Are you a Primitive Dog fan?: February 2010

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Roshan Kumar

This beautiful dog belongs to Shalini Patnaik and her family.

Shalini lives in the US with her parents, but they spend holidays in Bhubaneshwar where her grandparents live. On one of their trips they adopted a street pup and named him Roshan Kumar.

He lived happily with Shalini's grandparents for a while, but then they started spending more and more time in the US, and the Patnaiks decided to fly Roshan there to join the family.

"We didn't like to leave him in the care of those who were unlikely to have treated Roshan with the same love and affection as we feel he and all dogs deserve," explains Shalini.

Well, Roshan went on a 30-hour long journey, his first time on a plane, and was reunited with his family, in California. "We love and adore our dear Roshan and are so excited to have him with us," says Shalini.

All those people who dump their pets when they get posted abroad - I hope you're reading this.

Photos: Shalini Patnaik
Orissa, California

Bush

I always love to hear from people who have made a deliberate decision to adopt an Indian dog (whether INDog or INDog-mix) over a foreign "purebreed." Most of our dogs are rescues, adopted on impulse because of compassion, and that is really heartwarming; but those people who simply want a dog in their lives and pick an Indian one - they make me feel we Indians are finally changing...

Here are some pictures and a story sent in by one such discerning dog owner, Rohitangshu Das:

On 10 of January 2008, I went to the Nagpur SPCA shelter to adopt a dog. The caretakers there presented Bush to me. I started having second thoughts, because he was quite big. They told me he was between 1.5 and 2 years and were very insistent that I should take him.

The caretakers told that any dog who wags his tail at friendly sounds is good and not ferocious! Bush wagged his tail after I made some sounds so I was satisfied with their explanation. So I proceeded towards my home with Bush.

When we brought him home, we started thinking about what to name him and came up with some common names. But my father said, he is special and so he must be named after some famous personality. At that time Bush was the US president and so our new dog was named after him!

From Nagpur he was taken by train to Delhi, and then to Kolkata, where he lives now.

Bush is a good, obedient, friendly, energetic dog and sometimes his energy outdoes mine. He is always ready for play - throw a ball at him and he will jump for it, even if he is in deep slumber when you start the game! When any of my family members comes home after a couple of hours absence, he greets them, jumps over them and drives them crazy until someone calms him down.

He has grown in to a nice personality and has also learnt new commands (sit, stay, lie down and shake hands) - but his energy remains the same as always!

Rohitangshu Das
Kolkata

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Eloise Leyden's magical dog tour

It's easy to appreciate the beauty of our Pariah dogs when they are spruced up and wearing nice collars and sitting on our sofas - that's easy enough. But when they are scrounging through a dump or lying in a gutter, it takes that extra vision to look past the squalid surroundings and realize just how extraordinary these creatures are. This may seem extreme but to me dogs are the only real signs of life and love and innocence on our mean streets. Amid hordes of robotic humans, they are our only remaining link to the natural world...

Photographer Eloise Leyden travelled around India for a year shooting pictures for her book Slum Dogs of India. Click here and look at our dogs through her magic lens. Astonishingly and heartbreakingly beautiful. Perhaps she sees them more clearly than most Indians do.

Thanks, Eloise, for this treat! I'm finding it hard to drag myself away.

Eloise is a trustee of the NGO TOLFA (Tree Of Life For Animals), that works for street dog welfare near Ajmer, Rajasthan. A portion of the sales of this book will go towards their programmes.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Street dogs prevent burglary in Ahmedabad!

Featuring hero dogs that protected a housing colony from robbers! The Dumb Blonde Dog Detective Agency investigates the scene of the attempted crime...

This one's going into my "Watchdog Database" - a collection of incidents that demonstrate the security-dog potential of INDogs and Pariah-mix dogs. Click here to read them.

If you have other real-life incidents to contribute, please email me.

Video: Lisa Warden
Ahmedabad

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Chile's street dogs of many breeds!

This evocative picture was taken by Mary Lascelles on a recent trip to Chile. Mary, thanks for letting me post it here.

These so-called "stray" dogs seem to be much like the ones in Peru, they are all Eurobreeds or a mix of Eurobreeds, unlike our Indian city street dogs, which are nearly always mixed with Indian Pariah Dog/INDog.

In fact street dogs in Peru and Chile often seem to be pets who are roaming around unsupervised. I noticed this in Arequipa and Cusco and smaller towns on a trip to Peru in 2008. This is much like our village dogs, who appear to be "stray" to a casual observer but are frequently simply pets who wander around part of the day and go home to eat and sleep.

That's partly why I find the word "stray" practically meaningless, and I wish people wouldn't use it loosely. It indicates neither breed nor race nor even ownership status actually...

But I'm digressing here. This topic calls for a separate post: "Is a stray really a stray?" Coming up soon.

