Today, I had a photo shoot with a new-born baby -- a human baby. This was the second child of a couple for whom I've been photographing their first child for more than a year. This baby, Alexander, was born 3 weeks ago and is Jaiden's brother who is now 18 months old.

As we were finishing the shoot, Ashley, the mom, asked if Rowdy was OK. We had put all the dogs into places where they would not make too much noise and frighten the new baby. We said that Rowdy was just fine. She asked if it was OK to introduce him to Alex. We told her that Rowdy would really enjoy it.

The last time I published photos of Rowdy with a baby, I got some heat from folks who don't think that a Rottweiler should ever be put in close proximity to a child. I explained that Rowdy has been close to children his entire life and he truly loves them. And, at 11 1/2 years of age, Rowdy is more trustworthy now than he has ever been. And in terms of trustworthiness, he's been impeccable.

So, we brought Rowdy out of the back bedroom and introduced him to Alex. Rowdy gave him very sweet puppy kisses on the cheek. For the photos, we put Rowdy in a down/stay and mom put Alex on a pillow next to him with his body leaning against Mr. R. Here's a pic of that.



The baby just layed there calmly while we clicked off several dozen frames and Rowdy just held his position so he wouldn't disturb the baby. It was cute and it was poignant. Rowdy now has a new baby to love. He is very happy.

Jim