I'm a landrace dog fancier. Founder of the INDog Project (www.indog.co.in) and the INDog Club. Before that, I worked with urban free-ranging dogs of Mumbai from 1993-2007. Also a spider enthusiast and amateur arachnologist.
This blog is for primitive dog enthusiasts. It is part of the INDog Project www.indog.co.in. Only INDogs (India's primitive indigenous village dogs) and INDog-mixes (Indies) are featured here. The two are NOT the same, do please read the text on the right to understand the difference. Our aim: to create awareness about the primitive landrace village dog of the Indian subcontinent. I sometimes feature other landrace breeds too. Also see padsociety.org
These two babies are the newest members of the Club. They were both adopted from the excellent International Animal Rescue centre in Goa, by dog lovers Tina and Godfrey D'Souza.
It made my day to hear that Tina and Godfrey were encouraged by this blog to choose native dogs instead of any Eurobreed. Everyone who sends in pictures and stories is helping to give the world a true picture of these intelligent, affectionate dogs and the sheer joy of living with them.
Raju and Deepa - Happy new life!
Photos: Tina and Godfrey D'Souza Aldona, Bardez, Goa
These pictures were taken by photographer and graphic designer Sarah O'Neill on a recent trip to the Dominican Republic.
Sarah lives in the Ottawa region, Canada. She got interested in primitive and pariah breeds after she and her boyfriend got a beautiful Canaan Dog last year. Her dog is called Jorja.
The dogs in these pictures are all street mutts, and some of them do have a pariah-mix look about them, much like our Mumbai dogs. In south America the first dogs were of a generalized primitive/pariah type, though these seem to have all but vanished after the conquistadors arrived with their Eurobreeds. Perhaps it was the same on the Caribbean islands, though these Santo Domingo dogs look closer to the original type than the Peruvian ones I saw last year - check my earlier post "Rabies and the Peruvian mutt."
There are some pictures of Jorja in Sarah's photoblog. Make sure to look at all the other images too, she's taken lots of stunningly beautiful animal portraits - birds, reptiles, cats, dogs, horses, deer...Click here and select "animals" in the archive.
These beautiful pictures (with my favourite snowy backdrop!) were sent to me by Julie Fechner of Dingo Care Network, an organization that conserves, researches and creates awareness about the Australian Dingo.
I've been fascinated by Dingos ever since I saw them years ago in a zoo in Sydney. I wasn't so interested in primitive dogs at the time, but I was still very intrigued by their appearance. They looked so familiar, like our pariah dogs, but strangely unfamiliar too. For one thing, they didn't bark!
Later in Kuranda we attended a performance by aboriginal artists and I remember they brilliantly imitated Dingo vocalizations, on their famous wind instrument the didgeridoo.
To many of us the Dingo is an iconic animal and symbolic of Australia, like the koala or kangaroo. There is still considerable mystery surrounding its origin and when it first arrived on the continent. Modern genetic studies are throwing new light on the role it has played in Australia's ancient culture.
Ever since European colonization, the Dingo has been considered a dangerous pest - sad but inevitable in a country with so much livestock-farming. Today the pure Dingo is facing extinction thanks to large-scale killing programmes and hybridization with Eurobreeds (80 per cent of Dingos are believed to be hybrids).
This kind of geneticcontamination is a threat to aboriginal dogs everywhere, including to the INDog - the Dingo's distant relative.
Dingo Care Network has been working for several years to protectthis unique dog. A few months ago they won a significant victory when the state of Victoria changed the Dingo's status from pest to threatened species.
Incidentally, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies the Dingo as "vulnerable."
ClickhereforDingo Care Network's website: it gives lots of interesting information, including on research and conservation efforts. Make sure you visit the photo gallery, the pups are absolutely adorable!
Photos: Julie Fechner Dingo Care Network, Victoria, Australia
This is an informal, unofficial group of INDog enthusiasts, linked to my awareness campaign the INDog Project. "INDog" is what we call the Indian native dog, (earlier known as the Indian Pariah Dog). The INDog belongs to a group of dogs known as aboriginal and primitive dogs, or indigenous village dogs. See also padsociety.org
This is not a welfare or animal rights blog, though health and welfare are discussed sometimes. It is not about any organization. It is not about the "stray dog issue." There are many other sites dealing with such topics. Moreover, primitive and stray are NOT the same thing (see the glossary below, and also the INDog website).
This blog celebrates the INDog as an aboriginal race of domestic dog - its origins, characteristics, appearance, temperament, behaviour, and the sheer fun of keeping it as a pet. If, like many of us, you are captivated by our indigenous village dog, read on.
Quoting from this blog or the INDog site: I have noticed that while most people follow the normal etiquette and credit my blog or site if they use content, there are a few who have copied text and pictures or quoted copiously without any acknowledgment. Please do not use any content from here or from the INDog site without permission and acknowledgment.
Dogs featured in this blog: I only feature INDogs adopted as house-pets. I also feature INDog-mixes who are house pets. In fact, if you live in an Indian city, your dog is possibly of mixed lineage and not a 100% indigenous native dog. I call these dogs INDog-mix or Indies. This is a point of difference but NOT a point of superiority or inferiority. INDogs, INDog-mixes, and in fact all dogs are equally wonderful as pets!
If you'd like me to post your dog's story in this blog, please write to me at rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail DOT com, along with photographs. I also have a page on Facebook called The INDog Club. Please join if you find this topic interesting.
