Never Pet a Dominican Dog!

Never, never, pet another Dominican dog.  That’s what Matt tells me.  Well I agree….I shouldn’t ever, ever, ever pet another one.  And here’s why.

First, some of my observations about Dominican dogs.  They will break your heart.  There are Dominican beach dogs, street dogs and village dogs.  By far, the beach dogs are the best off.  They wander the beach where there are plenty of bars and restaurants, and many people offer them the leftovers from their plate.  They generally get plenty to eat, but they are very particular.  They want protein, and maybe some pasta, but NEVER potatoes!  They won’t eat them.  The street dogs aren’t quite as well off, but they can generally find something to eat.  Dominicans seem to be very generous.  If all they have for breakfast is a small baguette of bread and there is a hungry dog around, they share with the dog.  Village dogs don’t seem to do as well, there are just too many of them.  I need to stay out of the villages.

There seems to be a very good program to attempt to care for homeless dogs.  They have clinics every six weeks or so that they will provide spaying free of charge.  Dominicans don’t neuter the males, but they don’t usually object to spaying the females.  Once the dogs are spayed they are eligible for a monthly oral treatment that takes care of fleas, ticks and parasites.  Volunteers in each neighborhood are responsible for treating the dogs in their area.  Dogs have a tattoo in their ear identifying them and the volunteers also have photos.  So that’s a very good thing.

When you offer food to a Dominican dog, it doesn’t matter if they haven’t eaten in a week, they will very gently take the food from you, they never snap or gobble it.  They also love to have attention, any show of affection will seem to spark some hope that they will have someone to care for them.  So that is why you should never pet a Dominican dog!

Here is Scruffy Puppy.  As Juan says, “ella is muy contenta”.  She is always very happy and after I petted her once while I was out walking Hermann, we seem to be friends for life.  She actually seems to have a home with a Dominican family that lives just at the end of the drive way to our condo.  She’ll wait till she sees me walking Herm and then she’ll come bounding toward us.  She loves to have her tummy scratched, so she’ll always roll on her back for a good scratching.  I’ll oblige and then start to walk away, so she’ll run in front of me and throw herself in the driveway in front of me and roll on her back.  She’ll usually do that about 4 or 5 times until I finally just step over her and head for home.  When that happens she’ll very dramatically continue to lay on her back and follow me all the way home with her eyes.  She is very well behaved and although she starts to follow me when I head out to the main road, someone at her home will call her and she stops and goes home.

Now this is my Angel.  One time about two weeks ago I was out scratching Scruffy Puppy, and I saw this skinny, pitiful white dog lurking near us.  I called her and she timidly came up to me and I scratched her head.  She has a delicate, beautiful face - almost deer-like.  That one scratch was all it took, she seemed to be mine after that one scratch.  The next day Matt and I were walking to the market which is about 45 minutes from the condo and most of it along the busy main road.  She immediately started following us.  I tried and tried to shoo her away, but she wouldn’t stop following us.  She went to the market with us but it was very crowded and she was terrified.  She disappeared eventually.  Matt and I caught a guagua to Sosua beach after the market and came home late in the day.  She was back at the condo waiting for us.  This started a pattern, she would always follow us until we got to where we were going and then she’d disappear and be waiting for us back at the condo.  This did not make Matt very happy. 

Angel appeared to have recently had a litter of puppies, but I assumed she lost them since she never had puppies with her.  This past Friday we hosted a happy hour at our pool.  Some of the friends we had over were much more familiar with dogs than me, and I soon learned that, no, she hadn’t recently had puppies – she was about to have a litter, and probably very soon.   Well the very next day I got out for my early morning beach walk and she was not acting right.  She still went with us, but it was hard for her  She seemed to be very fretful and restless.  When we got back from our walk she immediately crawled under the floor of the gazebo and wouldn’t come out.  Matt and I had to leave and when we came back she was still under the gazebo.  The gardener at our condo said she needed to move from there, she needed a place “mas sacado” (drier) to have her puppies.  So they pulled her out and she immediately headed to a neighborhood near us.  About two or three hours later she came back, after having her puppies, and found me at the pool.  I petted her and then she left.  A bit later I was at the beach and she came out to the beach, barked at me and than ran off.   About 30 minutes later she did this again.  That time I followed her.  She seemed to want me to know where she was and that all was ok. Matt and I had always noticed a house near us that appeared to be vacant, and that’s where she went.   She squeezed through the iron gate of this house and waited for me to follow.  Obviously I couldn’t, so she gave up and ran into a thick stand of shrubs at the edge of the property.  I thought she had chosen a good spot to have these pups .  Even though Matt said I needed to leave her alone, I went back to leave her some food at the gate.  Well, when I came back there was a car in front of the house and a vicious Doberman in the yard.  I knew this didn’t bode well for the puppies. 

About 3:00 a.m. I had to take Hermann out (he’s had too many handouts himself) and there was Angel waiting for me….with no puppies.  I’m going to take her to get her spayed and get her on the program for monthly flea/tick/parasite treatments.  Not letting her go through this again.

So that’s why you shouldn’t ever pet a Dominican dog.  They will very quickly work their way into your heart…..and maybe break it.  And whatever you do - Don't Name Them!