Well, should there be anything to mend the hole in my heart, it would be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a cast of over 70 to boast; dogs included. Yes, you heard right, I said dogs!  Here’s the best part of the musical - a 1.5 tonne flying car that costs more than ₤500,000 (SGD$??????) to build – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang herself! Lest you think ‘the flying car’ is merely a name; yes, it really flies (assisted technically, of course).

Before I get carried away, this is supposed to be about what went on behind the scenes as the chosen doggies trained for the musical. Renowned dog trainer, Mr. Partick Wong, owner of Waggie's Pet Care, gave us a sneak peek of dogs in training as they prepared for the musical. Eight lucky Singapore dogs auditioned for and got the sought after roles of appearing in this world class musical.

One of their main training grounds is the Bishan Salvation Army, which is where this reporter caught all the action. 16 dogs were present for doggy training day. According to, Mr. Wong, all 16 are going to perform before a live audience.

 
“They will take turns to perform, alternating between days so it won’t be so tiring for them,” said Mr. Wong. After 20 years of being in the business, Mr. Wong has trained some whopping 10,000 dogs and is one of Singapore’s most sought-after ‘star animal’ trainer.

 
Throughout these 20 years, Mr. Wong has produced some of Singapore’s most eminent dog shows, contest and events. He also conducted training seminars for Innotek Pet Products in the Canine Freestyle Video Competition (February 2000) and in the USA/Canada/Alaska Canine Freestyle event held in Vancouver BC (July 2000). These dogs are in good hands!

The 16 dogs have all undergone obedience training and have also mastered the skill of not accepting food from strangers. Not only that, these dogs can also perform in the presence of distractions, loud noises, dark environments, walk across uneven grounds, overcome obstacles and more.

How do they do it? Mr. Wong let us in on the fact that “they have night training to respond in the dark” and also taking into consideration the fact that “there is no actual on stage set up rehearsal”, thus he gives the dogs scenarios as close to the actual thing as possible. Actual onstage rehearsals commence this week.

Impressive, I must say. Wonder what the training session was like? All talk and no pictures make a boring article, I say. Here are the pictures. Go figure!

Here’s one thing that I found out about these dogs… They know they’re cute and boy, do they know how to pose! Professional doggie models; that’s the way to go.

 

Evidence of how attention loving these dog are and how they make use of their cutesy-ness.

 

Lest you think all they know is how to pose and act pretty, here’s showing you that they know their stuff!

 

Yikes... Photo overload. But I simply cannot resist posting these cute doggie pictures! Don't you just want to see them on stage; in action?

--View Full Flickr set--

Additional photos courtesy of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and David Atkins Enterprises

Average user rating

   (0 vote)