Alan Day Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 (edited) We own and on the rare occasion breed English Setters and have six,three dogs and three bitches.Whenever I play the concertina they react in almost the same way,they cry.We have two young dogs who sit outside the back door and howl in harmony.The only one who does not cry is one of our bitches who looks around to see where the noise is coming from and when she has worked it out, leaps from wherever she is to try and get on my lap. I have now given up practicing in the kitchen with them and have to creep into the back room,even then they look at me through the window,with a look of why don`t you stop that blooming row. How do your animals react? Regards Alan Edited September 3, 2003 by Alan Day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexCJones Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 Whenever I visit my folks, my mom's collie-shepherd cries when I play my concertina. But I don't think it is sad crying. She makes the same sound when someone gives her a new doggie toy. She does not run away, sometimes she even walks into the room and lies at my feet and cries when I play. In 2 other threads, I've mentioned the time when I was practicing in the nature preserve and a deer approached, but I guess folks are getting tired of me mentioning that by now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrigglefingers Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 My two cats usually try to find somewhere more soothing to lie, my daughter slams the door and my partner either cries for mercy or else suggests buying me a new instrument with a sound more conducive to rest; like the bagpipes. I'm put in the garden shed when I attempt to play my bombarde - local wildlife flees ( or is that fleas?). Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 My bichon howls. I used to feel it was because I play so poorly. Now I've decided that this is true, but I tell people that he is singing along. My cocker ignores me. My cats leave. I think I would feel better if Charlie (my bichon) cried since one of you said that's what your dog does with a new dog toy. It's hard to reframe into a positive when your dog is howling. (He wasn't too crazy about the alto sax either!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Hall Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 When Linn and I got together twenty three yaers ago, she had two neutered male brother cats. Their reaction to my concertina playing was perverted. They'd get a strange look on their faces and then attempt to play a "bugger thy brother" game to no avail. The current cats pay no attention. Some years ago, the former nieghbors kept sheep. Every time I went outside to play, the sheep would come running to the stone wall in rapt appreciation, much as cows do respond to bagpipes. I still want to find a very sturdy boat and see how whales might react to either of the aforemenioned instruments -- Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellowbelle Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 (edited) I locate my older cat, Elvis, by playing either my concertina or my accordion. As you can see, he is a devoted fan (wow, ELVIS is MY fan....!). He comes running and tries to jump up in my lap when I play. All the other pets are take-it-or-leave-it. My dog Podunk no longer cries, he's used to my playing. Edited September 23, 2003 by bellowbelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnert Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 I have no pets now. When I was in High School and College, we had a dog. I didn't play the concertina yet, but I played other instruments. I knew he didn't like my recorder playing. I thought he was oblivious to my classical guitar playing until I went to college and my mother said she heard a recording on the radio of a piece I was working on and the dog went nuts looking for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 My younger cat leaves the room as soon as I get the concertina out. My older cat doesn't seem to mind, and the snake is oblivious, too! Samantha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomylly Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 I usually banish myself to the far bedroom when I practice so as not to disturb the nice neigbors on the other side of the duplex's shared wall. Usually my husband begs me to take at least two of our four dogs (yes, we're active in local no-kill rescue, why do you ask?) with me so he doesn't have to watch as many. My beagle curls up on the floor near me and falls asleep. The two cats ignore it/stay the hell away from the bedroom door. The shepherd mix stays in the living room with her daddy. She is quite the daddy's girl. Which leaves the two 19-month-old (still puppy) pit bull/heeler mixes, Paige and Phoebe. If I take Paige with me, she thinks it's yelling at her or something, because she goes all belly-up submissive on the bed (pit bull submitting to concertina -- now that's funny!) Phoebe, on the other hand, is the one who makes the notorious RCA-Victrola-dog-head-cock thing, cracks me up, then flops down beside me and eyes my 'tina to see if it's worth eating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 Currently I have no pets. (With my unreliable "schedule" it would be even more unfair to them than to me if I did.) None of my past pets seemed overly affected -- either positively or negatively -- when I played any of my instruments (concertina, whistle, even bones), though the cats and parrots would occasionally cock their heads and appear to listen. Similarly with my sister's Samoyed, Misty, when I visited, though she (very pregnant at that point) did curl up under the table where myself, a couple of other squeezers, and a fiddle were playing. I don't think she was there because of us, but she certainly wasn't avoiding us, either. And I wasn't playing music when the bald eagle almost flew in the door, so that doesn't count. The dolphins and belugas are another story altogether, but that was the whistle, not the concertina, and I'll tell it another time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 Similarly with my sister's Samoyed, Misty, when I visited, though she (very pregnant at that point) did curl up under the table where myself, a couple of other squeezers, and a fiddle were playing. I don't think she was there because of us, but she certainly wasn't avoiding us, either. It must have been very crowded under that table! Samantha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 It must have been very crowded under that table! Right. The musicians were sitting or standing around the table. But in fact it *was* crowded down there, with mother... and the five puppies who were born a couple of days later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Evans Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 There was a beautiful black cat who adopted my wife and me some twenty years ago. When I pulled out my concertina to play a few tunes that evening, she got very excited and jumped on the chair and laid across the back of my neck contentedly purring. It was a nightly routine for five years. Other than that she paid me no mind. My wife was convinced the cat had been a concertina player in another life. Today, all my bulldog Obi does is whimper and ask to go outside. I miss that cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottC Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 My African Grey parrot loves it. He goes into a crazy head-bobbing dance and trots out his whole vocabulary of superlatives. My wife, on the other hand, exercises her vocabulary of expletives. Of my three dogs (2 maltese and 1 papillon), two ignore it and one comes running from the far corners of the house to sit at my feet and howl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Day Posted September 9, 2003 Author Share Posted September 9, 2003 Hallo Scott, The parrot aside ,your household seems strangely familiar. Wait untill the parrot starts copying your concertina,I can see a few problems ahead.I would suggest you keep your head down untill the shouting subsides. Regards Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Wait untill the parrot starts copying your concertina,... Hmm. Not necessarily a joke. i remember one winter a woman in my mother's home town was complaining to the local coal company about the increased number of coal trucks screeching around the curve by her house. They claimed there had been no increase. That's when she discovered that her mynah bird had learned to imiitate the screeching of the brakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Day Posted September 10, 2003 Author Share Posted September 10, 2003 Hallo Jim, You remind me of a story told by the late Desmond Morris who when talking about mynah birds mentioned the tale of a bird being transported up to Scotland,by train.When this bird was collected a white faced guard said "It was the worse journey of his life"The bird could do a perfect immitation of a flying bomb coming over. Regards Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Booth Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 My old Tomcat, Sanford, who appears to be of the Surly Bitin' Breed, gets deeply suspicious when I first open the bellows. If it is the concertina he yowls to leave the house; the melodeon, on the other hand, is apparently more tolerable and he sticks around, not without a certain air of distainful criticism, however. My friend plays pennywhistle; his cockateil has learned most of his repetoir and sings right along. He makes fewer mistakes, actually! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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