Collection: Dogs

We are dog people.  We were in dog withdrawal on our trip, so any time we saw a dog, our eyes—and cameras—gravitated towards it.   We ended up with a lot of pictures of dogs.  Well, “a lot” is relative; we only have 231 pictures of dogs, which is less than one per day, and half a percent of all of our pictures.  And two-thirds of those aren’t worth posting.  Some regions had more dogs than others, and some simply had more photogenic dogs.  We thought we’d break the pictures out by region.

North America

That King Charles Spaniel is on the edge of the Grand Canyon, on the last leg of our trip.  Her name is “Cookie” (her owner, on our right, was calling her name, trying to get her to look at the camera—but she was enjoying keeping her ears flying in the breeze too much to glance over).  For whatever reason, we have relatively few pictures of dogs in North America, despite how common they are (and most of those are from Canada).  Likewise, we saw next to none in New Zealand and Australia.

 

South America

South America had the most dogs in clothes.  We didn’t see any clothed dogs in the rest of the world.  We have no idea what this means, but we do know that we’ll go to lengths to take pictures of dogs in goofy outfits.

This outfit raised obvious questions, which were answered once the dog passed.  We took a picture of the answer.  still, we hope there is regular laundering going on here.

We saw this dog several different days, in Santiago.  He accompanies the garbage man on the far left.  It was late December, so we suspect his costume changes with the seasons.

We saw  many loose dogs too, though it wasn’t obvious if they were stray or just free-ranging.  Or, in many cases, free-napping.  This dog, who hiked up to Huayna Picchu, was the most active that we saw.

As dog people, we tend to make eye contact with dogs.  In South America, for any off-leash dog (which wasn’t necessarily a stray), that meant you had a walking partner, at least for a while.  We picked up this train of dogs in Patagonia, one at a time.  They tried to squeeze into the ATM booth with us, and then waited patiently (sniffing tails, to pass the time) until we came out again.  Most dogs had turf, and as we reached the edge of it, they’d just wander back towards the direction we’d walked from.

We found mostly little dogs in Buenos Aires; white was particularly popular, regardless of breed.

And a pack of little dogs in Patagonia.

Santiago had dog houses in the parks, and its own share of smaller dogs.

And we’re back to dogs napping:

Southeast Asia

We saw a wide variety of dogs in Asia; the notable similarity among them is that they generally did not make eye contact in the way we’re used to in either North or South America.  Whether they were on leash or off, they weren’t at all interested in strangers.  It seemed like they just weren’t that interactive with people in general, though we didn’t get a chance to see them in anyone’s home.

Poodles were oddly popular in Thailand; we hadn’t seen them since South America.

Mekong Delta

The dogs along the Mekong river merit their own sub-section.  We saw a lot more eye contact here, but since we were always separated by water, and they were generally at the edge of their property, it’s hard to tell if they were interested, or simply vigilant.

Egypt

The dogs we saw in Egypt were mostly strays.  There are certainly kept dogs, but we weren’t exposed to them, just by nature of where we went.  Some of the bus drivers would set out water and food at sites, and the dogs would home in.

The sun was quite intense, and the dogs were quick to seek shade anywhere they could find it.  We saw the group above move several paces, and then stop to talk again, and the dogs stood up from their newly exposed position, walked behind them, and curled up again in the group’s shadows.  We were also amused by the roped off ‘dog in shade’ exhibit in Luxor.

Europe

In Turkey, street dogs were tagged with the kind of ear tag we expect on livestock.  The tag indicates that they have been neutered and vaccinated.  They didn’t have homes, but they were well fed, and generally appeared healthy.  The dog pack below (under the P sign) was the only roving dog pack we saw in Europe, despite horror stories.  That was in Sarajevo.

After we traveled north of Bosnia-Herzegovina, we didn’t see any strays, just happy pets and owners.  But not as many dogs as we’d seen in South America or Asia, which was a surprise.

We saw (and scritched) a lot of dogs around the world, but the one we missed was happily spoiled back home.