Original Dogs Have the Blues [VIDEO]

dogs have the blues

Yesterday we posted about Cody and Sierra's appearance on the BBC One Show in a documentary about dogs and music.  I'm not sure if they used our “Dogs Have the Blues” video but I realized that I hadn't post our original “Dogs Have the Blues” on our website yet.  I did post this video of the Singing Dogs jamming to the blues but the original one that is up on our Youtube channel has only been posted on our Video page.

So here is our original “Dogs Have the Blues” video which I believe was used on the BBC One Show for the documentary which aired in the UK last night.

Dogs Have the Blues

Let us know if you like this blues improvisation over our other video and what you think.  I think we sound pretty good but you never know.  Cody and Sierra seem to really like it when I just run blues scales on my saxophone.  I guess these Dogs have the Blues!  Of course their lives are pretty easy but I'm not sure if they think that.

If you are looking for more blues dogs videos you might remember when Sierra was teaching a foster puppy we had named Scout to sing.  Sierra and Scout improvised the blues.  Scout wasn't quite singing all the time, he was sort of barking, but I thought Sierra and him made a good musical duo even if the band was not together for long.  That's the way some bands are.

We'll let everyone know when we get the DVD from producers of the “Canine Concert” documentary that featured Cody and Sierra.  We hope we will get more offers from our UK cousins for gigs.

Singing Dogs will be featured on BBC One Show

bbc one show

UPDATE: Unfortunately our video was edited out of the documentary on The One Show at the last minute before it aired. 🙁

Hey everyone, we just got some great news from across the pond as they like to say.  A documentary is going to air on the BBC One Show in the UK (United Kingdom) called “Canine Concert” and it will feature Cody and Sierra.  The documentary is about dogs and music and who better to showcase that than the Singing Dogs?

Unsure of which video they are going to use since we sent the production company a bunch of videos and said they could use whatever they thought was best for the One Show documentary.  I believe they will be using our Dogs Have the Blues video since I sent that one to them via a cloud sharing service.

The documentary that will air on the The One Show “Canine Concert” is extremely short to my understanding, about 5 minutes or so.  At least that's what they originally told me.  Still it will be exciting that Cody and Sierra will be shown on TV in the UK.  They are “English Shepherds” after all and Britain could be considered their “homeland.”  Check out their great version of God Save the Queen if you haven't.

According to the production flyer Icon Films, the production company that made the documentary, sent it will air on the BBC One Show on Thursday, March 13th at 7:00pm on the BBC One channel.  As of this writing it hasn't aired since the UK is 5 hours ahead of the United States but will soon.

We will keep everyone updated once we get the documentary from Icon Films.  They will send us a DVD of it once it airs on the BBC One Show and the Singing Dogs and I will be excited to get it.  We just hope it doesn't take too long.

If you live in the UK (or Great Britain) and saw the documentary on The One Show, let us know how you liked it “Canine Concert” and if you saw Cody and Sierra.

Spring has left Temporarily

It seems Spring has left us temporarily.  It got cold again last night and and last time I checked the temperature it said it was 22* degrees Fahrenheit.  When will it be Spring people?

Winter is fun for awhile but the Singing Dogs and I would really like to see some warmer weather.  When I asked “Is Spring here for Good?” I guess the answer was no. 🙁

If you are tired of the cold weather and want to see Spring, leave a comment below.  I know Spring is just around the corner, hopefully.

We use Dog Seatbelts, You Should Too

dog seatbeltsI just thought I'd take a minute out of our day to encourage everyone that reads and follows us to use Dog Seatbelts or harnesses when transporting your puppies in a vehicle.  It's not just safe for our dogs, but safety for us humans too.

Most people are not aware but in the event of an accident having 1 person, or in this case a pet, not secured properly can be fatal to the other occupants inside a vehicle.  Many crash tests and real-life circumstances have shown that 1 unsecured body can seriously hurt others in a car.  That's why we feel it's necessary to use some sort of restraint for our dogs even if an auto accident is unlikely.  Better to be safe than sorry in our opinion.

I've written before about dog harnesses and restraints and posed the question on this blog, “Do Dog Seatbelts Really Protect your Dog?”  Studies have shown that dog seatbelts are not quite as effective as you would hope since there are no industry-wide standards for dog harness testing.  Test conducted in collaboration with the Center for Pet Safety, a non-profit advocacy group, and Subaru have shown that many of these dog seatbelts fail to perform properly.

While I appreciate the studies that the Center for Pet Safety and Subaru conducted and I believe that there should be some industry standards for pet harnesses, I still feel safer if both Cody and Sierra are secured in the car.  At least we have some safety mechanism in place and this makes it so that they can't roam around our car while it's in motion.  This can be distracting and dangerous for us.

That's why we use Dog Seatbelts and we encourage others to use them as well if you are inclined.  We'd love to hear people's thoughts about dog seatbelts and dog harnesses though.  Do you use dog seatblets?  Why?  If you don't have a dog restraint system in your car, have you thought about buying one?

Is Spring Here for Good?

cody

Some of you might remember our post from a few days ago “When will it be Spring?”  It seemed like the cold weather would never go away.  Well… finally today it got warm and it was an incredibly nice day.

We decided to take the dogs for a nice long walk to Sherwood Gardens.  Along the way it was clear that lots of other people were enjoying the nice warm 50-60 degree (Fahrenheit in case any Europeans where wondering or you like to use Celsius) weather too.  We saw lots of runners, kids on bikes and scooters, adults on bicycles, other dogs, etc.  Seems like everyone came out of their house for a little bit today in Maryland to enjoy the better weather from this long and harsh winter.

From what I can tell the forecast looks like it will be nice, but on Wednesday and Thursday it is supposed to be cold and rainy.  This makes washing muddy dog paws a real pain. 🙁 It's already a PIA with all the melted snow in the yard making the place a mud pit instead of a backyard.

Anyway, if it was nice where you live, how are you enjoying the nice weather and the start of Spring?  At least we hope the start of Spring is upon us.

Beating out a Wikipedia Page in Google is Damn Hard

wikipedia pageSome of you that follow Singing Dogs closely might remember we posted that we had a 1 SERP Ranking in Google.  (I should clarify we rank first for a text links to a website and webpage.  Videos technically have the 1 number spot.)  We were all pretty happy about this SEO development for our website… until I noticed a week later we dropped down to the 2nd spot in Google for the search phrase “Singing Dogs.”

I'll admit to everyone that I've been in a battle with a Wikipedia page for the number 1 position ever since.  (If you are curios to know that page is about New Guinea Singing Dogs.  I wonder if Cody and Sierra are related?)  For now and as of this writing we have the number 1 spot again but it was a lot of work trying to reclaim the SERP (search engine result pages) position in Google.

While I always knew that trying to outrank a Wikipedia page is damn hard, I didn't realize it was going to be this hard.  Especially considering the search term “Singing Dogs” doesn't get as many monthly search queries as you would expect.  Also it annoys me that Google changes it's algorithm so readily and it still doesn't take down spammy and crappy pages, even if you report them.

I'm curios to know if any pet bloggers, other types of bloggers, search marketers, etc. have also had a similarly difficult experience of trying to outrank a Wikipedia page in Google?  What about for non-competitive keywords and search phrases?  Was it still hard to dethrone the monster that is Wikipedia?