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
If you've been around a while you may have noticed that I fuss quite a bit about using the correct words for things canine. The "stray" word is my favourite target.
We should be particularly careful not to use the "s" word loosely when speaking of village dogs, unless we are absolutely sure the dogs we are referring to are ownerless, homeless or feral. And now I'm going to shut up (for the time being) and let these pictures do the talking.
Dog 1: Sawra village, Maharashtra
Above, below: See that "stray" dog?
Dog 2: Kumre family's dog, Sawra village, Maharashtra
Above, below: What does the Kumre dog look like now? A "stray"?
Dogs 3: Near Pench, Maharashtra
Above: Now these must be "stray dogs," trotting along the street in front of those goats.
Above: Well, no. They are livestock guarding dogs, owned by this villager.
Dog 4: Nagaon village, Konkan coast, Maharashtra
Above: A "stray" on the beach. A very well-fed one too.
Above: He turns out to have an owner after all...
Dogs 5: Nagaon, Konkan coast, Maharashtra
Above: A litter of half-grown pups that I sometimes see wandering around near my house.
Above: The big picture. That's their mother in the background, standing in her owner's yard. The owner of these dogs is a man called Balchandra Apte. The mother has been around for several years.
Moral of the story: do a little research before deciding on the status of village dogs. Urban people, please understand that this is the model of dog ownership in Indian villages. Pet dogs do not usually wear collars. They spend part of their day roaming around, though they have homes and owners to go back to. Village houses and plantations are usually not fenced and there is no restriction on their movements.
Some villagers let their dogs sleep inside the house (like the Sawra villagers, who are mostly Gond tribals). Other villagers keep them in their yards or on their porch. Roaming around freely is normal and is not frowned on, unless the dog kills poultry (rare).
When I accompanied the Cornell team to collect samples from village dogs in Orissa, we were greeted with suspicion in almost every village. We had to explain that the dogs would not be harmed or taken away, before we were allowed to collect blood samples.
A similar thing happened in Moharli near Tadoba Tiger Reserve, when I was wandering around the village clicking dog pictures. Someone pointed out a house in which there was apparently a fine red dog. When I asked the lady of the house if I could see her pet, she first demanded whether I had come to kill him?
A year ago a Nagaon "stray" dog got hit and killed by a tourist bus in our lane. Her owner chased the bus to the beach, hauled the driver out and thrashed him.
Village owners may not cuddle their pets or talk to them in baby talk as we city people do. Some of these dogs have names and others don't. But please don't think that nobody cares about them.
And I would strongly recommend the term "village dog" as a more accurate one than "stray."
Photos: Taken by me in Sawra, Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, and Nagaon, Raigad district, Maharashtra
Lalee HATES the sea. She likes the beach and the sand, and marking spots where other dogs have peed, and she specially likes rolling in places where the sand smells horrible (rotting fish is a favourite fragrance).
Last month Pete and Lisa met for the first time since his adoption and journey to Canada one and a half years ago.
Pete's mom Sarah is a wonderful photographer, so there are lots of beautiful pictures of the reunion. Here are a few I asked Sarah to share with us.
For those who haven't read about Pete in this blog, he started life as a scrawny pup on the streets of Ahmedabad. Then Lisa rescued him and made a video for his adoption. His name was "Hugo Boss" at the time. Sarah saw the video in this blog and fell in love with him.
I remember I was in Chorla Ghat, Goa, when puppy Pete was on his way from Ahmedabad to Toronto. I had no signal and I kept wondering how he was doing on the long flight.
You'll find more posts if you enter "Pete" in the search box.
Above: With Sarah, Jorja and Lisa
Pete is one of the very few lucky dogs who got away from Ahmedabad. If it hadn't been for Lisa and Sarah, this pup would have ended up being killed by the criminal, corrupt Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation; or else left on the Pirana garbage dump like thousands of dogs there. I've heard of even pet dogs being harassed in that lawless uncivilized city. Mumbai's citizens and corporation are a million times more decent and evolved in comparison.
Thanks Sarah for these very special portraits, and most of all for giving Pete this blissful life! Photos: Sarah O'Neill Ottawa Canada
I love these! Fun portraits of Lisa's dogs in Vietnam, painted by her friend Annie Knibb. The last one is by Lisa.
Above: Penelope and Button, born in Gujarat, playing on the beach in Vung Tau
Above: Desi boy Shakespeare (Shakers) by the sea.
Above: Peaceful scene at home. In the bottom left hand corner is Ratatouille, resident rodent at the time this was painted. He was later dispatched by the other quadrupeds in this painting.
There are pictures of black-and-tan Steffi in this set too. She's a street dog who had a huge growth. Manik fostered her for two weeks and nursed her back to health.
Above, below: My favourites - Tommy sitting on a bench with his friend, Uncle Babu bhai, a milkman in the area
Above, below: Tommy, handsome as ever
Above: Chinky the brown beauty. Her left ear is ruined because of the identification notch made after neutering. A sad thing, but such identification marks are needed so the public, and NGOs, and municipal dog-catching teams, know that they are neutered and don't admit them for spaying again.Of course Chinky became Manik's house pet later, so there was more no need for this kind of identification, but a notch is unfortunately irreversible.
Above: Steffi, the guest. She developed a huge growth after a collision with a vehicle. At first it seemed like a malignancy, but the dog is blessed - it was just necrotic tissue. She was treated (absolutely free of charge) by Dr Umesh Karkare and the surgeon Dr Uttara, and thanks to them and Manik's care, she's absolutely fine now and back in her old spot on the street.
This little doll is called Annie and she lives with Callie and Charles Maddox in Sonipat, Haryana.Callie and Charles, thanks for choosing an Indi and for being such responsible owners!
Callie sent in these lovely photos and Annie's story:
We didn't take the decision to adopt a street dog lightly. We wanted to make sure that we could return to the USA with a dog from India, as we had heard too many heartbreaking stories about expats adopting dogs and then having to leave them behind when they moved on. We certainly couldn't face that, so we researched the process thoroughly before making the decision to adopt a dog here.
We adopted Annie at the DLF mall in Saket, Delhi. There is a rescue agency that runs a puppy adoption stall outside of the mall, and we wanted to support the work that this agency is doing. So we stopped by the stall one day and immediately fell for Annie. She was so tiny, but she was climbing over the bigger puppies with an adventurous and curious spirit.
The volunteer working at the stall told us that her mother had been hit by a car and killed, so Annie was now an orphan. She didn't even have any siblings in her litter.
Needless to say, our hearts melted and we knew that Annie had to be a part of our family. We scooped her up, bought some supplies at the nearby pet store, and took her home to Sonipat.
Of course, she pooped on Charlie during the car ride home and then threw up on Callie. But we didn't care!
We were a bit nervous about adopting her so young, as it is illegal in the USA to adopt a puppy younger than eight weeks old. But we kept her warm, comforted her when she cried in the night, and fed her bowls of infant cereal until she grew big and strong enough to transition to puppy food.
Her favorite toy is a rubber chicken, she loves to eat carrots and bananas, and she enjoys cuddling on the couch.
Needless to say, she is an absolute joy. Full of energy, intelligence, and love.
Annie is making her first trip to the USA this summer, so we'll let you know what she thinks about it!
Photos and story: Callie and Charles Maddox Sonipat Haryana
One more black INDog from Bengal, clicked by me this time. Black-and-tan actually. I saw this dog sleeping next to Dhakuria Lake on my last trip to Kolkata in December 2010. It's quite cold at night and early morning and the dog was curled up tight on a heap of dried leaves.
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.
