Volume Four opens with a black long-coated dog, white chest, peering out from behind a tree trunk. It is the fourth Shoot the Dog book, and like the others it is full of real dogs and the people who love them.
There are over 250 dogs inside, all sorts of breeds and crosses, every one photographed by Living Image Photography. Beside each portrait is a short story from the dog's own family, in their own words. Nobody describes a dog better than the people who share a couch with it.
The book is a square hardcover, 320 mm a side and full colour throughout. Its black spine stands out on the shelf beside the orange of Volumes Two and Three.
Shoot the Dog began in 2013 with a simple aim: celebrate dogs and the part they play in our families, and help the ones without a home find one. Each family who took part paid a $100 participation fee that went straight to an animal rescue group, and a share of the profit from the books goes to the rescues as well. Together, the books have given more than $100,000 to Australian animal shelters.
For the person whose camera roll is mostly their dog, this is the book they would make themselves if they could.
