A Dog And A Concertina

[chiton1]

I have a wonderful, nice dog; half Labrador, half something else. ''So what..'' will some of you think.

The problem is that when I start playing the concertina he sits beside me, and wants to join by howling or even barking frenetically. This is great fun for a little while, but then it gets annoying as you can not concentrate anymore. Especially as my dog doesn't care about any of the essentials of music making. In other words; he doesn't follow the melody at all, he's quite out of tune, and rithmically he's not that strong either.

If I try to silence him he lies down, squeaking and moaning quite compulsively; the poor thing can't help it (nor stop). If I put him in another room it's better but even than I can hear him just behind the door.

When I play other instruments (wooden flute, tin whistle or even the bombarde) he wil not join or only halfhearted. Apparently he appreciates the concertina above all other instruments. Yes, yes I know... the dog has great taste, but what to do about it?

Has anyone else the same experience (or do you all have cats or even better goldfish!)? And if so is there something to do about it (besides drugging it or the use of other animal unfriendly methods)?

 

By the way my name (see another recent topic) is Hermann Leberecht Strack (good old German name from my father's side of the family - Bagnalasta is my mother's family name and that's Italian). If somebody wants to make improper use of this information - he/she should be warned: I'll send him/her my dog!

[Dirge]

Our spaniel, now living with my parents in England, took to slouching against my leg with his head back howling to 'The Iron Duke' (Morris tune). When he grew in confidence with this he started trying other tunes and I then did the usual training sort of thing "No, that's not your tune, NO" He quickly worked out that there was this one tune that he was allowed to join in with, and anything else he got told off for. He used to recognise his tune from the first note

 

On a recent visit to England I started practicing. Pickles the spaniel appeared and and made a few grumbly "I'm here" sort of noises. I hit the chord I start Iron Duke with and he was off as if I'd never been away. Great fun for us, excruciating for anyone else in the house.

 

Doesn't help you much except to show that you can persuade a dog to limit his singing to one particular tune, at least, with patience. You will be expected to trot it out regularly though, in my experience.

[m3838]

Our spaniel, now living with my parents in England, took to slouching against my leg with his head back howling to 'The Iron Duke' (Morris tune). When he grew in confidence with this he started trying other tunes and I then did the usual training sort of thing "No, that's not your tune, NO" He quickly worked out that there was this one tune that he was allowed to join in with, and anything else he got told off for. He used to recognise his tune from the first note

 

On a recent visit to England I started practicing. Pickles the spaniel appeared and and made a few grumbly "I'm here" sort of noises. I hit the chord I start Iron Duke with and he was off as if I'd never been away. Great fun for us, excruciating for anyone else in the house.

 

Doesn't help you much except to show that you can persuade a dog to limit his singing to one particular tune, at least, with patience. You will be expected to trot it out regularly though, in my experience.

 

I remembered when I was playing accordion at work a few years ago, co-worker's dog would come running out to join me.

But it didn't look like the dog was having fun. It would not let go though. The whole picture looked like I was torchering the dog.

Do you think dogs actually sing? So they like it? Or it is something else?

[yankeeclipper]

In my early days with the concertina, a musician friend had a Border collie that loved music...but whenever I started to push the buttons on my Wheatstone, Bella would trot over to me and start pawing at my hands. And when that didn't stop me, she'd crawl under the couch and put her paws over her ears! #@$% smart dogs, those Border collies!

[Fiddlehead Fern]

It sounds similar to my friend's dog, who whines and whimpers when she practices her flute. Lately he's taken to jumping up and attempting to knock her over when she hits a high note. Quite an amusing scene, the way she describes it.

 

I have a cat who usually just leaves when I embark on any musical endevour, singing, fiddling, and, I assume, learning to play the concertina.

 

The story of the dog hiding under the couch and covering her ears reminds me of a Cristmas a few years back when my Mom and a friend were playing around on violin and recorder. Moose, the cat, came back to his favorite place under the tree when they stopped for a bit. When the music resumed, Moose simply covered his ears with his paws and looked more tourtured than any other cat I've ever seen.

[SqeezerGeezer]

I had a Welsh Corgi who would attack you if you shook a rhythm egg. Guess he thought it was

a snake or something. On the other hand, I have found that when I am playing the harp, my dogs

will lie down as close to the harp as possible.

[John Sylte]

Ruben my blue heeler sings when I play concertina and/or harmonica...

 

 

I play fiddle and banjo too, and he doesn't seem to respond to either. The free reeds get him going everytime, although in this video, it was the third or fourth take, and he's actually a little subdued. He especially responds to octave playing, when I add the left hand melody notes to the right... I found this on YouTube too (among MANY other singing dog videos)...

