Shane McLaughlin, keeper of Cabbage utterances, seems surprised that his dog sings when he practices horn. That is, when Shane practices horn.
He does not indicate whether the dog responds appropriately to suitable manipulations of a horn club. (Be careful if your dog belongs to a Kennel Club.) To find out what should be done, take a closer look at the dog. Is this a valvedog, or, as the French would say, a Cur a Pistons? Or is it the valveless Cur d'Orchestre? Or is it an old-fashioned brand such as the Wiener Dog, favored by the Vienna Philharmonic?
Now listen to the dog. Is it producing high-pitched whining, referred to as collieratura? Does your dog sing in the low register, in poodle tones? Or is your hound an ordinary muttso-soprano? Does your dog bark behind a screen? If so, you may be confident that what your dog is trying to communicate is THANK YOU VERY MUCH. NEXT!
Of course, dogs have an ancient and honorable connection with music. One of Orlando di Lasso's most touching songs is "Bon jour, mon cur." Who, despite much effort, could ever forget Pachelbel's Canine? Dogs made early appearances on the opera stage in L'Incoronazione di Puppeo by Mutteverdi, as well as Purcel's Fido and Aeneus. J. S. Bark never wrote an opera, but he did write Wachet Arf. How about Donizetti's comic masterpiece, Les fleas du regiment? And Offenbach's Tails of Hoffman, with its superb barkarolle?
Perhaps the most famous musical dog of the ninteenth century was Marke, a large Newfoundland owned by Richard Wagner. This dog both sang and played horn! In the first Ring Cycles at Bayreuth, he sang Hunding in Walkuere, and played the long Ruf in Siegfried! He also created one of the title roles in the opera Tristan Hund Isolde. The audience at the premier so admired his bellen canto style that they insisted he give a dozen solo bows! You can be sure that his tone, whether playing horn or singing, was both well-centered and woofy.
Of course, Wagner was not alone in using dogs in music. For example, consider Schummann's Puppillon, Brahms' Hydrant Variations, Richard Strauss's Ein Houndenleben, Mahler's Das Leash von der Erde, Debussy's Une bark sur l'ocean, Ravel's Rhapsody espaniel, Hindemith's Mathias the Pointer, Canina Burana by Carl Arf, Schoenberg's Purina lunaire, and A Ceremony of Growls by Benjamin Bitten, not to mention the songs of Hugo Woof. Igrr Stravinsky, encouraged by the Russian impressario, Sergei Doggylev, composed a remarkable series of dog-related works, including L'Oiseau de Fur, Poochinella, Bowser de la Fee, and, of course, Oedipus Rex, an opera about the most famous dog in Greek mythology.
Unfortunately, if your dog is aware of all this history, it is likely to continue howling. If you get tired of this, just repeat "Ciao, Dog!" many times, so that your dog can figure out you really mean business.
Gotta go,
Chou