Today, for a change, we had a lovely early morning. The sun was out, there was no need for gloves, and I was able to shed one layer of warm clothes!
We left the house at 7 a.m. and went to Pontcanna Fields, re-tracing the route Miss Sophie took when she escaped ten days ago.
There were lots of crows around, but although we heard a few raven calls, we didn't see one until we started on our way back.
Then we noticed one on the ground - I had seen him before, he has lost one of his tail feathers. He is also the one whom we saw flying to and sitting on the nest earlier this month. I threw him a scrap, but the action of throwing scared him and he flew off for a few paces. He did pick up the scrap, though, after we'd walked on for a bit.
In the afternoon we went to the ravens field. There were huge black clouds gathering on the horizon, and the Wind, from the NW, had picked up. It felt much colder, but many people were out, sitting on the grass, enjoying the first sunshine for some time.
Mid-way into the ravens field, a raven picked us up. This one was, I think, either one of the young pair or of the quarry pair. While ther aven did follow us, and landed quite close, about a yard and a half behind us, he ducked immediately when I threw a scrap, and waited for us to walk on before picking it up.
As we turned back towards the spinney, he called, from the middle of the field, and there was an answering call coming from the allotments on the far side.
But he took off, and the other raven did not come.
The interesting thing about this encounter is that there were people sitting on the benches in the ravens field, with their dogs, one even sitting on the ground in the middle of the field. It did not deter the raven - nor was he confused about which human to approach.
Miss Sophie got more and more distracted by the dogs and people and toddlers, so it was a quick walk back home without any more attempts at training.
2 comments:
Hi {Yma} this is realwest -glad to see you back posting!
Sorry to hear about Miss Sophie - she's been to dog obedience school twice now right - or maybe 3 times? Did the trainer give you any idea as to why she's so spooked by other dogs? Has she gotten better?
And I assume that she doesn't bother the Ravens and they don't bother her, right?
Anyway, good to see your great blog back in action!!
Hiya, realwest!
Miss Sophie has had three obedience classes, the next one is Monday evening.
She is not so much spooked by other dogs, as highly interested. In fact, anything that moves and has fur attracts her.
She is fine with the small dogs and the puppies. A bit rough, but they accept her as higher-ranking.
The trouble starts when a dog or bitch does not see her as higher-ranking. Miss Sophie then tries to convince them, using her mouth ... in other words, tries to beat them up.
She is wearing a head collar, so she can't open her jaws very wide. Thus there is no damage done - but a lot of squealing and growling and barking ensues.
And all of that, while it is generally accepted by dog people, can be highly disturbing to people without dogs and more so if they have small children.
So it is better to be circumspect and avoid trouble in those circumstances.
And no - one cannot 'train' dogs not to do this, even the obedience champions have their moments!!!
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