Alice, before you start recording, you're supposed to turn off the furnace. Then you sing till you're done or your toes turn blue, then you turn the furnace on again...

I went through this very rigorous procedure with the recording of "The long walk home" and a couple of other tunes on my site--We were using fancy digital equipment in the producer's house, in January, and it was just part of the routine to get clean tracks. Course that guy was a fanatic. Because the previous commercial recording he'd made there, in summer, windows had been open, and the recording was released complete with traffic noises.

Ditto for the phone, as for the dog, well I've been there. Another time recording at my house, my old dog was being exceedingly mellow and relaxed as we were recording in an upstairs bedroom; in the middle of the song he quietly ambled upstairs, walked into the room and contentedly flopped down; quietly except for the extremely loud clattering of claws on the plywood floor. We too collapsed but in uncontrolled laughter. Wish we'd saved that take.

Stay warm,
Willie-O