Katie and I went to the park yesterday afternoon. There was a new sign there that said we weren’t allowed to train bird dogs for several months during bird nesting season.
Good thing we were warned about that, because you know Katie is such a bird dog! But we did have several incidents along our walk that involved birds. Right at the beginning of our walk I noticed two families of Canadian geese near the pond. One family’s babies already had the markings of adult birds, the other family’s little ones were still fuzzy balls of fluff. I decided we’d take a route that totally avoided them as Sheltie + parent geese do not make a good mix.
We headed into the mowed paths of a big hilly field. Katie enjoyed sniffing along the edges, at the flowers and traces of other dogs, who knows. Suddenly she went stiff, then lunged and up out of the tall grass right next to us flew a fat brown partridge (or something like that). Katie leaped straight up in the air and I screamed. Guess we weren’t meant to be bird hunters! Good thing Katie was on a leash.
We moved on down the path, and Katie went into her bird dog alert mode again. 
Holding tight to her leash I let her explore a little, and there was a turtle! Way less frightening (at least to us) than the bird. I eased Katie away so as not to disturb it and we moved on. 
Just a bit further along the way we began to be dive-bombed by tree swallows, as we were passing their nesting boxes. I kept ducking and urging Katie to “come on” as they swooped low over my head, making clucking noises just inches away from my hat. We rushed through that section of the path!
Eventually we arrived at a resting spot, and Katie had a bit to drink. I’ve been working on getting her not to be afraid to drink out of this contraption that allows me to carry water on my belt as well as serves as a bowl for her. She decided yesterday that she was thirsty enough not to worry about the funny shape.
We also got to see a bluebird couple. They were sitting on the fence that surrounds the softball field. A game was in progress but that didn’t seem to bother them. The male and female were swooping down into the outfield to catch bugs. There was another bird hanging out on the fence, a little brownish bird that I thought was a sparrow or house finch. On our way back to the car the blue birds were back on the fence, as was the little brown bird. Turns out the little bird was a baby bluebird. As Mom and Dad got bugs they’d fly up to the fence and feed the youngster! How cool! We watched for a bit and then wandered past.
And then, on our drive home we saw a wild turkey along the road near the house! Katie didn’t notice it, but it was the last bird in our bird filled experience of walking in the park. Maybe I should get Katie a set of binoculars so she can watch the birds more closely.
Katie and I have been working on “shake” this week. She learned it in about 2 seconds as long as treats were involved. But no treat? No shake! I don’t have video but if I did, you’d see that she just grudingly offers her paw when I ask for shake, even with the treat. She knows what I want, but she doesn’t want to give in and play the game. She’s way too smart for me!
She probably brought home a few special dandelion seeds to plant in her Daddy’s pretty green lawn. Shhhhhh! Don’t tell him! She especially liked sniffing around the taller grass, checking out paths that might need investigating.
Though she was also always up for a quick recall. Just never know when Mom might have found another treat hidden deep in the recesses of her treat pouch. Can’t always tell ya know, might be worth the run back to check it out!
I’ve been so busy coming and going from work that poor Katie hasn’t been able to go to her favorite park in awhile. Today is the first day in ten days I haven’t had to work. And lucky us, the sun is shining! So guess what? We will definitely make some time for park visiting. And she can’t wait! I can’t wait either, but I think we should at least eat breakfast first. More later. 
Hmm…should I go into the woodlands or the meadow? I decided maybe a heron rookery would be in the woods, but I wasn’t at all sure. The woodland path headed downhill, and I reminded myself that I’d have to come back up anything downhills I traversed. Funny. In the old days when I was in better shape I never would have thought about that. Sad.
Change Is Hard 