It has been a thrill to watch our two miniature dachschunds, Doc, and his son, Blaze, gradually get used to the domesticated birds here. One of the things that has helped, of course, is that the peafowl, guinnea fowl, geese, turkey, ducks and chooks, are all bigger than the dogs now. Even our one remaining pheasant is around the same size!
When these birds were smaller, it was far too dangerous to let the dogs anywhere near them. Now that they are not only outnumbered but also dwarfed, they have lost their bird-hunting confidence, which is a great relief. Before, when they gave chase, there was no stopping them and we lost one young peacock, one young turkey, one young chicken and a pheasant that way. So, for the months it has taken for the birds to grow big, Doc and Blaze have been confined to one yard while the birds are free-ranging, and vice versa – not an ideal situation at all. It’s lovely now because they even seem to understand that it is okay to kill the wild rabbits (of which there are hundreds!) but not okay to kill the birds.
So the mingling together has well and truly begun and, as long as I am there to supervise this extraordinary reconciliation between the hunters and the hunted, things remain calm. The main thing Doc and Blaze now growl at each other about (they do this a lot!) is the feathers that are everywhere. Now I’m sure they don’t want to eat the feathers because it would be a bit like eating salt and pepper without the steak, but they do like to sniff and lick them – go figure!
They even do this hesitantly! Especially if they know I am watching – ha!
