James,
big cities pose their own special problems which is not just where to shoot but what you have to deal with in terms of people, noise, chaos, all the stuff that makes for distractions for the dog and for the photographer.

Having said that, some of my best "pet portraits" came when we went to the Garden a few years ago to cover Westminster for the magazine. A friend of ours had the #1 Rottie male and #1 female and we traveled around the city with them and the dogs capturing them at key tourist points: in the park next to one of the horse-drawn carriages, in front of FAO Schwartz, in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, at Rockefeller Plaza watching the skaters, and, of course, at the Garden itself.

Capturing a bit of the location was important to capturing the essence of the dogs and the added benefit was that lots of people got to meet some really cool dogs: the female, Dyna, is Rowdy's sister and is the winningest Rottie bitch of all time; the boy, Elvis, is one of the most wonderful Rottie boys I've ever spent time with. And that interaction with people created some lovely images as well.

I think we tend to create our own limitations. Sometimes, it takes the vision of a visitor to show us that those "limitations" are actually great opportunities.

The more I shoot dogs in "standard" locations including my own studio, the more I want to find locations that create a unique image that is relevant to the dog itself. And that may be in its own home. The studio only gives me a way to control the background. I can take those lights with me anywhere and create "studio lighting conditions." It's the "anywheres" I'm trying to collect so I have lots of options to offer clients both for pet portraits as well as advertising shots.

Jim