In fact, the racket is enough to wake the dead. It’s near impossible to have a mobile conversation when surrounded by 6 or more barking community dogs, all trying to scare you into some sort of territorial submission with your new-to-the-hood doggie on lead.
My dog, a 60kg Alsatian, is usually not harried one bit, but perhaps because these are new dogs in a new domain, he is acting a little skittish. In fact, he is flat out petrified of one little Chihuahua – looking mutt about the size of a tin can, but with razor-like teeth that reminds one of a piranha.
Personally, “street dogs” don’t bother me one bit. I learned a long time ago from living in large cities like New York, LA, and Chicago that street predators (of any species) are best dealt with fearlessly. Since dogs don’t carry side arms, they are infinitely easier to deal with than deranged humans. You just have to stand your ground, and look meaner or crazier than they do.
In fact, Nepal’s street dogs are so hungry, that offering a bit of food to the masses while you are walking your own dog usually confuses the attackers enough to stop what they are doing, which is just making a lot of noise anyway.
My wife has an abbreviation for this behaviour: ATNA. “All Talk and No Action” can be translated into canine behaviour as well as my own, and means that in most cases, a street dog is not going to bite you, no matter how loud or long it barks at you. Throwing rocks or waving a big stick is not necessary to deter a bite – just puff yourself up like you just did something grand at work, and want to show off in front of your co-workers.
This “making yourself bigger than you are” technique has proven to be effective in business, as well as in the wild. I even have a pal that survived grizzly bear attacks in the Yukon by employing this method of self-inflation! It also helps to put on a mean face and show some teeth, and look directly into a yapping mutt’s eyes with a look like “I’m smarter than you are” even if that’s not necessarily the case.
I would recommend taking a pee on the nearest tree or electric pole, but hell, that might not work as most male humans in this city have already tried that. But marking territory is really what all the fuss is really about. Dogs, like humans, are territorial in nature...they have a plot of land and they think they must protect it from intruders.
Walking through that same territory every day will ease the racket somewhat, as once a dog understands that you are not a threat, and that you are not going to steal from the trash pile it is protecting, or that you are not going to rape the females in the pack, you will be allowed to pass through safely – trust me.
But walking around with a very large dog is problematic. Your dog will want to either protect you, or run like hell if it is outnumbered or confronted with a dog that looks like it just sprouted from Sigourney Weaver’s womb in Aliens 3.
A normally well-trained and behaved dog can jerk your lead directly into oncoming traffic, or worse, into a drainage ditch filled with raw sewage (all things that have happened to me while caught off guard). So what I now do when stuck in the middle of a turf war with my doggie is to make him just sit. Bos! Then the attackers invariably have no butt to bite (they are always after his, and not mine, even though I have a bigger backside target).
The street dogs will then circle us in ATNA style, and soon start sniffing...they are looking for fear and weakness, so show none. My dog Krypto has his own way; he either gives off a low menacing growl, or if there is a female or pup in the attacking pack, he offers a gentle kiss.
Gated dogs can be safely ignored, as can the “roof guards” – you know the type, barking from atop a low hanging eve or sitting on a gate pole, growling as if it’s Satin incarnate. But be on your guard just a bit, as some caged-by-day dogs go insane from this cruel and inhumane punishment, and are known to squeeze out grills or leap off tall buildings.
Dealing with a rabid or clearly insane dog is another matter altogether, but in all my walking about town over the years, I have never encountered a truly crazy dog. 99.9 percent of them are just doing their doggie thing. And since you are statistically safer on the ground than flying the skies with Nepal Airlines, why worry?
Just puff up, look mean and less lean, and enjoy your meanderings with your pet each day...and perhaps say a prayer for the barking bowsers of Nepal that are less fortunate than you and your own.
Herojig is quirky kinda expat happily living in the Kathmandu valley with Nepali family, friends and a very large dog – which he tries to walk everyday, regardless of the countless packs of homeless dogs wandering the streets of KTM