Dogs sometimes express the exuberance of the moment better than humans. That's certainly true of the dogs featured in the Hounds Across America photo contest, a light-hearted celebration of summer that highlights the role dogs play in the lives of people across America. After all that's the year-round mission of Dog Bless You, the organization behind the contest.

 

Dog Bless You was founded by filmmaker Charles Annenberg Weingarten to spread awareness about the healing role dogs can play in our lives. Weingarten, a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation, is also the founder of Explore.org, the multimedia arm of the Annenberg Foundation that is described as "a philanthropic community whose mission is to champion the selfless acts of others, to create a portal into the soul of humanity and to inspire lifelong learning."