Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Who's training whom?

I promised to update you on my dove-training project. It has worked very well indeed, although not as expected. My plan was:

I would approach the doves
Whenever I liked
and give a certain call on my dog whistle
and the doves would come
and their reward would be food.
 What has happened instead?

Two Collared Doves now come to our balcony
whenever they like (several times a day)
and they give a certain call, “Ku-KUUUU-ku!”
and I come
and my reward is to feed them.
So who’s the bird–brain? Not they!

It reminds me of the time years ago when Demetrios told me, “This is ridiculous! You’re actually in a competition of wits with a rabbit!  And the rabbit is winning!” Yup, rabbits are not hare—brained, either.

2 comments:

margaret said...

Ohhhhhh, yes, I recognise this behaviour. I am managed not even by my own cats but by my neighbour's cat.

GretchenJoanna said...

Whenever "my" feral cat Jim comes around, I feed him. I hoped to tame him, train him to not run away and wait at a distance for me to put food in the bowl and shut the door. But we haven't made any progress at all in the nine months we've been at it. He in turn is "managed," though, by a bigger cat that comes around sometimes and scares him away from the bowl, so he constantly and nervously looks over his shoulder and can't enjoy his meal in peace.