Dog Dancing for Dollars and Exercise

We had quite a bit of rain earlier this week and last. It is always difficult to walk with Kilo in the rain or snow. Neither of us enjoys it one little bit. My knees seem to ache more, my hair goes crazy and he keeps stopping to shake it off and prancing disdainfully.

Indoor Exercise

I was at an 80’s concert last week and had such fun dancing.  I decided we would dance every day and Kilo could channel Tom Cruise in Risky Business then the Michaels – Michael Jackson and Magic Mike. We practised spins right and left,  jumps, turns, ups and downs, moon walks and other cool moves. Kilo does not love weaving with me or walking on my feet, but he does love freestyling together. It’s great fun and great exercise.

The Dollars for Charity

I had been talking to Kilo’s Rescue Organization Homeward Bound, looking for innovative ways to raise money to save more dogs. I thought if we made a video of Kilo dancing, maybe it would go viral and we could donate any advertising revenue from YouTube on the video. A very easy way to ask people to help. It only costs them 41 seconds of their time. You have to get tens of thousands of views to get any real money, but we have done that on quite a few of our videos. What could be cuter than a dog dancing for dollars, especially a pug? Plus Channing Tatum and the other dancers are pretty cute and talented too.

Making the Video

As Magic Mike XXL was launching Wednesday July 1st, Aria, Ange and I decided that would be a great connection so we came up with “Magic Mutt XXXL”. I was looking forward to the movie and love dance videos. I used to make dance TV series including Kids’ dance show Pop It! and Aria is a dancer.

We decided to film Kilo dancing in a makeshift green screen in my living room using a combination of my lights and natural lighting and some green fabric.

Talented Aria loaded some scenes from the Magic Mike trailers onto her computer from YouTube without music.  She downloaded some free music from the Apple library (you have to be really careful with music or YouTube does not let you monetize so we only use our own or the Apple library).  She then keyed or cut out Kilo and added him to the other video in Final Cut Pro software. All way beyond my expertise, but quick and so much fun with her.

Kilo loved it as he got lots of positive attention and treats. He also got a lot of exercise and burned a lot of calories. He was exhausted afterwards and slept for a few hours.

I love it when you can combine a double bottom line,  for example, a walk or bike ride for charity, dancing or performing for charity, making videos for charity, selling products and donating a generous percentage to charity.

I hope you enjoy and share the video. Have a great Fit Dog Friday and weekend. Happy July 4th to all out American friends. Be safe.