Squeak and Squawk

Prada killed the squeaky today. It still bounces, it can still be tugged and chewed on, but it has fallen silent.

So what do you do with a Seeing Eye dog during choir practices? Does the noise bother the dog? Do the high pitches bother the dog?

Prada appears unperturbed by the soprano section (the higher female voices) but perhaps that's because I'm singing alto this year (lower female voices). I usually sing soprano but our director needed altos so that's where I am for the semester. During my audition Prada relaxed on the floor until I got up into the higher registers, then she looked up to make sure I was ok, and hasn't displayed any interest in our noise since then. Our seating chart has me on the end of one row so Prada sleeps next to my chair during the rehearsal. Every so often while the director talks to us about different sections of the music she'll roll over and hum at me but other than that she's pretty quiet.

I took her to a concert last night, a guest faculty piano recital. She was quiet during the whole performance and I feel more confident about taking her to one or two of our shorter performances with a roommate to puppy-sit. If that doesn't work out, though, I'll just stick her in the soft crate in the choir room and check on her during intermissions. We're getting ready for a choir retreat in a couple weeks so I'll get to see how she deals with more noise in smaller quarters (and have her off her eating schedule again :P).

Prada proved to be a bit too excitable by an audience to come on stage with us, but she sits very well in the audience, or sleeps in my dorm room during performances.  I’ve taken her to a variety of musical performances, including flute and organ and orchestral, and so far I think her favourite is organ.  She “comments” with a hum during applause after each piece, and I suspect it’s due to the vibration of the lower registers through the floor.  I personally love organ music, too, so it’s a good match J