Join "Project Dog"

Combining her passion for photography and her love for dogs, Kira Stackhouse is bringing together rescue dogs and recognized dog breeds of the American Kennel Club (AKC) through an exciting project simply called, “Project Dog.” Stackhouse, who is the owner/photographer of Nuena Photography in San Francisco, launched Project Dog as a new “grassroots movement” which aims to photograph each of the AKC’s more than 150 dog breeds and their equivalent rescue dogs, and create a book that will both entertain and educate readers about man’s best friend.

A dog search is now ongoing through the Project Dog website, www.joinprojectdog.com.  If you would like your dog to be featured on the website or be possibly included in the book, simply submit some information and upload a photo of your pooch on the Project Dog website.  Although submission is welcomed across the U.S., only dogs from major cities will be featured in the book. These cities include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix, Denver, Austin, St. Louis, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Knoxville, Atlanta, Miami, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Once dogs are chosen, Stackhouse will start a cross country adventure to photograph the dogs. I really wish that the cities are not limited to the above mentioned, but I can understand the limitation if she’ll be doing a cross country road trip.

According to the website, Stackhouse has already received over 850 dog submissions, covering over half of the breed list. You can visit the website and browse the pages to check the submissions. Dogs are sorted by breed, so they’re easy to find. There is also a page dedicated to rescue organizations that are associated with each rescue dog.

A lot of people may not be aware that there are many rescue dogs that are purebred.  I think this is a good opportunity to correct the misconception that you cannot find purebreds in animal shelters. Also, it’s not often that we see purebred and rescues together in one book, so this is something worth looking forward to. And, if you were counting the number of dog breeds earlier, yes, Stackhouse will be taking photos of more than 300 dogs for this project!  I wonder if this will also go down into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of dogs photographed in a single book.

So, grab the best photo of your dog and participate in Project Dog now. And by the way, our adopted beagle Comet has been featured today on Project Dog. He's officially a star! :)