When the folks at Garden & Gun magazine — a Southern publication whose focus is gardening and sporting — asked for submissions for its 2012 Good Dog Photo Contest, we bet they had no idea just how inundated with dog photos they would be. We love our dogs! And we love taking photos of our dogs! And with cameras built into almost every modern electronic device, it’s that much easier to capture our favorite furry friends doing what they do best: being adorable.

We wouldn’t want to be in the judges’ paws — after all, how do you decide that one dog photo is better than another? — but they did the impossible by separating the dog photos into four categories: Dogs at Play, Dogs at Rest, Dogs Being Dogs, and Dogs in the Field and on the Water. They selected one winner from each category, along with a couple of honorable mentions, and a paw-ful of favorite photos. All the photos are viewable at Garden & Gun‘s site, but we picked out some favorites of our own to share.

So without further ado, here are some of our favorites from the Good Dog Photo Contest. See if you can guess which category they’re from (the answers are in the captions)!

Via Garden & Gun