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Taking part in a piece of music involving dogs...an unusual scene in Denmark !



Musician Torben Petersen made conductor-style hand movements to make his eight-year-old dog Sophos bark on the stage of the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.


Along with two other heavily trained dogs, Cookie and Sika, Sophos barks in time with the Danish Chamber Orchestra in a rare performance Sunday of the vignettes "Hunting Symphony" by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.


This piece is rarely played with dogs on stage, because bands usually prefer to use a recorded bark.


The three dogs were chosen as a result of a test conducted last spring for their barking skills, and underwent training with their owners, who did not skimp on any food they liked, to bark in sync with the rhythms played by the band.


"Dogs in the orchestra"


Orchestrator Andreas Vito, head of the orchestra, said during a training session for the upcoming performance on Sunday, "The piece of music includes three sections, and in the last section we hear chasing sounds, then gunshots, then the dogs start barking."

The Danish Orchestra did not show any hesitation regarding the use of dogs on stage. Vito adds, "Our main conductor, Adam Fisher, had hoped for years that dogs would be used to play this particular piece, because he would be able to add this element of participating dogs."


And in 2014, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the United States performed the piece with dogs on stage.


During the training session, the dogs listen to the first part of the piece from the back of the stage before their owners bring it to the front.

"If I had to be alone, I would be very nervous, but all eyes are on the dog, she is the star," says Hailey Lovering, owner of four-year-old Cookie. "I'm behind her and I have all the foods she loves," adds the 60-year-old, who makes motions with her fingers to prompt Cookie to bark.


Click on the picture or the link below to watch the video.


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