# River Day with Trent & Siege!



## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

Been a while since I've posted pictures! We've been keeping busy and I haven't felt like picking up the camera, but decided to fix that over the last week. Yesterday we went to a lovely park by the river right around sunset, and I wanted to share some photos of my two crazies!

For a dog who can't swim, Trent absolutely LOVES water



























Siege, on the other hand, wasn't as keen at first













































Getting her feet wet


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

Trent and his psychotic obsession with rocks






















































I had a rock in my hand









Siege doesn't even like rocks, but she still sassed at me anyway


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

Back to sassing. 









Special little velociraptor child


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)




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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

Trent's opinion on dogs that break their sit stays













































Thanks for looking!


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## Hiraeth (Aug 4, 2015)

Beautiful dogs and beautiful photos. The Siege "sass" photos and Trent's expression when Siege broke her stay are so cute.

But please stop posting photos of Trent. You're making me want another GSD. And I promised myself I'd never do that to me again.


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

Hiraeth said:


> Beautiful dogs and beautiful photos. The Siege "sass" photos and Trent's expression when Siege broke her stay are so cute.
> 
> But please stop posting photos of Trent. You're making me want another GSD. And I promised myself I'd never do that to me again.


Thanks so much!! Haha yeah, they're both such characters. Siege really couldn't care less about what I had in my hands, but I had _something_ and damnit if she wasn't going to get me to throw it. Her tag literally says "little brown velociraptor"










And LOL! I should have taken a video while we were there yesterday - Trent was completely nuts. Tried to drag me into the water about 50 times while he was on leash, so we had to do impulse control exercises before he was allowed to go in. Tried to dig up the largest rocks he could and carried 10-15 lb rocks in his jaws until I saw and made him out them. Ran at full speed at/past me and got water all over me. Went as far as he could into the water and stared at me when it was time to head back. Yelled at me (a lot) when I took his rocks. Made intense bug eyes at me every time I picked up a rock, because WHAT IF I THREW THE ROCK (nevermind that the ground is literally made of piles of rocks). 

And also woke me up at 6 AM this morning because my mother came into the guest room I'm staying in, and Trent decided to go back to his old habits of "no one's allowed to walk into any room Equinox is in" and tried to scare my mother out. Keep in mind, he doesn't sleep in my room so they walked in together and then he turned around and tried to get her out.

He's fun LOL


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## sydneynicole (Apr 2, 2015)

LOVE all these pictures! Such gorgeous dogs.


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## mudypony (Jul 31, 2014)

Soooo gorgeous!! Siege's sass is the best, Trent is handsome as ever!

I especially love the last couple in front of the bridge.




Equinox said:


> And LOL! I should have taken a video while we were there yesterday - Trent was completely nuts. Tried to drag me into the water about 50 times while he was on leash, so we had to do impulse control exercises before he was allowed to go in. Tried to dig up the largest rocks he could and carried 10-15 lb rocks in his jaws until I saw and made him out them. Ran at full speed at/past me and got water all over me. Went as far as he could into the water and stared at me when it was time to head back. Yelled at me (a lot) when I took his rocks. Made intense bug eyes at me every time I picked up a rock, because WHAT IF I THREW THE ROCK (nevermind that the ground is literally made of piles of rocks).
> 
> And also woke me up at 6 AM this morning because my mother came into the guest room I'm staying in, and Trent decided to go back to his old habits of "no one's allowed to walk into any room Equinox is in" and tried to scare my mother out. Keep in mind, he doesn't sleep in my room so they walked in together and then he turned around and tried to get her out.
> 
> He's fun LOL


Also, is it sad that this whole story makes me want Trent even more? hahaha


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

sydneynicole said:


> LOVE all these pictures! Such gorgeous dogs.


Thank you so much! 



mudypony said:


> Soooo gorgeous!! Siege's sass is the best, Trent is handsome as ever!
> 
> I especially love the last couple in front of the bridge.


Thank you!! Means a lot coming from you  I love taking photos right as it's getting dark, but the grain is the worst. I'm just going to wait for a full frame camera to fall from the sky and land in my hands LOL


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## mudypony (Jul 31, 2014)

Equinox said:


> Thank you!! Means a lot coming from you  I love taking photos right as it's getting dark, but the grain is the worst. I'm just going to wait for a full frame camera to fall from the sky and land in my hands LOL


I love sunset pictures too, but there's such a little window of time before you have to bump up the ISO and on comes the grain. I don't mind an occasional super grainy b + w picture, but otherwise grain sucks! I'll wait with you until a 70-200 f/2.8 lens falls from the sky!! That's not asking too much, right? lol

Also, do you normally shoot in manual mode?


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

mudypony said:


> I love sunset pictures too, but there's such a little window of time before you have to bump up the ISO and on comes the grain. I don't mind an occasional super grainy b + w picture, but otherwise grain sucks! I'll wait with you until a 70-200 f/2.8 lens falls from the sky!! That's not asking too much, right? lol
> 
> Also, do you normally shoot in manual mode?


