Hillside walk with the K Gang

As always, we Khalaps are working hard to keep the canine bosses entertained and busy.

Last weekend we all went to one of Kiran's regular bouldering sites, on the outskirts of Navi Mumbai. Aren't we lucky to have the beautiful Sahyadri range right next to the city?!

We've been to this spot a couple of times before. It's a very pleasant sun-dappled walk up a wooded hill to the boulders, and there are very few free-ranging dogs on the route: an important consideration for us, given Kiba's hostility to dogs in general.

The lovely forested hillside is gradually being encroached on by local builders. Large patches of woodland have been cleared, and at least ten temples have mushroomed up in the last few years. Building a temple is a well-established first step in land-grabbing. 

The bouldering site has been left undisturbed, at least for now.

Scroll down to see our photos of the K Gang among the rocks and trees! And if you're new here and would like to see more K Gang outing photos, check these posts:

The K Gang trek to Subedar Falls
Kiba and Kimaya go rock-climbing
The K Gang trek to Sunset Point
Running from Diwali
The K Gang at sea
The K Gang with friends and acquaintances
Rowdy had to be taught a lesson
Montagues and Capulets
Kimaya has a mood swing, or two

NOTE: Want to take your dog/s trekking? Here are some things to remember - because the top priority must be to keep your dogs safe.

• If you are not a regular trekker, it's best to get an experienced trekker to accompany you
• Make sure to carry at least 2 litres of cool water (thermal bottles are nice), and a bowl; or a dog water bottle
• Some basic medication in case of cuts and scratches, and a vet-recommended anti-histamine just in case of bad insect bites or stings
• Avoid forested areas with possible leopard presence
• Get a local guide if necessary; getting lost will not be fun
• Let your dog rest if s/he wants to - never force her/him to walk if he needs a break
• Avoid trekking in hot weather
• DO NOT LET YOUR DOGS OFF LEASH
• Stick to the path and don't let your dog/s go deep into long grass; there may be snakes
• Don't let your dog climb on to heaps of leaves; again those are often hiding places for snakes
• Feed your dogs one or two hours before leaving your home. Avoid feeding them during the trek or during any other strenuous exercise. If it's a long trek, let your dog rest for at least an hour before and after the meal.

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Navi Mumbai
Western Ghats
Maharashtra

Sophie at four

Every year I get an update about beautiful Indy princess Sophie. 

I'm late posting this one - her human sent it nearly two months ago (so sorry for the delay, Sophie and Sophie's human!) 

For those who haven't met her before, here are her earlier stories:

Sophie
Sophie's choice
Sophie at three

As you can see, she's as pretty as ever!




















































'Yes, Sophie the little Goa Indy is four years old now,' writes her human.

'And not so little any more...

She celebrated her fourth birthday in September with some delicious red velvet cupcakes, her absolute favourite.

And I thought to send across some pictures of her doing her usual things with her  human and animal friends. For those who are following her story.

So here are some more pics of her, at her South Goa residence, with her friend and elder sister Annie, our nine-year old white rescue cat, and two of the neighbourhood indies, Brownie and the grey-buff girl Piquen, which means "small one" in Portuguese.

Enjoy the photos!'

Waiting for family

Morning sunbath with Annie

Chilling on a Sunday afternoon with Annie

With Brownie and Piquen

Text and photos: David
Goa

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Rio

Rio Kamodia is a very handsome INDog-mix from Mumbai. His human Mallika wrote to me about him last week. 

His story begins very sadly, but he is one of those lucky few who found a really loving, understanding family!

(When you've finished reading the story please read my footnote at the end).

Rio was about one month old when his mother was brutally beaten to death by a watchman, somewhere in the Powai area. The man had hit her really hard on the head with a thick wooden stick, because she peed on the tyre of a car. 

Her poor puppy was found shaking and shivering, totally traumatised and all alone, next to his dead mother.

An American girl who was living there at the time saw him and felt really sorry for him. So she picked him up and took him home.

