Had a lovely training session with W&S first thing this morning. Taking it in turns to do things, with the other settled and honouring the working dog. All was going brilliantly, I was working on Willow's stop and then, THUD! Something fell out of the sky a few metres away. Shadow immediately bolted towards it (yup, work to do there!) and then the squawking began. Holy ****, it was a fledgling golden oriole. I had visions of it ending up as breakfast for one Lab or other, but, somehow, I managed to call the two of them away and, with much jiggling of Chuckit balls, managed to get them back to the safety of the house. They were collarless and without leads, so I was a little concerned, as they kept glancing back in that direction, but they were good as gold. I returned to make sure the fledgling was OK, as its wing had looked a bit twisted on landing. It had wandered off a bit, but was fine, thankfully. Then I saw another one, a few feet away. Obviously it was the decreed time for leaving the nest! I did have a bit of a word with them that it might be a better idea, in future, if they left hurling themselves to the ground until the part-trained gundogs had left the area.
He He. There is always some sort of adventure going on in your life Fiona! Good doggies A lucky escape for the birdies (scurries off to google oriole......)
That must have been a terrible shock - for the orioles as well as you! But good dogs W&S! Had similar last night - two tiny little fledgelings on the pavement a couple of houses down our street. I had to catch them and put them back in the hedge - not easy with two dogs who really wanted to eat them! Don't think these poor little fledgelings would have survived the night though, they were tiny
Good dogs , a test of wills for sure, hope the bird is ok , oriole are so pretty , we had lots in France x Hope your fledgling made it too Karen x
Ooh well done for getting them away with no collars! We visited a stable this morning for our Guide Dog puppy class, and there was horse poop and duck poop EVERYwhere! It was VERY entertaining with our 19 week old pups on-lead! I've already been working with Riggs for a while to ignore poop as he had shown interest in eating our one dog's poop (YUCK), so he did considerably better than his siblings with the LEAVE IT, and the one time he picked up a ball of horse poop he responded immediately when I said DROP IT (YAY).
I had to google golden oriole. The RSPB says, ' a secretive bird which keeps to the high tree canopy' - or not.
I think the cupboard-dwelling Oreo might have proven to be rather more of a temptation to two hungry Labradors, who hadn't yet had their breakfast Adult golden orioles are stunning birds. The fledglings somewhat less so! I'll post my pictures later. I do hope they survive, but the ground isn't a good place to be here for too long for a little bird like that, even without Labradors around. They both looked strong, though, so hopefully they'll have gathered their energy to fly off.
Good doggies. We had a similar incident yesterday as well. A mother Ruffed Grouse literally leaped into the path in front of us and scuttled down it ahead of us. Oban was fooled but not me. I looked at the side she'd leaped from and there they were, babies scattering every which way. I let Oban follow the mother, trusting she would elude him. I didn't want him to come back to me, fearing all the babies would be too much temptation for him.
Excellent LEAVE IT, W&S. And you, Fiona, of course for training them. Coco managed a super LEAVE the other morning too, with a fledgling Chaffinch among the leaf litter. The previous day we'd come across a fledgling crow, and a host of adult crows yelling at us from the trees above. I had to break out the dried duck fillet to lure him past that one, it was scurrying along the road, terribly tempting..
Fabulous work W&S!!! There must be something in the air, my two called away from a cat and Obi from swimming after ducks!!!!!
Mine ignore the baby duck, the ducks and the coots, they swim very close within a couple of feet and both species ignore each other. HOWEVER, CATS are a different matter, I don't have a hope in hell !!!!!
That is good going! Shadow also didn't chase several rabbits he had the opportunity to this morning - even one that ran within inches of his nose as he was about to grab a ball he was chasing. I just stood there like Cats? Hmmm, not sure we're ready for cats. Luna is a cat chaser... Good work Team Brown!
I think Obi was relieved to be called away from a race he was losing hopefully he's learnt at least partially that it's pointless swimming after ducks.
Years ago my first dog was a springer/collie from a pet shop for 30/- which is probably £1.50 in today's price! She would chase cats and then chicken out as she almost caught them - OMG help Gemma was the dog who got me on into gun dogs. Sadly she had osteosarcoma at aged 14 and had to be euthanised. While I was in the vet's waiting room, a woman came in, bought a bottle of medicine and went out again. The receptionist said 'she has a lovely litter of pointer puppies' and when Gemma died I contacted her, they were German Shorthaired Pointers and I happened to see a book in the library with a picture of them on, and the rest is history, changed my life for the better!
