Cas - Britains Got Talent

Well I went for the first audition for 'Britain's Got Talent' three weeks ago and had a phone call last week to say I got through to the second round.

So off we went to Manchester yesterday, got there at 1pm and didn't get on stage till 7pm!! I was quite annoyed as Cas was the only dog there so they should have put her on early. Still she was okay and had fun playing with her pink furry pig lol.

Did some interviews for ITV2 and for ITV1, met Ben Shepherd (sp?) and Ant & Dec.

I was performing 'Cotton Eye Joe' as it is a bit more interesting and upbeat than 'In The Mood.' We did some practice in the holding room and she was fine. I was worried she might be a bit wide on her backward weave but nothing else could go wrong (or so I thought).

We were about to go on stage when they had a little break so we had a chat to Ant & Dec and I put some paw spray on Cas as the surface looked a little slippy. We got on stage and had a chat to Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden. Then given the cue to start, off we went. Anyone who knows Cas will know how focussed she is on me when performing and World War 3 could start and she would still perform, what happened next I could never, ever have imagined happen.

She did her first jump, started the backward weaves and then the beat in the music changed and the speakers were facing in to us, she totally freaked out, the noise was so loud. I tried so hard to coax her into doing some moves, we moved to the back away from the speakers and I managed to get a little out of her but nothing much at all, I wonder whether she could hear me as well as I was having to really shout over the music. Needless to say we didn't get through.

I feel so awful I put her through it, if I had known how she was going to react I would never have done it. The judges said she was the best they had seen so far, if they had a better surface and the speakers didn't scare the dogs then all the others would have probably performed too.

She has been in studios, at Country Fairs, Crufts etc. So it's not something we would have ever, ever imagined happening. I don't care that we're not through, I wouldn't have wanted to put her through it again anyway. Just feel awful that she had to go through it. As she loves her canine freestyle, she was fine though afterwards and was happy to get back to her pink pig

Meeting Ant & Dec was fab. But I know now that she will never be able to do anything like that, studios and Country Fairs etc. fine but the music was just far too loud and it had to be for all the audience to hear, so theatres are a no go.

And I know that if ever anything like this comes up again on stage it needs to be a really really laid back dog, I think Rum or Diz would be fine. I know Ember would probably yap at the speaker as she has done that at Crufts when we were sitting watching lol. So if ever you think about entering something like this, just think twice. I think the BBC1 show would be fine as it is only a studio, but this is in a theatre. Bear it in mind.

Oh and we weren't allowed to take pictures either!

Here she is back home with her pink pig

Kali - CBBC Angellica

Kali cat & I went down to London, aboard the Golden Hinde! Where she was filmed doing various bits and bobs for a slavery drama to be featured on BBC1 during March at 5pm.

Kali was filmed walking over the gang plank towards camera.
Then filmed playing with some marbles.
She then had to walk up to some chains.
We got her to sharpen her paws a bit on some rope.
Walking through a doorway towards camera.
Finally she was filmed sitting on a cloth, looking relaxed.

UPDATE
This was shown 26.03.2007 - Angellica: Time Travel on BBC1.

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!