bangkaew

in a way I sometimes feel sorry for the GSD here because of the heat. Can you imagine wearing a fur coat here? Although a female GSD is probably the best dog you could get. BTW I think my friend paid about 30k+ for his.

Actually, by spaying and neutering so many dogs he is treating the problem rather than a symptom, like feeding one malnourished puppy one meal.

Yes. Neutering is a great policy, it is just that most dogs here do have a home and they do not want their dogs' balls chopped off.

I know this sounds cruel, but is getting involved not in some way making it worse or just futile? There was an extremely malnourished puppy at the beach the other day and after discovering it had no home or mother, I wanted to take it to the Phuket Soi dog home. I ordered some food for it but it ran far away when approached. The Thai waitresses I could tell thought I was nuts and that got me thinking. I have gotten 2 dogs from the Phuket Soi dog home, both were puppies, and I would not think of paying a breeder to breed yet more dogs for me - and that is not just because I am Scottish.

But would it be better if that dog lives and goes on to mate? If it went to the Soi dog home it would be taken care of but there is no guarantee that anyone will adopt it. Considering there are hundreds of dogs there, all vacinated, it is a very expensive operation. Us feeding stay dogs could be making the problem worse and might be something that just makes us feel good.

There were 3 dogs at a building site here that were poisoned and the security guards have replaced them with 4 puppies. They probably do not want 4 dogs, but they probably got 4 because they expect some to be run over, poisoned or whatever. That seems cruel to us but that is the mentality of the free will Budhist. That is their solution to the problem, let the dogs find their own fate and keep the numbers manageable. In an ideal world all dogs who were not destined for breeding would be neutred, but in a Budhist culture? Both my dogs are neutred but I do not think you will get many Thais to do it and you can not go about doing it in Phuket anyway because the vast majority of dogs that appear to be feral are loosely attached to a home. I know it is tough to see but in a way its no different from seeing a starving lion in a nature reserve. Maybe the Soi dog foundation etc would be better trying to educate people about the benefits to all concerned of neutering dogs, but then again, have foreigners a right to tell them how to live? Just a thought

a friend got his shepherd bitch from Bangkok and it is the real thing and is an absolutely fantastic dog. Great temperament, barks when someone comes to the door but is never aggressive. Great with children and she even swims off his boat out at sea. I have seen a few pure breeds in Phuket and he got his from a breeder who was recommended by the Thai German Shepherd club/association. Saying that, I also know of Thais that breed them, or should I say inbreed them! I have another friend who has a half Shepherd, half Bangkaew and it is beautiful if you were thinking of breeding yours. Not aggressive at all. A short haired Shepherd may be a Malinouse but I doubt it.

Below is a photograph of his Shepherd and my, then 12 month, bangkaew mix. The Shepherd was not cheap though!

I think encountering dogs on a walk is just something inevitable outside of the West. And it is a chicken and egg thing. The Farrang's dogs yesterday were on their way to the beach so obviously have encountered many aggressive beach dogs so they probably thought every strange dog is a threat and hence the cycle continues. There are actually only a few bits of beach you can go without about 40 dogs appearing and a lot of them are feral. At least the dogs on the back roads have homes and are fed and are just territorial rather than looking for blood. I was determined to be able to go everywhere with my dog because most Farrangs I know basically do not take their dogs for fear of the local dogs. By now my BK mix knows all the dogs on all our different routes. They ignore him because he is bigger now than them or they simply have a mutual respect. The 9 month puppy has all the dogs crowding him now but because he lived in a shelter with hundreds of balanced dogs until he was 5 months, he is excellent with other dogs. Cesar Millan would even be impressed. I have seen him snap a couple of times because one dog was being too forward but it was not done in aggression, purely to say that they were over stepping the mark. The dogs have never bitten him and that shows for me that the local dogs are actually balanced on the whole. My BK would have panicked in the same situations and would have snapped, excuse the pun, but given the chance he will avoid conflict. Incidentally, 2 different groups of nasty dogs that looked for blood and cut the puppies head one time and would attack the BK have both been killed. One group, who cut the puppies head, were actually abandoned by an Italian restauranter who moved restaurants. The BK used to play with them and then when they were abandoned they went nasty. Poor things were starving and then were clubbed to death I am told. The other group were guarding a building site and one of them was very game and would always fight the BK - the 3 of them did not attack the puppy though. When we asked the security guards if they could stop them, they said the Farrang who owned the building site owned the dogs. Again good dogs who were neglected went bad. They apparently were poisoned. The security guards are now raising 4 BK mix puppies of about a month. I am making sure they get to know my dogs so that there will not be any trouble next year. They are already pretty aggressive because they are entirely unsocialised! Apparently my BK mix was rescued from a beach restaurant when the restaurant owner said that if the mother and litter were not rescued he would kill them. You can not blame him really as if my dog was feral he would be an absolute nightmare!

