Bear Bounces to Fame

The singing dog in the above commercial is "Bear".

Bear is an all-white Jack Russell Terrier pup so "amped up" on life, that if he had ever been allowed to hunt, he probably would have come to harm. Some terriers are like that; they know no bounds.

The good news for Bear is that my friend Scott Kauffman in California managed to place Bear with animal trainer Steve Berens.

Bear has since gone on to appear in several movies and many commercials.

It seems Bear's latest commercial (featured at top) has created a small stir in England, where the low-esteemed mumbling dog that is featured in the bank segment appears to be frightened and shaking. Never mind that the dog is trained to do this on command; appearance is everything. And, of course, in commericials it really is everything.

To tell you the truth, I found this ad incredibly confused, and I could not tell what the take-away message was supposed to be.

Apparently, we are supposed to think the two dogs are the same animal -- the shaking dog has no confidence because he lacks a really cool car, but he joyfully sings out loud (and sounds amazingly like Steve Winwood) when he's riding around in that nifty Volkswagen Polo.

Is that it?

If so, it's an incredibly stupid ad. The singing dog part is brilliant, of course, but the other segment just crashes and burns and wrecks it all. Free advice: Cut the ad down, keep the singing dog, lose the mumbling dog that looks scared (what were you thinking?), and add a beautiful girl as a romantic element. What you will have left is a perfect bit of advertising: dog, car, girl, good music. Simple.

For the record, the singing dog and the scared dog are not the same animal. The more timid dog is a rescue that was also placed by Scott with animal trainer Steve Berens; he is sometimes used as a double for Bear when the situation is called for. But he's not Bear. Bear's issue is not lack of confidence; it the opposite of that.

Scott and Margie Kauffman, by the way, have placed thousands of rescue Jack Russell Terriers in good homes over the years.

For an excellent article by Gina Spadafori mentioning Margie's good work, see The Saints Of Rescue.

To see an example of what Scott can do with a Nikon camera, see this still-picture composite I put up a few year back: Long May It Run.

• Related Links:
  ** A 15-Year Mistake
  ** The Saints of Rescue
  ** The Continuing Need for Rescue
  ** Hump and Dump Dog Breeders
  ** A Challenge to All Breeders
  

Bear, airborne in the kitchen.
.