The Dog Who Came Home | Cannoli, Ricki & Poppy | June Breed of the Month | UGA North Campus, Athens, GA
Cannoli washed out of guide dog training.
Too hardheaded, they said. They sent her to the ATF as a drug detection candidate instead.
The ATF passed. No thanks, they said.
The day Kristine got her back, Cannoli jumped off the transport van, saw her, and sprinted straight into her arms.
That's not a dog who didn't work out. That's a dog who knew exactly where she belonged.
June's Labrador Retriever Breed of the Month
This June, I had the rare privilege of selecting two Breed of the Month winners — a technical hiccup on my end meant that our first winner's email never arrived, and by the time we reconnected I had already confirmed with Cannoli. So both dogs won, both stories get told, and I'm not sorry about any of it.
Cannoli is our second June winner. And her story was always going to be impossible to pass up.
The Pack | Cannoli, Ricki & Poppy
Kristine didn't come alone. She brought her girlfriend Jordan and the whole crew — Cannoli, a black Lab who never met a stranger she didn't immediately love. Ricki, a yellow Lab who is so tuned into Kristine that he never really takes his eyes off her. And Poppy, a white American Eskimo who needs Jordan close and approaches new situations with careful, watchful eyes.
Three dogs. Three completely different personalities. One location that meant everything.
The Session | UGA North Campus, Athens, GA
We watched the weather all day.
Rain chances went up, then down, then up, then down — and finally settled on clear skies through at least 10 PM. So we went. Kristine and Jordan met me at UGA's North Campus on a June evening, and we got to work.
I always try to start a session with the group shot. The reason is simple: I am still new to these dogs. My sounds are novel, my camera is interesting, the whole situation is fresh — and that novelty is one of my best tools for getting three very different dogs to look at the camera at the same time with great expressions.
We set up in front of the big wooden door at the top of the stairs, flanked by those iconic white columns. Kristine worked on getting everybody settled — Ricki sitting tall and focused, Cannoli doing her best, Poppy tucking in close to Jordan — and I made the squeak.
It's a noise I learned from my dad. I've never found anything that works quite like it.
Ricki looked. Cannoli looked. And Poppy — cautious, watchful Poppy — gave me a head tilt.
[IMAGE: Group shot — all three in front of the wooden door and columns]
Once we had that, I moved straight into individuals. I went to Poppy first, deliberately, while my noise was still working and before anything could shift. She's described as nearly impossible to photograph. She was also giving me everything I needed right at that moment and I wasn't going to waste it.
She nailed it.
I'll be honest — Poppy looks almost identical to my own dog, Poppy the Pomeranian. Same white coat, same soft cream on the ears and back. Different breed entirely — Jordan’s Poppy, an American Eskimo is significantly bigger than my Poppy, a Pomeranian — but I felt a little extra affinity for her from the start. I'm glad she let me in.
From there we moved through individual portraits of Ricki and Cannoli in the same spot — one of my favorite approaches when I'm working with multiple dogs. There's something really beautiful about having each dog photographed against the same backdrop. In a gallery it creates continuity. In an album layout, spread across a page, it tells a story about a family.
Then we moved the columns behind them rather than in front — using the architecture to create depth and a soft white background — and got some portraits of each of them peeking around the pillars.
The Moment the Dogs Gave Me More Than I Asked For
After the individual portraits I wanted some images of Ricki and Cannoli together. Kristine has photos of the two of them from when they were young and wanted to add to that collection.
My goal was simple: one dog sitting, one dog lying down. Two different positions, two different heights, a natural sense of depth and relationship in the frame.
The challenge with this is that dogs trained together tend to respond to commands together. Say "sit" — both sit. Say "down" — both lie down. Getting them to do two different things at the same time takes some creative negotiating.
We were in the middle of working it out when they both lay down at exactly the same moment.
And then they touched their paws.
Just touching each other. Just resting there, tucked in, completely at ease.
"Wait. Wait. Don't move. This is perfect."
Sometimes the dogs give you more than you were hoping for. That's one of my favorite things about this work.
We did eventually nail the one sitting, one lying down version too — but the crossed paws image is the one I keep coming back to.
The Fountain, the Flowers, and the Storm
We walked over to the fountain next — the same fountain where Ricki, as a puppy, launched himself directly into the water with absolutely no warning and no idea there was water there. Kristine had specifically mentioned wanting to avoid a repeat.
No swimming occurred.
We got some beautiful portraits in the softer natural light near the water — and some of my favorite puppy dog eyes images of the session, shooting down toward them on the brick pathway with the late evening backlight coming through.
Then the sky changed.
The weather app had promised us until 10 PM. The clouds had other plans. The gray moved in, the thunder arrived somewhere in the distance, and we made a quick decision to finish strong.
We walked to the flowering gardens and did a final group shot of Ricki and Cannoli together — a deliberate recreation of a photo Kristine already has of the two of them from when they were young. It'll be a beautiful thing to have: the same two dogs, the same location, years apart.
A few quick individuals of each dog among the blooms, one more portrait of Poppy to round out her variety of backdrops, and we wrapped.
We made it back to our cars just as the rain started.
A Session That Mattered More Than We Planned
Kristine and Jordan have called Athens home for a long time. They'll be moving soon — staying in Georgia, but leaving Athens behind, getting closer to family and whatever comes next.
UGA wasn't just a beautiful backdrop. It was their home. The fountain where Ricki nearly drowned himself as a puppy. The columns they've walked past a hundred times. The flowers that bloom every June.
And now those images exist.
Three dogs in a place that meant something, before the chapter closed.
That's what photographs are for.
About UGA North Campus | Athens, GA
UGA's North Campus is one of my favorite places to photograph dogs. The architecture offers incredible variety in a very small footprint: white columns, wooden doors, brick pathways, open lawns, the historic fountain, and seasonal gardens that bloom beautifully in spring and summer.
It's especially gorgeous for evening sessions when the light goes soft and during school breaks when the campus quiets down.
→ Learn more about UGA North Campus as a session location
About the Labrador Retriever Breed of the Month
Each month I open one session to the public through my Breed of the Month program — a complimentary session and artwork credit for one dog whose story moves me most.
Cannoli was June's second winner.
→ Learn about the Breed of the Month program
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