Figuring out canine psychology
So, a couple or so weeks ago, we discovered a hedgehog in our garden.
Us humans admired it, Ishka sniffed it and deemed it acceptable, so all was well. When Beddyn told me in chat that hedgehogs are endangered nowadays, I googled and found a charity that encourages to report sightings, so I did and read the whole site and learned I can even feed them which I will do when it gets colder. At that point, we thought it was just a visiting hedgehog.
Whenever Ishka goes into the garden, the first thing she does is go under one particular tree. She only stays there momentarily, so I never gave it any thought. Then, a few days ago, around dusk, she stopped right before the tree and started barking, her tail wagging madly, and then she flew past us back inside. Next thing we knew was a hedgehog on the rug in the living room. Imagine my horror! OMG, my dog chases hedgehogs!
We checked the hedgehog; it was unhurt. We checked Ishka; she was whole as well. We took the hedgehog back out to under its tree while locking Ishka inside. Yes, by the looks of it, we have a resident hedgehog.
A day later I thought about the whole episode and figured that Ishka must think that because we accepted the hedgehog (we ooed and aaed over it; I mean, it's not a sight you get to see every day...), the hedgehog is part of the family, so going by her logic, it's okay to spend the day sleeping under the tree, but when it's dark, it must come inside where the rest of the family is.
Tonight, we had a repeat of that. She barked like crazy, tail wagging like crazy, picked up the poor hedgehog and ran inside with it. She is a herding dog and looks after her family, and for some reason, the hedgehog is part of her family. In a way, that is more than just heart warming.
Us humans admired it, Ishka sniffed it and deemed it acceptable, so all was well. When Beddyn told me in chat that hedgehogs are endangered nowadays, I googled and found a charity that encourages to report sightings, so I did and read the whole site and learned I can even feed them which I will do when it gets colder. At that point, we thought it was just a visiting hedgehog.
Whenever Ishka goes into the garden, the first thing she does is go under one particular tree. She only stays there momentarily, so I never gave it any thought. Then, a few days ago, around dusk, she stopped right before the tree and started barking, her tail wagging madly, and then she flew past us back inside. Next thing we knew was a hedgehog on the rug in the living room. Imagine my horror! OMG, my dog chases hedgehogs!
We checked the hedgehog; it was unhurt. We checked Ishka; she was whole as well. We took the hedgehog back out to under its tree while locking Ishka inside. Yes, by the looks of it, we have a resident hedgehog.
A day later I thought about the whole episode and figured that Ishka must think that because we accepted the hedgehog (we ooed and aaed over it; I mean, it's not a sight you get to see every day...), the hedgehog is part of the family, so going by her logic, it's okay to spend the day sleeping under the tree, but when it's dark, it must come inside where the rest of the family is.
Tonight, we had a repeat of that. She barked like crazy, tail wagging like crazy, picked up the poor hedgehog and ran inside with it. She is a herding dog and looks after her family, and for some reason, the hedgehog is part of her family. In a way, that is more than just heart warming.