During the dark days of 2020, Annie has been self-medicating. Her drug of choice? Watching clips from old movie musicals she loved as a kid. It turns out that there are a lot of lessons about behavior in these films, and storylines that unwittingly relate to dog training. In this episode, Annie gives a dog-trainer’s-eye-view analysis of Mary Poppins, The Music Man, and the movie Annie. 



See the full clips played in this episode when you join our new app: http://schoolforthedogs.com/community

Mentioned in this episode: 

Animals Make Us Human, by Temple Grandin 

https://amzn.to/2KkyXA8

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Transcript:

Annie:

So there’s something that I think probably a lot of people who know me well, probably don’t even know about me, which is that I love old movie musicals. I grew up with a small skyscraper of VHS tapes balanced atop the TV of Judy Garland movies, Fred Astaire movies, Gene Kelly, Robert Preston. I would watch these movies — I’m trying to think of some of them, 42nd street, GiGi, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, the Easter Parade, Oklahoma.

I would just watch these movies over and over. And so much of them I feel like are deeply ingrained in me. And really it sort of informed my early view of what the world was like, which is maybe why adulthood has actually been something of a disappointment. Like it turns out if you’re an unmarried woman in your thirties who loves books, that doesn’t mean that Robert Preston is going to come serenade you in the library while everyone does a choreographed jig around you.

I think I kind of put my love of movie musicals aside for many years, you know, occasionally maybe going to one if there was something at the Film Forum.  But the existence of YouTube has really made it possible for me to occasionally dive in for an hour or two and watch some old favorite clips.  It’s like a drug. It just makes me so happy to see people singing and dancing and these old movies.

And during these gray months of 2020, I have started watching some of my favorite old musicals with my daughter, who’s almost two. We have Disney Plus, which is a treasure trove. And I’ve made her some YouTube playlists that we work through of my favorite scenes from old musicals. And of course I can’t help myself from finding little dog training lessons and dog life parallels in, in my old favorite movies.

So I thought I would share a few songs today and tell you how I’ve been thinking about them as it relates to dog stuff. I don’t think there are any majorly important dog training lessons in what I’m about to share, but maybe it will just be a little bit of fun to share my thought process with you. And of course, to share these joyous, joyous movie moments.

I am going to post the full videos in our brand new app, which you should definitely check out. You can get there at schoolforthedogs.com/community. There is a section there specifically about the podcast and that is where I’m going to post the videos.

So, first one that I want to share with you is from Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins was based on the PL Travers books and of course starred Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. Two of my all time favorites, both of whom are still alive, fortunately. Julie Andrews, this was the first time she played an amazing babysitter. The second time being in the Sound of Music, which came a few years later.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

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