Hahaha not too much at all...any time now  And I'm definitely with you there, sometimes I will intentionally add grain to get a certain feel that I want, but I WANT GRAIN ON MY TERMS DAMNIT!

And I do! I've had a lot of people tell me that I should just switch to aperture priority, and they're probably right hahaha, but I'm just so used to adjusting my settings manually.


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## mudypony (Jul 31, 2014)

Equinox said:


> Hahaha not too much at all...any time now  And I'm definitely with you there, sometimes I will intentionally add grain to get a certain feel that I want, but I WANT GRAIN ON MY TERMS DAMNIT!
> 
> And I do! I've had a lot of people tell me that I should just switch to aperture priority, and they're probably right hahaha, but I'm just so used to adjusting my settings manually.


EXACTLY!! But that darn grain still continues to to show up when it's unwelcome!

I've always shot on manual mode too. But, I've been thinking about trying aperture priority, especially when I'm shooting multiple subjects, so I can learn what aperture to use to keep everything in focus without worrying about all the other settings.

BUT I'm so used to manual mode!! Even though I hate it sometimes...


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## Hiraeth (Aug 4, 2015)

Equinox said:


> And LOL! I should have taken a video while we were there yesterday - Trent was completely nuts. Tried to drag me into the water about 50 times while he was on leash, so we had to do impulse control exercises before he was allowed to go in. Tried to dig up the largest rocks he could and carried 10-15 lb rocks in his jaws until I saw and made him out them. Ran at full speed at/past me and got water all over me. Went as far as he could into the water and stared at me when it was time to head back. Yelled at me (a lot) when I took his rocks. Made intense bug eyes at me every time I picked up a rock, because WHAT IF I THREW THE ROCK (nevermind that the ground is literally made of piles of rocks).
> 
> And also woke me up at 6 AM this morning because my mother came into the guest room I'm staying in, and Trent decided to go back to his old habits of "no one's allowed to walk into any room Equinox is in" and tried to scare my mother out. Keep in mind, he doesn't sleep in my room so they walked in together and then he turned around and tried to get her out.
> 
> He's fun LOL


Thanks for this. It slightly curbed my desire for another GSD. Slightly 

A lot of those behaviors remind me of my late GSD mix, though. Like, clearly the rock in your hand is THE GOD ROCK, and is quite different from all of the surrounding rocks! 

He'd also stop people from entering any room I was sleeping in, which resulted in trouble when my ex and I worked really different shifts. I miss that element of protection, though - I was positive that Loki would kill any human who forcibly entered my home and attempted to hurt me (literally kill them, not figuratively), and now I worry about break ins more frequently. And will continue to do so until Titan is full grown and the mere sight of him scares the living daylights out of would-be intruders.

Maybe some day I'll be crazy enough for another GSD. The problem I'd have is the energy/intensity difference between GSDs and Danes and balancing the exercise requirements of each. 

In the mean time, I will live vicariously through this forum


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

mudypony said:


> EXACTLY!! But that darn grain still continues to to show up when it's unwelcome!
> 
> I've always shot on manual mode too. But, I've been thinking about trying aperture priority, especially when I'm shooting multiple subjects, so I can learn what aperture to use to keep everything in focus without worrying about all the other settings.
> 
> BUT I'm so used to manual mode!! Even though I hate it sometimes...


Oh yeah, multiple subjects is tricky...everyone tells me to just take two separate photos, one of each dog as the focus, and then combine them into a single image. But nope, that's way too much work LOL I think I'll give aperture priority a try next time and see how that goes! It does get annoying having to constantly adjust for the dimming light and moving dogs and all that! 

I find it incredibly funny that when I first got into photography everyone heavily pushed for manual mode. And now that I'm starting to figure things out, everyone's saying "no way, aperture priority all the way!" pffffbhhhhht



Hiraeth said:


> Thanks for this. It slightly curbed my desire for another GSD. Slightly
> 
> A lot of those behaviors remind me of my late GSD mix, though. Like, clearly the rock in your hand is THE GOD ROCK, and is quite different from all of the surrounding rocks!
> 
> ...


Haha in a lot of ways, for me personally Trent is a lot more work than Siege. Siege is more needy, more obnoxious, more demanding, higher energy, higher drive, etc. but Trent's actually a lot higher strung. We have good days and bad days - sometimes he's a fantastic, responsive, perfect dog that's completely in tune to me, and sometimes he's a psychotic, handler hard maniac screaming and scrambling and leaking drive all over the place. And also everything in between LOL 

I certainly feel safe with him around though, he's definitely a naturally suspicious and defensive dog, particularly at night and/or in certain contexts. He has similar reactions to people coming in unannounced, people coming into any room I'm occupying, people approaching me from behind or above, people surprising me or raising their voice at me, etc. He's a very socially and environmentally safe dog though, and the things that set him off are consistent and predictable. 

