Cas - Homemade

I've just had a researcher from the above programme come round to film Cas doing her Cotton Eye Joe freestyle routine.

She was a bit gobby the first time we performed it, it's hard to work with her when she's like that! So we did it a second time and filmed some close ups and a third time for a different angle. He also filmed her playing basketball and skateboarding though whether they use that I don't know as it was a freestyle routine they wanted.

UPDATE -

Shown Saturday 10th February 2007 on Channel 4 - they dubbed out Cotton Eye Joe and put Steps '5, 6, 7, 8' over it.

Diz/Kali - Nickelodeon

Up early to go down to London with Kali cat and Dizzy dog. A little nervous as to whether Kali cat will behave as I have not done anything with her before. The filming is for some little sketches in between programmes, cartoon characters living in a real world so there will be animated characters in the finished product as well as the animals.

Diz was up first and she did some skateboarding as well as various tricks - rollover, paw, creep etc. She found it difficult as the floor was very slippy so they put a rug down for her.
They then filmed a hamster running in his wheel.

Next up was Kali cat, I had got her out a bit before she was due to be filmed to get her used to the enviroment. She was fine, going up to everyone bunting them, rolling on the rug, totally wasn't phased. She had to run down the stairs towards camera. The first time she stopped to look at someone through the bannister rails, so we got them to move. After that she was good as gold and came running to me for the bit of ham. They wanted her running quicker so I called and called and she zoomed down the stairs. 'It's a wrap.'

Can't wait to see the finished product when the cartoon charaters are put in with the animals.

UPDATE I love it!:

Diz - Grange Hill

What a hot day! Temperatures topped 32C. Dizzy was kept in the shade with plenty of water while the crew set up.

Scene 1 – Dizzy is standing by a kennel barking at camera, she then runs past camera slowly to start with then quicker as she nears the camera. We did this about 5 times as they wanted different camera angles.

Scene 2 – Dizzy waits by the kennel and she chases a boy down the track a fair distance.

Scene 3 – Dizzy has to run up to a boy and girl who are chatting. This I have to say was the most difficult, the first couple of times she wasn’t sure who to go with as the crew were everywhere too. But she got the hang of it. Went over to them, he picked her lead up and they ran off together down the track.

That ends our filming for Grange Hill. Not yet sure when it will be shown, Diz enjoyed every minute of it.

UPDATE:

Diz - Grange Hill

We travelled up to Liverpool bright and early (5:45am!) and arrived for some breakie, I had a large coffee! We then went on to our first location.

Scene 1 - Dizzy chases a boy down an alley. I stood behind camera ready to call Diz and Jodie held her at the top of the alley round the corner. The boy had a head start then Diz was released, she did it perfectly, they did a couple more shots trying out different release times. Then they did a close up of Diz running by herself and then recorded her paws ‘pitter pattering’ on the tarmac.

Scene 2 - Diz has to chase the boy across the road, onto the pavement and round a corner. Again Jodie held Diz out of sight while the boy had a head start. This was a bit more difficult as I didn’t want Diz to run diagonally across the road, she needed to run across and onto the pavement. So the first time I signalled her over and after that she knew what to do! She realised she had to chase the boy so she ended up doing that and didn’t need me there, she thought it was a great game and as soon as they said ‘action’ she was raring to go!

Scene 3 - Back at the studios, Diz chases boy through a fence. Diz had to run out through a hole in the fence, through a bush, down a small wall, stop still and bark at camera. Which she did no problem, we ran a rehearsal then one for real and that was done. The second part, her ‘owner’ (in the scene) goes up to her and tells her to go back. Jodie was hiding through the fence and called her through. Then they needed to record for sound though so Diz had to go through herself, well she took the cue off her ‘owner’ and off she trotted back through the fence. They filmed this a few times, with sound, without and different camera angles. They also filmed a close up of her barking, then recorded her barking for sound.

That was Day 1 complete, Diz had a great time, she is such a good girl.

Diz - Audition

Dizzy and I went for an audition for Grange Hill this afternoon up in Liverpool. Diz has to do a lot of barking at a child and various other bits and bobs. She was great and they loved her so said they would take her. We go up next Thursday & Tuesday for filming – yay!

Cas - Blue Peter

Cas and I were invited on Blue Peter following on from her Wag & Bone win. They were running a Pup Idol item.

There was a lady there with her dog who could skip, a gentleman with his dog that played football, Jo Ann with her staffie who was skateboarding and Tina with her collie doing some freestyle,. I was a little disappointed they only wanted Cas to play basketball as they had originally said they wanted her winning routine from the Wag & Bone Show. We took the dogs into the Blue Peter garden (looks a lot smaller than it does on TV!) and they had a short rehearsal. Cas did her basketball trick perfectly. We had some lunch and then another rehearsal followed. Again Cas did her trick perfectly and we were all told that we should do a few extra tricks and things a bit later.

In the live show Cas got the basketball stuck in her teeth and couldn't release it into the net - such a darn shame. A bit later everyone was asked to do their tricks, but you couldn't really see Cas very well as she was at the back. Needless to say she didn't get anywhere. But we did get a Blue Peter badge and it was great seeing the set and Blue Peter Garden! They actually had a short snippet of Ember finishing her agility round at Crufts on the Monday Show too.

Rum - Dogs Today

Rum attended a photo shoot for Dogs Today today. It was his first time out and about as he only just had his last vaccination so I had visions of him completely ignoring me and going off! But I shouldn’t have worried, he was golden. They used the same colour background as they did for Cas as it makes their eyes look lovely. He did some sits and some downs and thought the noises the photographer was making were great!! The photos look fab and they think possibly good enough for front cover!

UPDATE - Rum is front cover of Dogs Today - August edition:

Cas - Richard Hammond

Travelled down to London with Cas as we had been invited on the show because they were looking for talented pets. The show was filmed live so we had a couple of rehearsals. It is the first time Cas has been in a studio environment so I was really pleased with how she coped, I thought she might freak out but she was absolutely fine! We had one rehearsal then I had a bit of lunch then in the afternoon we had a dress rehearsal. We were in the second quarter of the live show so we got into position behind the curtains ready to go on. It was very dark and Cas is scared stiff of the dark and she saw the shadow of someone and barked, apparently you can just about hear it on the show lol!

Anyway it was our cue and we walked down the steps onto set. Richard asked me some different questions to the ones he had asked me in rehearsals, so it threw me a bit. But Cassie did her moves perfectly. In rehearsal they had had some videos of animals doing various tricks they were going to play but they likes Cas so much they cut those out.

It was another tiring day and Cas couldn't wait to get in the car to go home!!