We’ve never let our dogs off-leash in our garden at the lake. Jackson was a bit unpredictable. If he heard a noise, particularly thunder, he’d chase off after it. Soon after we got the house we tried letting him out, but then one day – on an otherwise nice day – there was an almighty crack of thunder, the rain started pouring down and Jackson took off up Lake Shore Road. I chased after him just wearing sandals and got soaked myself. I finally trapped him in a garden about five houses away and we both returned, bedraggled, to the house. After that we always took him out on leash. When we got Harley we continued that practice – until recently. We’ve discovered that Harley is a quite different type of dog. He’s quite self-confident and rather calm. Things don’t bother him much, and he generally goes with the flow. He also likes to sit and observe and he can apparently do this for quite long periods of time. He’s a very ‘cat-like’ dog. So we’ve decided to take a chance on letting him into the garden by himself. Here he is on a lovely fall day in typical pose: sitting in a patch of sunlight and watching the lake.

Taken with a Sony Alpha 500 and Minolta 100-200mm f4.5. You’ve got to love those Minolta colors.