Pictures: Whippet Inca has a new feathered friend

But modern-day Dr Doolittle Shaun Askey managed to get a wild robin to pose with his whippet Inca while a friend snapped pictures of the remarkable moment.

The shots were taken at the Severn Valley Country Park, Alveley, where keen bird watcher Mr Askey, 57, often goes to walk his dogs.

The company director from Whitley Gardens, Highley, said: "Over the last couple of years I've been feeding robins off my hand. I saw a gentleman doing it a couple of years ago down by the river and I thought I'd give it a go.

"I sometimes put meal worms on my shoulder and the birds come and eat them – I've even had some on my head.

"I wouldn't say I've trained the birds, but I've got one that will actually come and sit on my hand for up to 30 seconds

"But I've never heard of a wild bird sitting on a dog's back before."

He said he put it down in part to the placid temperament of six-year-old Inca.

"She's very, very laid back," he said, "She's rather big for a whippet but she's so calm and nonchalant it's unbelievable. She will just stand there and let the birds do it, and one robin is happy just to go on the floor underneath her legs."

He said the picture was taken by a fellow visitor he only knows as Rita from Kidderminster, who gave him the pictures having captured the moment.

He said he was well known at the park where he was sometimes accompanied by wife Carol and two-year-old grandson William in attracting the birds, which he said took a lot of patience.

He said: "Parents and their kids love to watch me feed the robins, sometimes I have quite an audience.

"I'm told people call me 'the bird man' or the 'robin man' of Highley, which I find amusing. I don't go every day, but most days. In the winter months the robins are obviously glad for a feed. There were about nine altogether this winter, and there are about four there now.

"Bird watching, nesting and wildlife in general is something I've been interested in since I was a young lad," he added.