See, Pavlov knew what he was doing after all .

Containing the shooting area is a good idea if you have a lot of additional space. Mine is constrained by the room size itself so they can only go so far. But when I go to homes, they'll disappear in seconds and nobody can find them!

Usually, the owner can help by calming the animal and gently calling its name and giving it treats. The problem is that owners have no real idea how to bait a dog and it doesn't work with cats at all. I'll be shooting and tell the owner to "call your dog" and they just stand there and look at him. So I'll say, "call his name". And they don't move. So I'll ask, "what's his name" and they'll tell me and I'll shout the name and the dog will look and I'll get the shot. Geesh! The dogs are easier to train than most people.

I think you have a good setup here. Just move the stuff around until you get some good front illumination as well. Maybe just a piece of white foamcore placed in front of the subject to reflect the light under the chin and onto the face.

Jim