When Ruben Studdard talks, his dogs listen. Well, at least one of them does.

“Sit, sit,” commands Studdard, while playing recently with his year-old cocker spaniels at Southside’s Caldwell Park. And Sinatra, his black-and-white buddy, does. “Good boy!”

Meanwhile, Lena, Sinatra’s sister and Studdard’s “independent” black beauty, does her own thing.

She keeps me busy,” says the Season Two American Idol winner, with a grin. “She’s always eating stuff outside. She chased a police car today.”

We caught up with the 29-year-old crooner before he headed to Hollywood, where he returns to the “Idol” spotlight this week via the show’s new farewell song. Studdard’s cover of the Kenny Loggins “Celebrate Me Home” will play as each of 10 of the Top 12 contestants are voted off the show.

The song, produced by Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, will be available on iTunes Wednesday, after the first contestant is voted off.

While Studdard is in Hollywood, his dogs are staying behind, he says, as they probably will when he begins rehearsal for the 30th anniversary tour of the musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in October. But he knows he’ll get a 205 welcome, canine-style, when he returns.

They’ll greet him at the door, he says, nubs wagging. Lena will probably bark, and Sinatra, or “Sin-Sin,” will jump on his bed the next morning.

“Man, they’re cool,” he says.

Source: Everything Alabama