Meanwhile, check here for earlier posts on street dogs of Santo Domingo and Peru. Or perhaps I should say, "Dogs that were on the street at the time of clicking, in Santo Domingo and Peru!!!"

Photo: Mary Lascelles,
Chile

Puppy needs home in Chennai or Bangalore

I am a little girl puppy around 6 weeks old. I used to live near Bagayam bus stand with my sister, but she was run over by a bus. I don’t have a mother and am too small to look after myself. I am friendly and sweet (as my pictures show). Will you take me home?

Contact: Shaheen / Susmita
No.s: 9994213689, 9790098130

Susmita Iyer
Chennai

Friday, February 12, 2010

Little Boy needs a home - Mumbai

Hi everyone, my name is "Little Boy" and me and my mom are living on the nice Food Lady's front plaza (me and mom call her Food lady 'cause she brings us food every day).

I was born with 9 other brothers and sisters in early December while the Food Lady was on holiday. I don't know what happened to my bro's and sis's but we are right on Juhu Tara Road and the streets are mean to puppies. The Food Lady found out from her security that most of them were hit by cars. So it's just me and mom now.

The Food Lady wants to send mom for sterilization, whatever the heck that is, but she's afraid to send mom off and leave me alone. She can't take me in as much as she'd like to since she has a bunch of cats and lives with roomies. So I need a loving home.

I'm playful and sweet, so sweet you just want to cuddle me. (The Food Lady does and it feels so special but I miss it when she goes). The Food Lady has told me wondrous tales of dogs that live with families all the time. I'd really like one of those...So why don't ya give me a chance. I'm a way cool dude...

From the Food Lady:
Please open your hearts and your home to this boy. He loves petting and being silly. I will gladly get his rabies and distemper vaccines done and sterilization when he is old enough.If you can't adopt him maybe you know someone who will. Thanks.

Kat
099 305 41 905
waggybags@gmail.com
Akshay
098 204 01 915

Kat Ferrara,
Mumbai

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Four beautiful pups for adoption, Mumbai

These four pups are up for adoption at Hiranandani Gardens, Powai. There are two males and two females. They are about three months old.

Interested parties may please contact Mrs Nair (9323765739) or Jai Chatterjee (9820309094).

Please spread the word around.

Jai Chatterjee
Mumbai

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Hindustan Times Cafe story on Indian dogs taken overseas

Journalist Lina Choudhury-Mahajan did this interesting story in HT Cafe about Indian street dogs that have been adopted by non-Indians and now live overseas. It appeared on Sunday (31 January). This blog is mentioned in the story so I thought I'd post it here. Click on the image to enlarge the page.

Lina uses the common term "mongrel" for these dogs, but she does mention that Indian mongrels are all descended from the aboriginal breed the Indian Pariah Dog (INDog). That's a first and I hope other writers will follow her example. This is exactly what makes Indian mongrels unique and different from a mongrel/mutt in the US, Canada or Europe. Our urban street dogs all have a large measure of Indian Pariah in their bloodline, and that's what gives them their different look and personality. Unlike the mutts/mongrels in the US, Canada or Europe, which are an indeterminate mix of Eurobreeds.

That's why I prefer to use "INDog-mix" and "Pariah-mix" for our mix-breeds. "Mongrel" leads to the misconception that our street dogs are simply a Eurobreed-hotchpotch like other mutts around the world. They are no such thing.
I've mentioned here that dogs in remote rural areas have still not been mongrelized and are usually pure aboriginal Pariah dogs. That is probably true of dogs in some smaller towns as well. Check this post about the researcher Dr Sunil K Pal. The dogs in his home town Katwa (West Bengal) are probably true INDogs unmixed with Eurobreeds. There are other towns I've visited - Angul in Orissa, Canning Town and Gosaba in West Bengal - where the dogs are probably not genetically contaminated either. There are few if any Eurobreeds in those towns and if there are, they are not left unsupervised to mix with free-ranging dogs.

Image/article: Courtesy Lina Choudhury-Mahajan
Mumbai

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

Indian dogs, including INDogs, were sampled a few years ago for a genetic study by Cornell University. Read about their distinct genetic profile in this early post, and in the published paper 'Genetic structure in village dogs reveals a Central Asian domestication origin.'

Click here for our record of unmixed INDog populations around the country.

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.

Click here for some articles on INDogs, one written by me and the others about the INDog Project.

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 .

Major W V Soman pointed out the difference between 'pariah dogs' and mongrels way back in 1963, in his book 'The Indian Dog'. (You can download the book from our blog!) Even earlier, the famous naturalist, environmentalist and Tamil scholar M. Krishnan wrote in praise of these dogs in his essay "The Pariah" (read about his essay 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 - click here to see photos 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 aboriginal dogs 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 but indeterminate 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.

Pedigree: A recorded line of descent.

Also read the glossary in the INDog site http://www.indog.co.in

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