I belong to a lot of non-profit rescue groups in Mumbai, and I foster animals too whenever possible. This girl posted a foster appeal for the pup on Facebook, as she was leaving for Hyderabad that very night. I saw the appeal and agreed to foster him, but I told her I could only take him the following afternoon as I had an exam in the morning. She replied that that was fine, and that her friend would drop the pup off to my place the next evening.

It turned out she had left him alone in her bathroom in the dark from 8 p.m. till around 4 p.m. the following day. She hadn't given him any food or water because that would have made him pee and poop around the bathroom.

This added a tremendously to his already terrible trauma, and messed him up almost beyond recovery. 

When he came to us he was malnourished and weak, and so scared that for three days straight he trembled constantly, while eating, sleeping, all the time. Finally after three or four days he started trusting us and came to us wagging his tail, and sat in our laps for hours because he craved and wanted love. Another couple of days and I decided this was it: he had chosen us and I couldn't give him away. After everything he had been through he had finally started trusting us, and I couldn't betray that trust and give him away. I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night if I'd done so.

And trust me, this was the BEST decision we had ever made as a family: to adopt Rio as my little brother, and my parents' son. We love him more than anything in this world. He is now about one year and nine months old. He still has a lot of issues though, is still really nervous, takes time to trust strangers, and is absolutely terrified of going out. We consulted the best canine behaviour consultants in town, but they said that he can't be taken out like a normal dog as he is one of those very few dogs whose trauma cannot be healed. But we have no regrets because he is still one of the best things that has ever happened to us. For exercise we take him up to our terrace every evening for three hours, where he runs around in sheer happiness, fetches his ball and plays hide-and-seek with us as well!







































































































































































































He helped me deal with my own depression issues too. Today I am a super-happy person, all thanks 
to him! He is a miracle angel in our lives. And also thanks to him I will always want an Indie and no other breed.

Follow Mallika and Rio on Instagram: mallikakamodia

Story and photos: Mallika Kamodia
Mumbai

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My note: Reading Rio's history, which begins even more sadly than most rescue stories, I wondered for the umpteenth time why the official animal birth control programme is still conducted so half-heartedly in this city. After more than two decades of mass spay-neuter, why are innocent dogs still being left intact to breed in such frighteningly hostile, dangerous conditions? Dogs deserve so much more than just sentimental words and tepid welfare efforts. Rio and his mother were not just victims of a brutal watchman: they were victims of a largely uninterested 'animal welfare' system. Please don't be part of the apathy and cruelty: get the dogs in your area neutered!

Our brand new mobile-friendly INDog website!

INDog fans! BIG news!! 

Seven years after we first made it, our INDog Project website has been recreated from scratch, and most importantly has been made mobile-friendly.

Oh good, it's mobile-friendly now!

My colleagues Javed Ahmed of the INDog Project, and Dr Krishna Mohan, put in months of hard work and late nights to make it happen. I can never thank them enough!

Lots of new content, and many many links to books and scientific papers, for those who want to read more. (We recommend reading all of them). You can also download the classic reference book 'The Indian Dog' by W V Soman, from our 'Read more' section.

A very important part of the site is still under construction, so keep watching this space. It's our updated 'Map of Aboriginal and Primitive Dogs Around the World' and it's going to be gorgeous!

The next part of this post is addressed to that smaller but creepily persistent, unpleasant segment of readers who like to harvest other people's hard work and pass it off as their own. I mean the plagiarisers. I'm tired of finding photos stolen from my blog and posted without permission or acknowledgement in your websites and pages. No, everything on the net is not free, so please abandon these misconceptions left over from the 20th century. All my blog and website content is the intellectual property of the INDog Project. If we find it anywhere it shouldn't be, we will take legal action. 

Okay, so here's the link again, below! Hope you like our site!

http://indog.co.in/

All the content in our website and this blog are the intellectual property of the INDog Project. Please do not use any text or images without permission and acknowledgment.

Polar dogs of the High Arctic

It's the tenth birthday of this blog! And I'm celebrating it not with an INDog post, but with this photo- essay about another breed of landrace dog far, far away: the Greenland Dog!



