Why I created the INDog Project and INDog Club: I had the idea of setting up this forum after adopting my own dog, Lalee. I was disturbed by the general confusion and misconceptions about our native dogs. My pet project is to get this ancient race the respect and recognition that is its due.
The Indian public is not particularly dog-literate, and the common third world mindset affects perceptions about dogs. As in many countries of Asia and Africa, pets are still selected according to an outdated colonial-era ranking order which perceives anything foreign as superior to anything native. The growing middle class also seeks to display its spending power by purchasing expensive European breeds.
If you believe that artificially developed modern breeds are superior to landrace indigenous ones, read no further. This blog is not for you.
In a slide presentation on stray dogs I created for a Mumbai NGO in 1994, and in their website, I pointed out that the INDog is NOT a mongrel but a primitive breed in its own right, evolved by natural selection over many centuries. This is based on the theories of canine biologists and experts worldwide. True primitive dog populations have suffered minimal or no genetic admixture with modern breeds. To read more about this, click here.
The INDog is a beautiful early version of our best friend Canis lupus familiaris. It’s probably what Nature intended dogs to be.
Why I created this blog: This is the informal side of my project. It's a place for us besotted INDog and INDog-mix owners to show off our beloved pets.
INDog owners, please use this space to share your experiences, dog photos and videos, useful information for other dog-owners. Owners of mix-breeds (Indies) are also welcome, as long as the dog is at least part INDog. Mail your dog stories and dog images to me at rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail DOT com. They will be moderated but everything relevant to this topic will appear here.
Must-know stuff
Primitive/aboriginal dog:A type of domestic village dog which evolved a distinct appearance and character without human intervention. This appearance was earlier called the "long-term pariah morphotype" by some scientists -clickhereto seephotos of the type.The modern and preferred term is 'primitive type' or 'dingo type.'
Primitive-type dogs across continents have the same basic physical characteristics. These naturally evolved dogs are not only extremely hardy, they are also very alert and have the high-order intelligence required for a free-roaming life under circumstances that are often difficult and hostile. In biological terms, the aboriginal dogs of Asia and Africa are of the highest value for the study of genetics, behaviour and the origin of the dog.
Dogs were never studied in India till recently, and in the early days there were no Indian experts in this area, so terms coined by western scholars tended to stick. I believe the term "Indian Pariah Dog" is very generic (apart from having negative social connotations) and that our aboriginaldogs should have a name of their own, like the Canaan Dog of Israel and other landraces. The name INDog, coined by Col. Gautam Das, is perfect for this native landrace. I have been using and promoting it since 2007.
Aboriginal dogs in some parts of the world have now been officially recognised by canine registries, including the UKC, which has a 'Pariah and Sighthound' group. The FCI (Federation Cynologique Internationale) refers to this category as "Primitive Types." In some countries such dogs are being selectively bred. The best-known are the Canaan Dog of Israel and the African Basenji.
It is now accepted that many of the free-roaming dogs in Indian cities and towns are actually mix-breeds, though some certainly look more "mixed" than others. Pure INDogs are more common in remote rural areas where there are no Eurobreeds or other types of dog to interbreed with, and minimal or no admixture has occurred.
INDog: An aboriginal dog which perfectly conforms to the true primitive-type and is not mixed with any other breed. This is the name we use for the 'Indian Pariah Dog.'
How would you identify an INDog? By both type and location. Read the criteria in this post.
Indy, INDog-mix: A mix-breed dog descended from INDogs. I prefer these terms to 'mongrel', for our urban street dogs and other mix-breeds with INDog ancestry (see 'Mongrel', below). Since our mix-breeds are almost descended from INDogs, they are different from mixes of only Eurobreed dogs.
Mongrel: (called mutt in the US) Defined as a dog of mixed butindeterminate breed,whose lineage is not known. Primitive dogs were once considered to be mongrels, but for the last few decades it has been recognised that they are unmixed, natural types of dog in their own right. In India almost all mongrels have INDog mixed in their lineage. I prefer to call such mix-breeds 'Indies' or INDog-mix.
Mongrels exist thanks to irresponsible dog-owners who let their pets mate with street dogs. This practice not only exposes the pet to serious health risks (including venereal disease), it also increases the already huge street dog population, and lessens the number of indigenous dogs.
(Let me clarify that I love mongrels - in fact, I think they are adorable, and I have adopted four over the years - but the reason for their existence is poor pet ownership, which is regrettable to say the least. It would be a pity to lose the unique character of our ancient aboriginal race because substandard dog owners let their pets roam and breed on the street.)
Pi-dog, pye-dog: A term used by the British. It also means street dog.
Stray: There is a lot of confusion about this word and it is frequently used incorrectly. “Stray” does NOT refer to breed but to the legal status of the dog. In India it seems to mean an ownerless, unlicensed free-roaming dog. Since most "strays" in India happen to be INDogs or mix-breeds, all these terms are often used interchangeably. This is wrong. Purebreeds abandoned by their owners become strays. INDogs and mix-breeds adopted into homes are no longer strays but pets.
I find this word very vague and don't use it much. I prefer the terms "free-roaming" or "free-ranging" dog.
Purebreed: A dog of only one breed, born of selected parents. Most of the commercially recognised 'pure' breeds have only been created in the last two centuries, as strict breeding norms were not followed earlier. In actual fact, almost all modern 'pure' breeds have been created by mixing two or more breeds.
We use the word 'pure' to describe landraces as well. In this case it means a dog of only one landrace/type.