Love him and love the breed though. Absolutely wonderful dog at his core - he's smart, intense, motivated, and even at his worst he still wants to do well by me. I do think a large part of his behavior was unintentionally created by how my family and I raised him, and that if I'd known more of what I was doing, I could've raised a more self controlled and handler oriented dog. We do okay though


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## jade5280 (Feb 20, 2013)

Lovely pics as always. I'm LOLing at the rock carrying. What the heck, Trent!?


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## BellaPup (Jul 7, 2007)

Yay!! Eq pics!!  Always looks like such a blast!


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## Sandakat (Mar 7, 2015)

I love your dogs and your pictures. Trent and the rocks just cracked me up.


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## Marvel (Sep 26, 2015)

Beautiful dogs, and beautiful photos! They look like they had a blast! I knew a GSD who was obsessed with rocks, and I'm fairly certain my little pup is on the road to a rock obsession. At my aunt and uncle's house, he wouldn't stop picking them up out of their rock beds.

I always have people tell me to avoid manual mode as well...but I just love playing around with everything myself, even if I don't know what I'm doing completely haha.


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## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

Beautiful photos as always!

Siege's reaction to the rocks reminds me of Meeko's reaction to toys when there are other dogs around lol! He'll get interested in toys and will suddenly "need" to play with them if the other dogs any slight interest in them ahahaha


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

Just lovely! Looks like you all had a lot of fun!


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

mudypony said:


> Also, is it sad that this whole story makes me want Trent even more? hahaha


Hahaha I just saw this! More power to you, that's brave of you LOL! 

But nah, in all seriousness he's a wonderfully good dog at heart, even if he's tough to get through sometimes. Sometimes he's just the most incredibly self possessed and in tune dog...and on other days he's a psychotic loon.



jade5280 said:


> Lovely pics as always. I'm LOLing at the rock carrying. What the heck, Trent!?


Thank you! Hah and yeah, he's absolutely obsessive and I have to forcibly tell him to leave the larger rocks alone. He'll do this at every beach and lake we visit, it's SO weird. 



BellaPup said:


> Yay!! Eq pics!!  Always looks like such a blast!


Haha thank you!! And it absolutely was!



Sandakat said:


> I love your dogs and your pictures. Trent and the rocks just cracked me up.


Thank you so much! Yeah he's something LOL He kept me busy running after him and telling him to leave the 20 lb rocks alone...I had to hurl a bunch deeper into the river so he couldn't go back for them.



Marvel said:


> Beautiful dogs, and beautiful photos! They look like they had a blast! I knew a GSD who was obsessed with rocks, and I'm fairly certain my little pup is on the road to a rock obsession. At my aunt and uncle's house, he wouldn't stop picking them up out of their rock beds.
> 
> I always have people tell me to avoid manual mode as well...but I just love playing around with everything myself, even if I don't know what I'm doing completely haha.


Thanks so much! The funny thing is that Trent doesn't care at all about rocks normally - he just wants to dig up the large ones in the water. It's a super specific and super intense obsession hahaha. 



taquitos said:


> Beautiful photos as always!
> 
> Siege's reaction to the rocks reminds me of Meeko's reaction to toys when there are other dogs around lol! He'll get interested in toys and will suddenly "need" to play with them if the other dogs any slight interest in them ahahaha


Thank you!! Haha it's the worst - especially because once I throw the rock and she's like "oh, it's just a rock, who cares", she comes back at me screaming and biting because I don't have an adequate prize for her LOL She gets really worked up like that because she wants to engage but the reward I have isn't engaging enough for her (so mauling me is the best option??). We have to do calming exercises then so I can get home in one piece  

I have a video somewhere, but it's zoomed in too close and mostly just shaky cam and me yelling "ow!". Story of my life haha!



ireth0 said:


> Just lovely! Looks like you all had a lot of fun!


Thank you!! We really did, it's hard not to with these two dogs!


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## bemba (Jan 22, 2015)

Wow what great photos! Looks like a magic spot


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## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

Equinox said:


> Thank you!! Haha it's the worst - especially because once I throw the rock and she's like "oh, it's just a rock, who cares", she comes back at me screaming and biting because I don't have an adequate prize for her LOL She gets really worked up like that because she wants to engage but the reward I have isn't engaging enough for her (so mauling me is the best option??). We have to do calming exercises then so I can get home in one piece
> 
> I have a video somewhere, but it's zoomed in too close and mostly just shaky cam and me yelling "ow!". Story of my life haha!


Hahahaha she's so funny! What a nut lol


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## kcomstoc (Mar 9, 2013)

LOL trent is so silly  not gonna lie I really missed seeing pictures of him, Siege looks like she had a ball


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## Avie (Jul 10, 2011)

Awesome photots as always. And I love their collars and tags.


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## dogsule (Nov 6, 2013)

Wow beautiful pics! Beautiful dogs!!


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