We met Greenland Dogs and other gorgeous 'Polar' dogs in Svalbard this summer when we finally went on an Arctic trip - something we've been wanting to do for years! 

Before embarking on a seven day cruise-expedition to North Spitsbergen, we spent a couple of days in Longyearbyen, the administrative centre of the Svalbard Archipelago. 

At 78 degrees latitude this is the northernmost human settlement on the planet. It's actually a charming little town in an odd way, despite its somewhat bleak industrial appearance.

For instance, you see signs like this:




















And sled dogs all over the place! Some have signs pasted on their kennels requesting people not to touch them (because a lot of people actually do silly things like trying to pet every dog they see). There are photos of some of these dogs at the end of this post.

Our own sled dog experience had been booked months in advance, with a family-run company called Green Dog. I was as excited about finally meeting sled dogs as I was about seeing polar bears, walruses and auks. All so exotic to someone from the tropics!

We reached Longyearbyen at around 1.00 p.m. after a long flight north from Oslo. A couple of hours later our guide from Green Dog came to pick us up from the hotel and drive us to the dog kennels along with five other visitors.

In June they use a special kind of dog cart and not sleds with blades, since there isn't a lot of snow on the ground at this season.

The dogs here, generally described as 'polar dogs', are actually of different breeds and mixes between those breeds. Some are Greenland Dogs, an aboriginal breed genetically identical to the Inuit Dog.* They are quite large robust dogs with broad skulls. Others are Alaskan Huskies, mix breeds of no rigidly defined type: they are selected strictly for performance as sled dogs, and mostly have a slender build and narrower heads than the Greenland Dogs.

At the dog kennels

Typical Greenland Dog (with a name from Norse mythology!)

Greenland Dog mother and pup, keenly watching us

The Greenland Dog pup is taken out for cuddles!

This Alaskan Malamute doesn't belong to Green Dog; he is a pet and was just visiting with his owner

An Alaskan Husky

We spent some time meeting the dogs (and playing with puppies - there were several!) All the dogs were extremely friendly and looked very healthy. And they were all just raring to go!  

Then we went to the changing room to put on the company's special thick overalls, boots and gloves, to protect us from the icy wind. The actual temperature there was around 2 degrees Celsius, but the wind chill factor made the effective temperature lower.

The dogs were harnessed in teams of eight, with us guests helping to hold them. 

The leading cart was driven by one of our two guides, Jimmy. Our cart was right behind it, driven by Kiran: his first and possibly only experience of driving a dog team! A third cart was behind us. 

This is Kiran with our lead dogs, Willow and Chilli. 



















Willow was quite a handful at first, he was so excited to be out and running! But he calmed down after a bit of energy had been worked off, and after Jimmy had turned back a few times to make sure he stayed on course.

These photos take me back there! We loved the austere beauty of this treeless landscape. It was hard to select just a few pictures, so be warned, there are LOTS!

We took frequent breaks for the dogs to splash in the water and drink. Our guide told us polar dogs are most comfortable at -20 degrees C, so 2 degrees is rather warm for them!

Guides carry rifles and flare guns outside the settlement area of Longyearbyen, as a precautionary measure for protection against polar bears. Killing a bear is a criminal offence and they are never shot except in self-defence, if there is absolutely no other option.

Water break!

Svalbard Reindeer seen from the dog cart

A colony of Common Eiders have selected a spot between some dog kennels as a breeding site. The best protection

against Arctic Foxes and hungry bears!  The place is an attraction for birders and photographers. It's not near Green Dog 
but some other companies.

Above and below: Some dogs about town

*'Population genetic analysis of the Greenland Dog and Canadian Inuit Dog - is it the same breed?' by Dr Hanne Friis Andersen, DVM http://thefanhitch.org/V7N4/V7,N4SameDog.html

'Using multiple markers to elucidate the ancient, historical and modern relationships among North American Arctic dog breeds', by S K Brown, C M Darwent, E J Wictum and B N Sacks, 2015.

Photos: Kiran Khalap, Rajashree Khalap
Longyearbyen,
Spitsbergen,
Svalbard

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