At this time of the year, my pre-breakfast dog walk takes me from the garden gate down to the fen, a nature reserve where from April to June I can be virtually certain of hearing a cuckoo. Hearing cuckoos is for me one of the delights of spring and early summer: this year I heard a cuckoo every day for over two months.
Emma, my spaniel, sits and listens to the cuckoo with me, but does it, I wonder, register on her brain? Dogs are sensitive to sound, but only those that are meaningful to them, such as crowing pheasants or squeaking voles.
Out of habit I always take a rope slip lead with me on these walks, but I rarely use it. However, it’s important to take it, as…
