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We all love our pets. We enjoy them as puppies, watch them mature, and sadly, when they take leave of us at the end, we wish we had taken just one more photo of their puppy months or exuberant adolescent moments - some more videos, photos - even had a portrait painted by a local artist. One of the ways to creatively capture your pet’s memory for years to come is to make an impression of its paw. After all it was/is something you have seen often enough - too much on rainy days! - a sign you’ve come to recognize. It could be 2D on paper or 3D as an impression or cast.
Then you should always somehow get a record (a photo or through scanning) onto your computer. Such prints, images or graphics can so easily be incorporated into photo albums, scrap books and even hung on your wall, depending on how they are made. It’s also a great form of backup, should something happen to the original.

Ideas abound when one asks a young person how they would make a paw print of their dog, with the most common reply being: “First you got to doink it on its head so it stays still…”

Areas and Issues to Note and Beware
This very briefly summarizes points to remember when taking your pet paw impression:
- They do not understand what we are trying to do; so
- They may become frightened or unsure when we try and do something to them that they do not understand, and as a result:
- They wriggle! And maybe:
- They will whine or bark – even bite a little harder than their usual friendly chewing!
The solution is to find ways to take an impression while allowing your pet to do what comes naturally.

Some ideas that my children came up with:
- Dig a hole. Make some mud in it. Lay a long piece of paper on the other side of the hole, and stand at the far end of it from the dog. Someone holds the dog at the mud-hole end, and the other person crinkles a crisp packet, encouraging the dog to run through the mud, and across the paper, creating paw prints as they go! I could see that working on our dogs, actually - they’ll do almost anything for a crisp.
- Use powder paint and make a mix. Rub, tickle and stroke the dog’s tummy until its paws stick up in the air. Roll paint on its paw and quickly press a piece of paper against it. Yes, that would work - until the dog gets up and runs through the house…So be prepared for every possible eventuality!

The children do have the right idea though - if we can get the dog to act in a natural way, like walking through wet cement, or across some wet plaster of Paris, or in some sand and then take either a plaster of Paris or a latex impression - we are on a winning streak.

Other ideas that came up: scan your dog’s paw and print it off, photograph it while it’s on its back, make an impression using Pleistocene, Blue Tack, White Tack or salt dough. Take a rubbing (like a brass rubbing) of a paw imprint in some damp concrete.

Try and find new ways to immortalize your pet, and have fun while doing it.