Dance Like No one is Watching: Digging the Paw-so Dog-lé

Rennie getting ready to spin.

I’m not an athletic person by any stretch of the imagination. However, I adore dancing.  I’m not good at it, but it makes me happy, and sometimes my body even decides to coincide with the movements in my mind.  And of course, I love dogs.  But even I was a bit wary when I first heard about dog dancing.  Visions of people and dogs wearing matching outfits, Len Gooddog, Bruno Spinoni, and Carrie Ann Ibizan Hound scoring, dogs samba-ing on two feet (yes, I’ve seen the YouTube video and all I can think is that poor dog’s back!)… a circus act, basically.  Not my thing.  Until I actually saw it.

As the former dog training coordinator at ARF, my office was in the Training Pavilion where all the classes took place.  On Friday nights, there is “dog dancing,” otherwise known as canine freestyle (“canine” added so no wannabe rappers show up?), taught by Judy Gamet, owner and creator of Dogs Can Dance.  I listened at first, bobbing and dancing in my chair as I worked at the computer.  Then, giving my eyes a break, I decided to check it out.  Interesting.  Basic commands put to music.  Kind of like aerobics.  I like aerobics (not that I ever do them).  Hmmm.  I put my research skills to work and looked it up on YouTube.  Wow.  Kate and Gin.  OMG WOW! Carolyn Scott and Rookie.  This is cool stuff!

However, time and finances made it easy to hold off on taking a class.  Then, Judy taught a freestyle portion in a Sports Sampler class, and again I took a break to watch.  What caught my eye was an older coonhound /rottie mix.  The owner was trying to get the dog involved in some sport and up until now, the dog had only shown courteous interest.  But all of a sudden, she was transformed!  Her ears went up.  She was prancing!  Her stub tail was moving in time to the music!  She had a little extra wiggle in her walk!  She looked like she was smiling at her handler, saying THIS is what I’m talking about!  Sure, it’s a little corny that it was Elvis’ “Hound Dog”, but what I would later see happening time and time again was that some dogs really enjoy certain music – not the same kind of music for every dog, but each dog has his or her own musical preference.  Apparently, music doesn’t just calm the savage beast, it inspires them.

Yoji, a collie/rockstar mix, is by far my more athletic dog – flying into the air, performing half-twists just to catch a deflated basketball, leaping over ravines on off-leash hikes, and infamously climbing six feet up into a pepper tree just to see what was on the other side of the fence.  I took him to a couple freestyle lessons, and he was o.k., but it was a little sedate for him – no flames or fog machines. At 12, Taro can still get his groove going – he did create the Jindo Hustle after all.  I thought about taking class with him.  However, recalling Rennie’s interest whenever I sashayed around the house with tunes blaring, he seemed the likely candidate.

Rennie, despite being mostly border collie, is almost as physically uncoordinated as I am.  He has mild hip dysplasia, but that doesn’t account for tumbling ass over tea kettle when he goes into zoomies, or falling off the edge of the porch if he’s not paying attention.  But what he lacks in physical prowess, he makes up for in enthusiasm.   He’ll play tug, shag after balls, and best of all, get silly with me without a moment of embarrassment or conscientiousness.  He’s all about the fun of the doing, a lesson I’ve taken to heart.

So, Rennie and I enrolled in freestyle classes.                              

Both of us were in love.  Spins, weaves, passes, cuts – they were all terrific.  Rennie was an eager learner and participant.  His tail keeping rhythm like a metronome, the two of us sailed across the pavilion floor like Fred and Ginger – at least in our minds.  Time sails by, and at the end of class, both of us are exhausted but happy.

I’m not a competitive person, but I am goal oriented and I like knowing when I’m doing well and where I can improve.  However, crowds make me uneasy, so I didn’t have any interest in performing in front of an audience.  The Dog Can Dance Challenge allows dogs and handlers to earn titles by submitting videos that fulfill set guidelines.  Whew!  No live performance necessary!  The challenge is also open to teams (multiple dogs) as well as to dogs and handlers that have limitations based on health and age.  The emphasis of the challenge is on handling skills that showcase the dog.

The Dogs Can Dance Challenge appealed to me, so Rennie and I registered and have just passed our entry level, which focused primarily on handler skills and handler comprehension of freestyle terms.  You can watch a portion of our entry levels.

Completing "Around"

Joining the Dogs Can Dance Challenge wasn’t so much about getting a title as doing something that Rennie and I enjoy doing together (he certainly doesn’t care about letters).  Freestyle has improved our communication and expanded our training vocabulary.  We practice daily in a quiet corner of the local park, usually with me humming or singing off –key.  With the two of us focusing on each other, laughing and having fun, it’s like the rest of the world disappears.  Ren, who can be reactive, suddenly ignores passing dogs, bicycles, and people.  That’s when I know it’s good, when Ren and I can be free to dance like no one is watching.  And it’s good.