The dog and I were at a training class in a paddock on an estate nearby when, in the middle of a two-minute sit-stay (with distractions), a cuckoo called in the distance: “Cuckoo, cuckoo!”

Someone said, “Cuckoo.”

Someone else said, “So it is.”

“First one I’ve heard this year,” I said.

And then we recalled our dogs and reset them to heel. “Nothing too remarkable about