Dogs Gone Dancin Photo Gallery posted

I put together a few photos from the freestyle seminar held yesterday. 

http://cardigan-corgis.com/Dogs%20Gone%20Dancin%20gallery/index.htm

Here’s one of the handsome dogs who participated:

Liz and Emma

Today Zoey and I were invited to help teach a class on Canine Musical Freestyle (“Dog Dancing”). The seminar was a benefit for “Animal Aid“, a local charity which helps dogs and cats in need. 

Zoey and I showed off a few beginning dance moves as well as a couple of tricks. Five other presenters did actual freestyle routines–always a treat to watch! 

Liz and Emma got a lot of applause for their dance moves–I think you can tell from the photo they are both having a great time! 

Dancing Dogs

On Saturday, Zoey and I were invited to join in on a little demo going on in SW Portland. The “Dogs Gone Dancin’” freestyle group was performing tricks and freestyle routines so Zoey and I participated too!

Zoey slam dunked a basketball, showed off her ‘jumping machine’ and put herself to bed in her crate. In addition, we did a little disco dancing routine, although Zoey really did more barking than dancing! That girl gets SO excited when she gets to perform!

I took along my camera and captured some of the action provided by Leah and her awesome dogs Flare and Honda. Linda was also there with her wonderful Golden, Beau. The freestyle routines Leah and Linda did got much applause from the audience!

 

The Dancing Dogs of Portland

A couple of weeks ago I attended the “Bow Wow Bash” event in SW Portland. While I was there I ran into some  friends from my days of participating in canine musical freestyle.

Here’s Leah and Honda:

And Liz and Emma:

Back in 2002, Leah and I did a pairs routine with her Papillion Mighty and my Riley-bug (more on that in a future post).

I’ve often thought Zoey would do well in freestyle. She has many tricks that she can do and she has no problem performing in front of an audience. In fact, she THRIVES when it comes to performing in front of people. But, I never had a reason to put together a routine…

Until…

 

Ok…we aren’t THAT popular

So this post begins with the thought that even though some of the videos I have on “YouTube” have been viewed several thousand times, there is at least one dog and handler pair who have been seen by MILLIONS of people.

The wonderful thing about it, is that I’ve even met this person! Carolyn Scott is, without a doubt, one of the best performers EVER in the sport of canine musical freestyle. If you haven’t seen this video (and really, who hasn’t?), then you’ll be amazed by it:

Carolyn came to Portland several years ago to give a seminar and I attended it with Rugby and Riley. At the time, Riley and I were having a difficult time finding the right music to do a routine to. After all, it’s not easy finding the right music to match a 5′9″ human with to a 12″ dog!

After watching Riley and I move around for awhile, Carolyn said, “I know what song you need!” and grabbed a CD. On it was, “Charlie Brown” by “The Coasters”. It fit us perfectly. I was grateful to Carolyn for working with us that day; she is such a kind person. It saddened me to hear that the dog in the video (Rookie) recently passed away.

Riley and I never did work up a routine to the Charlie Brown song, but that song might get danced to yet by a Corgi…