Kalu and Lalu

Handsome brothers Kalu and Lalu belong to Subrata Pain, who lives in West Bengal. The pups were gifted to him by his adivasi employees. 

Kalu

'They are smart and funny and like to play and dig in our garden all the time,' writes Subrata. 

'One of them suffered from parvo virus but now he is fine.'

Kalu means black and Lalu means red, so it's not difficult to guess which is which!

Kalu is the boss of the pack, and if Subrata pets Lalu first he jumps at his brother angrily. But they also love each other a lot. 

The tribe they lived with traditionally used such dogs for hunting, which would explain the high prey drive of these pups. They tend to chase cats and got into trouble once for attacking the neighbour's chickens. Subrata keeps a watchful eye on them to prevent such episodes.

I think the pups are INDog-mixes (mixed with some larger breed) because of their greater-than-normal height and weight, and also the heavy shading on Lalu's body. Here are some beautiful pictures of them!

Lalu

 Subrata Pain

West Bengal

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Guuchu

Guuchu is a village pup from the 24 Parganas area of West Bengal. And like all INDog pups, he's beautiful, bright-eyed and highly intelligent!

Guuchu's owner Sourav Purkayastha wrote in about his cute new family member:

I had asked the lady who cooks for us to look out for some deshi pups in her area.

She lives in a distant village area, far away from the main city.

She informed me as soon as she found a litter of pups with their mother by the roadside near her house. She started feeding them occasionally. I went to see them. They were just about two months old.

I offered some treats to them and eventually they became friendlier and came near me to smell me and check me out. I followed the advice of a famous trainer on choosing my pup. After thorough examination and observation I chose the low/medium energy pup of the litter, since that is the energy level of our family. So I think he will be a fine pet, but time will tell.

In his first seven days in our house I could see that he was mellow, calm and composed, and very well-behaved. He already seemed housebroken, doesn't pee in the house, whines for me to take him outside and then does his 'business' immediately and returns inside without my having to say a word. We feed him chicken, rice, egg, fish, some vegetables. He loves it. 

At first hesitant, this little guy now loves going for a walk with me every morning around the block. I supervise him closely.







































































Overall I just love the energy that he brings into our family! And he's so cute he makes me want to constantly cuddle him.

I would love it if more and more people brought INDogs into their homes. They are so low-maintenance, perfect for the Indian climate, and a healthy and hardy race. Thanks to Mother Nature.

Photos and text: Sourav Purkayastha
Shyamnagar
West Bengal

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Village dogs of Khovsgol Nuur

Neha Arora and her husband Anoop Kayarat live in Ulaanbaatar now, and recently they went to the beautiful lake Khovsgol Nuur. It's known as the 'Blue Pearl of Mongolia' and is about 580 km away from Ulaanbaatar.

Neha is my top favourite dog photographer (have you seen her portraits of Kiba and Kimaya?) And she's a real dog person. In the midst of clicking the Ice Festival and horse-sledding, she managed to look out for the local dogs and get some beautiful pictures. 

Here are a few! 

Outside a 'ger'

I've never seen pictures of Mongolian village dogs before, so this was really interesting for me and other aboriginal dog fanciers in our network. These dogs seem to be of the husky/spitz type. Just as our tropical village dogs are usually of the dingo/pariah type. It's possible many North Asian village dogs look like this. (If anyone has photos, please email me!)
























'This big brown dog was at the beginning of Khovsgol Nuur in the town Hatkal,' says Neha.
(Perhaps mixed some generations back with the Banhar, a Mongolian molosser breed very like the Tibetan Mastiff?)






















'The other two dogs were 15 km down the lake at our Ger camp. That area was quite isolated.' 






























































'The dogs are owned in the same manner as Indian village dogs. They are fed leftovers and allowed to sleep outside the houses/gers. They did not bark at us, but may be watch dogs to alert people about the presence of wild animals. We were told wolves and leopards are seen in the area.

'During summer and events like the Ice Festival, the main occupations of the community are centred around tourism. The rest of the time it's predominantly herding (yaks, sheep, horses and some reindeer), and associated jobs.'

Thanks for the photos, Neha. Looking forward to more!

(Want to see some photos of the beautiful countryside around Ulaanbaatar? Check this post about cute INDog-mix LittleDog, who lived in Mongolia for a while with his humans.

And read about Neha's and Anoop's beautiful Indies Champ and Jebo here. They'll be travelling to Mongolia soon).

Photos: Neha Arora
Khovsgol Nuur
Mongolia

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