CPR saved and changed the lives 1200 puppies. Thank you to all of our adopters for making a place in your home and your heart for these puppies.

We had a fabulous Alumni Reunion this year. We had a couple of siblings who got to meet up again. There were also a ton of games, great food and fun!

I declare 2013 to be a year of photos. This year we did a lot of things to make our photos even better.

Zenfolio - We now have one place for all of our puppy photos. You can purchase puppy photos, browse to see the pictures of your pups siblings or check out the before and after or alumni albums. All of our photos are now in one place and we have also added videos there too! (http://coloradopuppyrescue.zenfolio.com/) If you haven't checked it out, please do so.

Nikon D5100 - This year we also got new cameras for the rescue. Taking photos of puppies in the best of circumstances is challenging, puppies move FAST! Thanks to some great photo wranglers and a camera that can now take fabulous pictures even in bad light - we are headed in the right direction!

Cute picture from Dec 2012

Same bell - but the new camera is giving us more detail! LOVE IT!

Smart Photo Editor - We also found a new software programs that makes it easy for us to produce the best possible photo for our puppies, in a very short time frame.

Proboards - We started a message board http://coloradopuppyrescue.boards.net/ to allow puppy siblings to connect. I am hoping that this will go further in 2014!

Facebook - We have almost 4,500 likes on our page. We update it regularly and enjoy hearing from everyone!

Web Page - We now have a very powerful, user friendly mobile site. We are also continually updating our site with new information.

Video - Brook has started to put together videos for special events, we would like to do more and more short videos of our puppies to share with all of you.

What is ahead for 2014?

I want to do more with the Mystery Mix of the week - that was always great fun to get ideas from everyone on puppy breeds.

More Videos!

Keep the photos coming! I am making my final updates to the 2013 albums this weekend and can't wait to start filling the 2014 albums!

Doing even more on social - we are very active on Facebook, but would like to get more active on twitter and G+!

The sky is the limit! What would make your interactions with Colorado Puppy Rescue more fulfilling? Let me know - send an email to funds@coloradopuppy.org.

Looking forward to sharing a great 2014 with all of you - thank you for your support.

Different Perspective (10/11/2013)

Last week we had a fall theme for our puppy photos. It worked pretty well, considering that all of the photos were taken inside.

A few months ago the photo below was posted on facebook - stating what an incredible photo.

It is outstanding, and it got me to thinking. What if we posted "alternative" photos of our puppies? Would photos like these have adopters flocking to our event?

Or these?

This perspective is always a good one in my opinion.

Maybe I will stick with the cute puppy with the props.

I also got this one from one of the fosters - the two headed dog!

Had to look twice on that one didn't you :) Hope you enjoyed the photos from a little different perspective.

Friday Fix (8/23/2013) - Indoor Photos

By Christy Hess

Don't know if you heard or not but we got in 70+ puppies this week. PHEW!

Well, I tried to be prepared knowing that it would be a long night of photos, so I got a new flash. As I have said in previous posts, I am a beginner photographer, so I got the best flash on the market for my camera, thinking it would just be perfect.

And it probably will be, but on a night with 70+ puppies, it is NO time to try out new technology that you know nothing about. Lesson learned. I will be spending the next couple of weeks trying to perfect indoor and evening photos with my new flash. If only I could find a dummies book for it.

Thanks to Brittany and Regina for snapping over 1000 photos of our puppies. Thank you also to Emily and Andrea for wrangling our puppies for the photos. Great job!!!

Here is a cute little flipbook for you:

Just have to say "awwwwww". 

And my favorite blooper of the night:

Hope you have a great weekend. Think of my poor dogs having to endure the torture of me learning to use a new flash because they are the only ones that allow me to take photos of them.