This lighthearted 2-beat country shuffle can be used a couple of different ways. Given that the topic is actually serious, it could be used to educate your doggie-loving students, and even their families. On the other hand, because the chocolate in the song is a chocolate bunny, it could definitely be used as a novelty piece for a spring or Easter program, too. Even if you use it in the latter manner, it will still be educational, but this time to your audience as well. Using the song is a good chance to do a bit of cross curricular work with your students, too. Go online and look up dogs and chocolate. You will quickly see that letting man's best friend ingest too much of this sweet human treat could make them quite sick, and in extreme cases, even kill them. Nothing to joke about. Since most dog owners know that anything and everything is a chew toy to a dog, this is good information to have. It also gives you a chance to discuss what happens if they do get into the chocolate. For example, what emergency numbers should be on hand?

The song is very simple and easy to learn so that the fun of singing it and the message can happen readily. To add to the spirit of it, we have allowed spots in the music for your students to imitate their own pups. Our studio kids had a good time with this part, and we imagine your kids will, too. These parts are marked on the music, but you can vary them however you like. As the music indicates, you don't have to stick with just barks. Mix it up with pants, whimpers, growls, etc.

There is also a doggie descant, which is optional and begins at the D.S. (measure 21). We had no trouble getting one of our singers (Kelsey Montgomery) to howl on pitch. Sort of. Be sure to let your canine soloist have fun by adding slurs and vibrato, or whatever doggie touches seem to get all tails wagging.

The vocal line does break into an optional harmony at the chorus (measure 21) each time, as you will hear. To help your students learn the harmony line, we have isolated it and put it online. (See page 67 for details.)