A blog of a proud dog owner Pinoy Dog-Lover

We live along a highway—specifically the Katipunan C5 extension. That’s the main reason why Sheero and I take utmost care when taking a walk (most of the houses and sari-sari stores are across the street). Sheero has learned how to behave when crossing the street—she probably knows the dangers of crossing without me guiding her. She knows that when cars are driving past, she should stop, and start walking briskly along with me when there aren’t any more cars.

We sometimes come across a stray dog or a pet dog let loose every now and then, but it was only last week when we almost stumbled upon a dog carcass. Read the rest of this entry »

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post.

My dad is a photographer (he’s also a photographer for a local newspaper), and he likes taking photos of our pets a lot. Each one of them has their own portrait photo (even the fishes!), but he never really got into pet photography except for trying out a new camera or he just felt like making them his photo subjects. He said it’s hard to make animal pose in a studio setting especially when they’re untrained (I think he just didn’t want to risk his expensive equipment for unruly animals making a ruckus out of his studio).

Knowing how difficult animals are to photograph makes me appreciate Pittsburg pet photographer Vincent Strangio’s work even more.

The site offers Dog shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads and other merchandise with dog photos featuring the work of Strangio. But these aren’t just t-shirt transfers or any other those rubbery printing that’s easy to peel off, mind you. I’m not exactly sure what that type of printing is called, but I’ve seen printing like that and I can definitely say that they don’t peel easily (having a husband who does the laundry, it’s important that shirt designs don’t peel easily, else I’ll be stuck with plain old t-shirts!). I’m not sure if that’s exactly the type of printing they use, as I haven’t seen the shirts in actually, but I do believe the designs are worth it.

I love the designs. Ok fine, I’m biased. I love dogs. But having seen quality photos all my life, I’m able to discern what looks good and what doesn’t (that’s one of the perks of being a daughter of one of the country’s award-winning photographers). The photos on the shirts look good—one look at them and you’ll get an idea of what the dog’s personality is. And this, I think, is what makes the photos great.

“Photos speak a thousand words.” For me, that’s really important. I’m no photographer, but I try as much as possible for my graphic art to convey something: an emotion, a story, or a personality. Photographing dogs is no different—a photograph becomes truly beautiful when the artist gives the viewer an idea of who the dog is. This, is what I see in the designs of Dog shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads and other merchandise found on the site.

The section on White Westland Terriers is my favorite. But this is a real bias: the dogs look like my Sheero!

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post.

Sheero is a mixed breed, but I never really knew what breed exactly was mixed with her Japanese Spitz descent. I once suspected her of having a Terrier parent, but that’s mainly due to her innate hunting skills. Another breed I considered was a Shih Tzu, though I never really had the time to research about that kind till now.

Breeder Retriever’s site is a treasure box full of breed information. I know I’m only supposed to review the page on Shih Tzu, but I can’t help it—I love dogs, and I love reading about them.

The Shih Tzu page that Breeder Retriever provides gives in-depth information for a non-scientific person like me. I usually get lost in technical terms of information found in other sites—I think those were made for die-hard breeders or veterinarians. Since I’m neither of the two, Shih Tzu helped me understand important information that I needed to know about the breed. Which, I must say, made me doubt further if Sheero’s other half is indeed a Terrier—the page shows quite a lot of similarities in temperament with my little white princess.

The page shows that it’s been made for pet aficionados—the first time I saw it I couldn’t help but say, “aww, that’s so cute!” at the adorable Shih Tzu featured on the page. As a web designer, I strongly believe that this is a very effective strategy: appeal to the viewer’s heart strings, then give them the information they needed. The design of the page is simple—pretty straight-forward—though I’d rather have it a tad bit more colorful and cute, which basically shows the personality of the dog through the design. It would be nice to if the colors scheme of the photo gallery and the forums is “happier.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m a strong believer that pets give color to our lives—and a site that’s a bit more colorful shows just that.

Other than these aesthetic quirks (sorry, I can’t help it… Design is my profession), I think this page will be another addition to my “doggy info” bookmarks.