Village dogs, the original breed that maybe aren't necessarily a breed
The coolest thing I've learned about dogs in awhile. And hi, it's been awhile.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here. I mean to remedy that, and I’d like to welcome new folks who continue to subscribe even while I’ve taken a significant break for some technical winter life difficulties. (You know how it goes sometimes, I’m sure.) I was so intrigued by a recent Instagram dog discovery that it motivated me to document it and share it with you, though, so let’s hope this means more to come. Paws crossed.
I’ve followed a feed called The Dogist for years, Elias Weiss Friedman’s project of one-on-one interaction with and documentation of city dogs and their people, packaged in direct dopamine hit style on Instagram (and now all the other platforms, too.) I’ve been trying to cut down on screen time lately, though (haha) and so I miss things, which is why cutting down on screen time is such a mixed bag — can the alleged mental health benefit of less scrolling really work if it comes with a side effect of missing photos of cute dogs AND dog facts I really need to know? Seems sketchy to me, but my therapist is unmoved.
My friend Melisa saved me, however, by posting The Dogist’s clip of Chai in her stories the other day.
Chai is, as reported by her person, a village dog, or callejero, plucked from a highway in Mexico and transported to life in Manhattan. Not only is Chai—so named because the person who found her was drinking Chai when she found her—the requisite Dogist photogenic, she is also a representative of an apparently…breedless breed, a dog that is so original it’s the…original dog.
This whole concept is so fascinating to me that it has driven me to excessive ellipses.
I mean, look at Chai. First ever dog. First ever dog!
Called village dogs, feral dogs, strays, and numerous titles in local languages and dialects, these animals live all over the world. Like that beauty at the top of the post in Puerto Rico, where orgs like the Sato Project and Second Chance Animal Rescue of Puerto Rico work to help find homes for dogs who often face tough lives on the streets, at a time when rescues and local shelters everywhere are overflowing.
Compassion Without Borders, based in Alameda, California, does the same for Mexican Village Dogs.
This piece written on Nautilus by biologist and author, along with fellow researcher Lorna Coppinger, of What Is a Dog? Raymond Coppinger explains how these dogs adapt to life in packs, surviving on spoils from local dumps and other spots with frequently replenished food supply.
This points us to our original question: What is a dog? It can’t be the purebred, artificially selected by humans and constituting a small fraction of the canine population. Rather it’s the populous village dog. In fact, we have good reason to think of them as the true purebred. They are not mongrels or stray kennel pups let loose on a village, but a species that over time has become finely, beautifully adapted to its niche.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the idea that so-called pure bred dogs are the norm and the ideal, when in fact they only make up about 15 percent of the world’s dog population — and unfortunately a significant chunk of the overflowing rescue population, because they are not as easy to train and provide 10+ years of care for as an internet or TV trend might make it seem (looking at you, my beloved flat-faced breeds.) I have cared for two Boston Terriers and one so-called “designer mutt” puggle with love and gratitude, but these dudes are not always the most agreeable behaviorally, or cheap at the vet. (Plus you will never have your pick of your spot in bed again.)
A somewhat dated but still interesting 2016 NYT article estimated 750 million village dogs exist, and 250 million “pet dogs”. A billion dogs on the planet and the vast majority will likely never have their own water bowl, much less the plush stairs up to the couch that my own arthritic, and incredibly spoiled, puggle dude just got.
Note: He learned to use them in record time, because of course he is a genius, and I teared up because he needs help getting on the couch now. But like I said, he’s a lifetime commitment, and this is the developmental stage he’s in. I can get him the stairs, so he gets the stairs.
Back to village dogs. Coppinger writes:
But could it be that breeds represented as working, hunting, or pet groups don’t represent real dogs? Could it be that the so-called stray dogs, street dogs, neighborhood dogs, village dogs, and even feral dogs of the world are the real, naturally evolved, self-selected dogs?
It’s old news here that I think dogs, with their many subgroups and communities, communication styles and healing powers, are beautiful and fascinating, and the more I learn, the more it turns out that I want to know. It’s what the ethos of “Oh my dog” rested on originally when I put this page up, and I’m so stoked to keep finding reasons why they are magic, speaking absolutely scientifically.
I really appreciate the people out there on the actual street getting to know humans and their dogs, whether it’s a village in India or an individual in NYC, and documenting it, continuing to create a digital anthropological record for a very large canine population. One billion dogs is a lot of dogs, and they’re often underresourced and mistreated, as well as loved and doted on.
Elias’s goal was to “create a happy place on the internet for dog lovers”, and I‘d like to personally like to thank him for that, and most recently for teaching me something I didn’t know and will surely never forget. (As I maybe search for a plane ticket to Mexico City.)
A couple links:
A South Korea study that measured specific brain activity while interacting with a dog confirms what many of us already knew: playing with dogs — in this case a superhero known as Aro the poodle — helps a lot with concentration and relaxation.
The BarkBox promo this month is, conveniently, a free dog DNA kit if you sign up for a multi-month subscription. Hoover loves BarkBox and we simply got too many toys to justify it after a year or so, if you can believe it. It’s such a great treat for you and for your dog though — BarkBox day was always a party and I sometimes snag the themed boxes that really catch my eye — so I do recommend checking it out if you haven’t.
I saw one nominated film this year — The Holdovers, which I recommend, Paul Giamatti and supporting actress winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph were amazing. So I kept the Academy Awards on for background noise, and Messi the dog was obviously a personal highlight.
Dogs’ upper lips are called flews. I swear.
Story ideas? Want to talk to me about dogs? Reach out!
More next time on why dogs are better than people, including a look at my pal Laurie Smithwick and co-author Jim Mitchem’s sequel volume, Gone Dogs 2.
I love everything about this post. My heart is so warm. Also, one of the coolest things I learned when getting certified in animal assisted human health was that when we're petting dogs and get that oxytocin rush, they get it too. That's right, they get the warm fuzzies looking at us, the same way we do looking at them.
Flews? Sorry that is awesome! New reader and confirmed pug and their mixes addict. Love your puggle by the way. ❣️❣️❣️🐾🐾❣️❣️❣️