 

 

Notice the pup only sings when his owner is singing, and not during instrumental breaks

[RatFace]

Until last autumn I used to live in a little house in the middle of the countryside, at the end of a track so no traffic. I had a cat, Smokey, (who unfortunately died recently) but no cat flap, so when I let him out I would need to get him in again, especially as he needed medication. The first few times were quite a problem because he would never come when I called him, so one day I gave up shouting and sat down on the bench outside my front door and played my accordion (a Castagnari, so he had good taste!). Before I'd finished playing the tune he trotted up, and after that it was the only reliable way of calling him in.

[Dirge]

Until last autumn I used to live in a little house in the middle of the countryside, at the end of a track so no traffic. I had a cat, Smokey, (who unfortunately died recently) but no cat flap, so when I let him out I would need to get him in again, especially as he needed medication. The first few times were quite a problem because he would never come when I called him, so one day I gave up shouting and sat down on the bench outside my front door and played my accordion (a Castagnari, so he had good taste!). Before I'd finished playing the tune he trotted up, and after that it was the only reliable way of calling him in.

 

 

That's bizarre.

[dwinterfield]

Lulu, one of our cats would would try to climb on my lap, shoulder, face etc. when I played the whistle. She was normally quite affectionate and I assumed that she loved the whistle. I posted about this on C&F and several people assured me that this sort of behavior indicated that she wanted me to stop

 

More recently Daisy, our english setter will sit in front of me on full alert when I play the concertina. I'm pretty sure she's much rather I play with her. No singing along though. It's hard to work out tunes with 40lbs of energy sitting 2 ft in front of me, staring very intently.

 

Perhaps it's just as well that our animal friends can't talk. Maybe the unconditional love we ascribe to them is not so unconditional.

[groeswenphil]

Careg Las Morris..............they often have a couple of dogs with them when they dance.

when their musician plays, the dogs start howling.

BUT if another musician plays......even the same instrument and same tunes.....nothing.

 

My cat makes funny noises when I play bagpipes, but I can't decide whether they are appreciative or otherwise.

She makes the same sort of noises when the smoke detector goes off.

Phil

[Robert Booth]

I know some people who can't tell the difference either...

[Fiddlehead Fern]

...Perhaps it's just as well that our animal friends can't talk. Maybe the unconditional love we ascribe to them is not so unconditional.

 

I saw an amusing shirt in a catalouge once, it read "Catfud [or Dogfud] giver Person" and write up had a comment on "the real reason your pet loves you so..."

[Jody Kruskal]

The singing dogs really crack me up. If you listen to track 5 HERE you can hear me sing Liza Jane. I’m not nearly as cute but I did rewrite some of the words to make the song more concertina and canine friendly, including this verse:

 

It’s Liza in the summer time

It’s Liza in the spring

Squeeze your concertina girl

And make my hound dog sing

 

If you want to hear singing whales go here.

 

If you want to hear an amazing piano playing cat go

or here.

[chiton1]

I remembered when I was playing accordion at work a few years ago, co-worker's dog would come running out to join me.

But it didn't look like the dog was having fun. It would not let go though. The whole picture looked like I was torchering the dog.

Do you think dogs actually sing? So they like it? Or it is something else?

 

 

 

My theory is that I am the leader of the pack. Whenever I start playing the concertina the dog thinks I am howling and needs to join the howling as he belongs to the pack. Somehow the concertina triggers this response most. While playing he wants to be as near to me as possible and seems quite offended or disappointed when I tell him to back off. It seems cumpulsive behaviour, although sometimes it looks like he is suffering and sometimes it looks likes he's enjoying it.

But what to do about it, he will join every time I play (impossible to restrict him to one tune only)!

Hermann

[chiton1]

The singing dogs really crack me up. If you listen to track 5 HERE you can hear me sing Liza Jane. I’m not nearly as cute but I did rewrite some of the words to make the song more concertina and canine friendly, including this verse:

 

It’s Liza in the summer time

It’s Liza in the spring

Squeeze your concertina girl

And make my hound dog sing

 

I wrote a song to make use of the dog's howling. It is a sad song (in French... well if you had done your best at school! ;-)

I repeat the melody of the verses with the concertina so that my dog can go solo in these parts.

Hermann

 

Nous sommes des miserables chiens

Tout le monde nous dit qu'on ne vaut rien

 

On nous donne des coups de pied

Par les gens on est tant méprisé

 

On reste dehors quand il pleut

Il n'y a personne qui nous prend chez eux

 

Ce soir on est bien acceuillis

Les .... on doit un grand merci

 

Chorus:

On hurle et on crie

Oh oh quelle souci

On pleure et on crie

Quelle miserable vie

[David Levine]

My pal the vet tells me that the dog is just answering. That the dog hears a call and is responding.

The dog is not in pain and isn't deliriously happy.

It's as if another dog called your dog by name and your dog is saying "What do you want?"

[Robin Madge]

Our cat always tried to sit between me and the concertina and complained when I stopped.

 

Robin Madge