Today we were out a run and we came across a Farrang with 3 pretty impressive looking, fairly big dogs that if I had to guess were half yellow lab, half something else. They had the build and colour of a lab but with static hair. My dogs had already ran about a mile and they had just come out of their garden. They charged at my BK mix and 9 months puppy and what happened next is a classic difference between my 2 dogs. The puppy froze which completely defused the situation but the BK mix just ignored them and kept on trotting. The 3 dogs took it in turns to challenge him and each got several bites although they did manage to knock him over, although it might have been he tripped due to trying to run and bite the dog at his rear at the same time!

Yes, the one thing I do not like about my BK mix is that he is just too quick to bite. He will even growl and pretend to bite if you pull him off the sofa and when he is playing with the puppy occasionally he will go too far and give him a couple of bites. Saying that it is the puppy who will growl at him when they are eating and he stays away so I think he bites out of fear. The puppy actually taught him how to meet other dogs so there is never a fight on their walk about now. Before the puppy he would not meet and greet other dogs on their territory and would just keep trotting so whenever a dog went to sniff his behind they would get a bite. With a few, usually white, dogs there would be a 5 second exchange of bites. He was basically afraid of the dogs.

The Bangkaew is fearless and aggressive. I do admire their courage but have to question their intelligence. My dog is half rottweiler and half golden retriever. He weighs more than 45 kilos.

Fortunately the golden retriever part has removed the killer instinct but he is still built like a bull and very strong. He doesn't take kindly to being attacked.

The local Bangkaew fearlessly attacked him. My dog was on a chain. My dog being much bigger was able to knock the Bangkaew off his feet and on his back. My dog was at the end of his chain and by then the Bangkaew realized that he was way outclassed and took the opportunity to stay out of my dog's reach. After more snarling and growling, the Bangkaew went on his way.

I have seen my BK fight many beach dogs etc and in my opinion it is not about size but about 'gameness' as they say or how dominant they were born. I have seen a small dog snap his nose and my dog gave it great respect after that. I have seen pitbulls or TRDs in a garden charge my BK and stop and then back away with their tail down just because they were naturally more submissive. One time we were looking after a friends British Bulldog and the BK did not like it one bit but being a bully breed it was not intimidated by the BK's growling and walked about like he owned the place. That is until he walked in to the BK and he got about 5 bites in as many seconds. The Bulldog showed the appropriate respect from then on. Admittedly I did feel pretty bad about it because it was a great dog and not aggressive at all. The BK when only 2 months would play or get bullied by a year old black very hairy dog about the size of a BK. When the black dog got too rough, the 2 months BK would go beserk and chase it away. It was like a switch went off and the sheer ferociousness of the puppy made him top dog and the other dog was at least 4x bigger.

My dog is definitely king of the neighborhood. But he never really fights just impresses them by running at them fearlessly. However if they don;t run away he won't do a thing the coward. His mother on the other hand does not chase after other dogs but goes straight for the kill and will attack and bite if needed. But thank god she is not aggressive and will only do this if challenged.

She is still queen of the house, the male younger.. stronger and bigger always backs down. Lots of growling all the time (real annoying) but never real bites a lot of baring fangs and stuff. But never a real bite between the two of them.

My dog occasionally charges dogs in order to protect the 9 months soi dog we also have but other than that he would actually rather just ignore other dogs. Like you say, my BK is more fear aggressive and therefore now that he is big enough to be given space, he is just aloof. The Soi dog is the complete opposite, he wants to play with every dog and because he is a submissive dog he is accepted right away. Unfortunately the BK is too uptight to play with dogs he does not know.

the photograph below was when the soi dog was 5 months.

Compared with the one I had, the head is too narrow, Bangkaew, but he obviously has a lot of BK blood in him. Purebreds should have the double coat.

Yes luckily he does not have a double coat as as it is there is still an awful lot of hair every day cast. He is only just 2 now but his head is getting a bit broader but as he was neutred at 5 months he looks more like a bitch. The below photographs were taken over the last year.

We got our Bangkaew from the Phuket Soi Dog home so we are only going on looks and character that he is actually a Bangkaew and the fact that every Thai says he is. He is 2 years now and we can and do take him everywhere with us and he just ignores everyone apart from Farangs who he thinks he knows. Other dogs know he is tough so leave him be although when he was young he had to fight off many beach and soi dogs because I like to drive through the dirt tracks and beach roads with him. When he was about one he was a nightmare and one time bit someone, a maid, who was nervous of him. He got the only physical punishment of his life for that and he has never been aggressive to anyone in the house since. He is very strong willed and intelligent. At 4 months he could find his own way home from the beach to a 4th floor apartment! (that is why I run him around Phuket in my car) . A friend who did not know him one time tried to put a lead on him and he bit him. This was a minute after they had a big friendly greet! That is the thing, DNA tests have shown the Bangkaew to be part Jackal according to Wikipedia so they are just very wary and untrusting. Incidentally I have found that the white or cream coloured dogs are the most aggressive that we meet on our runs and brown dogs the least. The shorter the hair the less aggressive too.

My visiting family think he is wonderful and you can sleep easy with him outside your door but you have to exercise them properly and be the pack leader. If you can do that then definitely get one. Besides, the Thais are terrified of them so a good deterrent!

Oh, and if you exercise them they will not wonder and will take great pride in staying and guarding as my one will not go out even when the doors are open and at the beach chooses to stay and keep an eye on me!