OT, longish: Pets and Pianos

[CowboyNQ]

A short while back, there was some brief talk here about our pets' reactions to our music.

 

I wanted to visit this again to see if anyone else has a similar experience to what has become ritual at my house. I'm thoroughly fascinated by this behaviour, hopefully some other keyboard-playing pet owners might be too.

 

The star of the show is my 4 year old Cavoodle, Winston. The time elapsed from first photograph to last photograph is 46 minutes.

 

Piano practice starts - Winston leaps up onto the couch to "listen".

 

2 minutes later, getting mellow.

 

6 minutes into practice, getting REALLY mellow.

 

It doesn't look comfy to me either, but he's fast asleep (or hiding his ears from the noise)! 30 minutes in.

 

45 minutes, practice is over. Winston wakes up and leaves as soon as I shut the piano. You can see him departing on the top left of this picture.

 

This is a VERY regular occurence. And interestingly, if I play on my digital keyboards, he couldn't show less interest, piano patches or not.

 

What I wonder is, does he listen to the music, or does he just like hanging?

 

 

[Dave Bryce]

My dog Loki absolutely loves the piano beng played. No matter where he is in the house, when I start playing he comes and hangs out until I'm done, typically getting closer the longer I play.

 

He's the second dog I had that was into the piano - my Elkhound Tiger loved it as well.

 

dB

[NewImprov]

My Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever (yes, that's really a breed, I didn't believe at first either) Lakshmi (named after vocalist Lakshmi Shankar, not NPR correspondent Lakshmi Singh, as most people assume) hangs out under the desk in my studio most of the time when I am working or practicing. I know she's heard some pretty extreme music, but she seems not to mind it very much.

 

When I was a kid, we had a Samoyed that would howl when I practiced piano. Never really knew if she thought she was singing along with me, or howling in pain over how bad I sounded.

[Threadslayer]

Lakshmi (named after vocalist Lakshmi Shankar, not NPR correspondent Lakshmi Singh, as most people assume)

Actually, the first thing I thought of was Padma Lakshmi

[16251]

Sounds like dogs could rate electric pianos better than humans.

[DulceLabs.com]

If I am playing new-aging type stuff on the piano, my cat will come hop up and chill. He doesn't really like synths tho.

[The Real MC]

I had a cat who would beg to be picked up and held whenever I played any JS Bach. Same cat would get an abrupt boost of adrenaline and bounce off the walls whenever ELP or other progressive music is playing on the stereo.

 

I have a cat now who is proof that aromatherapy works. If I cook anything with garlic or pepper, she gets a serious buzz on - you don't pet her, she pets you. We're talking aggressive rubbing of my hand and chewing the digits (I keep my fingers curled and closed). All I have to do is hold my hand still. She doesn't want to eat any of my meal, the smell from cooking it sets her off. The more aggressive she demands attention, the better my meal turns out. A feline culinary critic if you will. And ironically enough I named her Pepper, long before she started behaving like this

[Barryjam]

Three of my past and present dogs have either slept very close or howled.

My late wife's Chiwawa regularly pissed on the legs of my Steinway. After an appropriate mourning period for my wife, her Chiwawa was no longer with me. Don't ask.

[DanL]

My American Bulldog, Nola, comes to the blues jam with me and lays at my feet. She's somewhat of a celebrity at the venue that hosts it.

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj60/dan88z/8099b1b5-c4f4-4564-955f-95ba95b5e46b_zpssucqjhj7.jpg

[Markyboard]

Great thread! My lab Stella sticks close by when I'm on my Hammond in the living room. She didn't do stairs until about 5 years old when she made a surprise appearance in the upstairs bedrooms. But she never tried to go downstairs to the basement - probably for the best since that's Bunker's safe zone.

 

If I am playing new-aging type stuff on the piano, my cat will come hop up and chill. He doesn't really like synths tho.

 

Bunker loves synths playing the occasional drone note when the mood strikes him:

 

http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t490/Markyboard/IMG_2558_zpsuogrpx0v.jpg

 

[CowboyNQ]

MC and Mark - loving the names of your cats. Pepper loves spices and Bunker owns the basement, brilliant!

 

Dan - great shot of Nola. You reminded me that I have some amusing pics of a music loving canine stage invader that I'll share when my computer gets back from the repair shop.

[Threadslayer]

Great thread! My lab Stella sticks close by when I'm on my Hammond in the living room.

I haven't thought about it for years, but my Lab Samson used to come along on some of my gigs and crash right in front of my B3. He'd snooze right through entire sets, which is odd now that I think of it because we were LOUD.

[ITGITC]

 

I adopted Kansas the cat. I felt sorry for him... runt of the litter and all. As cats will be, he was independent and aloof. Never quite right, really. I didn't give it a second thought, until...

 

I came home one afternoon to find that he had jumped on the keys of my Fender Rhodes and let go with everything he had.

 

I disassembled the board and cleaned it, to no avail. My Rhodes smelled like catpiss.

 

Later in the year we had a hurricane, as we're somewhat prone to those here... Kansas decided to go out (he never told me whenever he left the house, where he was going and when he was coming back).

 

I never saw him again.

 

Don't know what happened to Kansas the cat.

 

I just hope he didn't meet with a cataclysmic demise. :idk

 

 

[WesG]

One of my Jacks loves Classic Rock. She will either sit in front of the Leslie or on the batter side of the kick.

 

My boxer tries to sing along when I host a duo rehearsal.

 

The other dog just runs and hides.

 

At least the cats are normal. They just LOVE destroying amps covered in rat fur.

 

Wes

[CowboyNQ]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Very cool stories. Sorry to hear about your Rhodes Tom!

 

Here are the pictures Dan's post reminded me of. Only unlike Dan, our guest wasn't invited!

 

This is from a show we did about 2-3 years ago. Outdoor gig at a winery. We never did work out who the dog belonged to but as soon as the band started playing she jumped up on stage and was not keen on budging. A couple of helpful audience members removed her at one point, only for her to plonk herself right back up there!

 

It was loud too - check out all those wedges. The eagle-eyed among you will also notice that our friend either had a healthy lack of respect for authority, or couldn't read.

 

 

[Threadslayer]

I just hope he didn't meet with a cataclysmic demise. :idk

 

Well, sometimes chasing demise can end in catastrophe.

[Markyboard]

 

Was there any doggie stage diving?

 

[CowboyNQ]

Ha love it Mark!

 

No stage diving but our invader took a real shine to our lead singer. After the show she followed him around everywhere. Even better was that he's not a dog owner and didn't quite know how to deal with the attention.

 

Quite hilarious all round.