Time for the Annual Holiday Argument

Ah yes, it's that time of year again, a time that causes strife between my husband and myself.
It's the Annual Christmas Picture.
We always send out a picture of our dogs, which to us is a very cute idea. However, we have a lot of dogs and like children, each one has their "issues".
Most difficult each year is Daisy, who firmly believes the camera is out to Steal Her Soul. To get her even remotely near a camera, she needs to have the beejesus run out of her. So, if she looks happy in the picture, it's because we ran her so much she is too tired to care.
We now have a new issue, and that is my sweet Dusty. He's turned a bit senile, and add blindness and a bit of deafness to that. Oh he's still a very happy boy. But he can no longer follow simple commands like "sit" or "stay". He can hear "cookie" but often can't tell where it's coming from - interesting the way sound waves bounce off of walls, I've discovered.
So here's how it's going to go this year: run Daisy like crazy. Erik will do this as I set up the photo shoot area.
Good, now she's exhausted. Quick! Line up the dogs.
Me to Erik: make silly noises.
Erik tries, but he's not very good at it.
This is where the arguing starts.
Me: Say "cookie"
Erik: "cookie"
Me: Say it with some EXCITEMENT, will ya??
Erik in a girly voice "Cookie! Cookie!"
Dusty will probably wander off.
Daisy will take that cue and slink off.
Me: You didn't run Daisy enough. Go run her again.
Erik grumbles.
You can get the drift of how it's going to go.
We will begin our picture-taking efforts over the next couple of days. Hopefully we will come up with something printable.
I'll put some outtakes on this blog.
Meantime, we're getting ready for a herding trial this weekend. I'm excited and hopeful, but of course it's always a crap shoot when it comes to a herding trial. So here's to dogs that listen, calm sheep and good draws!