APRIL is U.K. National Pet Month and whether you like Bone-y M or David Bow-wow-ie, what better gift to give your dog than their very own song?

According to research by the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association, more than 3.2 million U.K. homes acquired a pet during the pandemic, with dog owners now topping 12 million. And it was the love of her own dog, Poppy, that inspired Hastings-based artist Mel Elliott to start composing songs for dogs during lockdown.

“I started piano lessons when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2019,” said Elliott. “Learning to play is really difficult. You can’t think about anything else, so it was brilliant therapy while I was going through my treatment.”

Elliott also plays guitar, ukulele and flute, all of which play a part in her unique compositions.

“Last year, I played a piece for my piano teacher, no lyrics, just a nice little tune, and called it Ted, after my friend’s dog,” she says. “She loved the fact that I was writing songs for dogs and the idea just stuck in my head.

“That night, scrolling through Instagram, I saw a friend’s post about her dog, Chips. I couldn’t sleep and I had this tune about Chips going around in my head so I wrote a song about him on my phone. The next morning I got up and wrote the melody.”

Elliott attended the Royal College of Art and has had global success with her Color Me Good range of celebrity coloring books and Pearl Power, a range of children’s books about gender equality.

“My husband told me that he gets it now,” she said. “Some artists work in watercolors or oils, you work in whatever medium suits what’s in your head the best. And he’s right. Sometimes I write books or poetry, sometimes I paint pictures and sometimes I write songs about dogs.

“I see this as another art project,” said Elliott. “It would be nice to have some kind of exhibition, which will probably be a concert for dogs, and maybe do a tour of rescue centers where I write songs about the dogs who are up for adoption.”(SD-Agencies)