Day 3 - Sanctuary

As the trip went on, the days got shorter and finding time to write at the end of the day got harder. I will do my best to remember the details with the help of my images, but all the big picture themes are burned in my memory.

Wednesday morning we headed back out to the plaza again, and it was a possibly my favorite morning of the week. We ended up seeing both Sleeper and Black Chain, and they had some fascinating interactions. They both seemed pleased to see us, and were incredibly comfortable moving in and out of our group and tolerating us filming and briefly interacting with them. Sleeper was definitely perkier than we had seen him prior, so that was hopeful.

The interactions between these two dogs were pretty fascinating. They may “know” each other from being in the same orbit on a daily basis, but they don’t seem to be of the same family unit. They both do have exceptional communication skills, and are able to have subtle conversations without anyone getting too riled up about it. Watch the bone interaction. Even my own dogs, who I find to be in the higher echelons of canine communication skills, would unlikely have been so unmoved by being pushed away from it. Some of that does have to do with availability of resources—clearly the bone is not anything super new to these guys—but the ease with which they navigate it is impressive.

We headed out thereafter to an animal sanctuary just outside of Mexico City. This facility houses well over 1400 dogs, whom have been surrendered by their owners, picked up as strays, etc. We “knew” what we were getting into, but you never are really truly prepared for these things.

I am limiting the number of pictures and videos I share because I am not sure I see the purpose of getting into the nitty gritty of it. We were told the dogs all get out each day into the common yard—and we did see somewhere in the vicinity of 60-80 dogs all out at the same time (its hard to get accurate headcounts when there are that many), but if you do the math of getting 1400 dogs out each day for any stretch of time, it starts to not exactly work out.

Most of the dogs needed medical attention of some sort. Many showed stereotypic behaviors indicative of kennel stress. Almost all were between overweight to morbidly obese.

While we were told that they do take adoption applications, its more than likely that the vast majority of dogs who end up in this facility will live out their lives there.

I want to be empathetic to the people who run this facility. They genuinely believe they are doing the right thing, and that they are saving these dogs. They pour their heart and soul into this operation, and really do love the dogs. I don’t doubt that part. Importantly, this scene is in absolutely no way specific to this town or this country. This happens everywhere, and I would venture to say its even more common in the US than in Mexico. Maybe not in the sheer volume department, but more than a few “rescues” here are nothing more than glorified hoarding situations.

I can’t not ask the question; “is this ethical?” In “saving” these dogs and having them live out a life in this type of environment, are we really doing the best we can for them? Is a long life in a stressful environment, in an unhealthy and or potentially painful condition, better than a briefer existence? Who’s comfort are we prioritizing? Is it really the animals’?

This day was tough. We had a lot of really experienced people on this trip, many of whom have “seen some shit,” and this was hard, on all of us.

But, in my opinion, it’s important to understand the range of which we interact with and ultimately steward these animals that by and large, we bring into this world. What are the ethics of both our personal situations, and the greater “dog loving” community? These are all questions worth pondering, and I am grateful to be able to experience the massive scope of the human and dog relationship.

Day 2

I am tired, and its late, so I hope to make sense of some of the higlights of our day today.

We started out again early to observe dogs in the plaza. It was quieter this morning, definitely less activity than yesterday. We did however find “Sleeper” again, the same dog that we saw yesterday sleeping under the cart. Today he was found sleeping/resting in the stage area in the middle of the plaza. He was surrounded along the perimeter of the stage by a bunch of men all ignoring him (presumably waiting for work or socializing among themselves). He was mildly perkier when approached, and was moderately social when Sue put her hands on him to quickly examine him. She determined him to be about 8 months of age, and he was a bit underweight. Later in the morning, he was seen again, vomiting and looking nauseous. We were wondering if he potentially has something like ehrlichia or some other tick-borne disease.

We also saw a much older dog whom we’d spotted yesterday. She was quite social with specific people, and we found someone who looked like her owner. We asked him about her, and he was not her owner, but they clearly had a relationship and he said he knew her well and she was owned by a vendor in the square. Her name was Bellatina. A few hours later, we asked about her to another man, and he didn’t specify her owner, he said “she belonged to everyone.” Both sweet, and a little sad at the same time. She was clearly aged, but functional, and certainly was well-fed and attended to.

A crazy interesting dynamic was with this whole group and these three characters. They clearly had “their people” and again we were able to ask about them. They are all owned by one of these men, and do go home (in some capacity) with them at night. The fascinating part (and I will get the videos of this) was the interaction between the two larger dogs. There were some pretty intense confrontational displays between the two of them, that didn’t have any clear trigger. Nothing escalated, but it was unusual behavior without a clear reason for the altercation. Then, it ended as quickly as it began when another dog ran near thier people, who were about 100 feet away. The distraction ended the heated discussion, and they were all off, presumably to guard their people from the intruding dog.

There was a lot more happening throughout the day, but one more highlight was this man and his pack of dogs. He lives near the training center we have been spending time at, and he walks every day from his house which is well on the outskirts of town, into downtown, with his pack of 6-8 dogs. This man is old, and very slow. And yet, the dogs stay with him. He stops to rest, they stop too. They are exploring as they go, but they are clearly with him, staying in his general orbit. It was fascinating to see.

Today’s primary takeaway was that even though we may be quick to judge how “people in countries like these” treat their dogs, that they are actually quite proud of their dogs and the do have strong relationships and bonds with them. Just because it does not look like an Americanized/Westernized version of how “we” treat pet dogs, does not mean those relationships are any less valid. And again, in different ways, these dogs’ quality of life is far superior than what most Westerners provide to their dogs.

I am exhausted and will make sure I circle back here later for clarity and hopefully to add some videos. Tomorrow we are heading to a shelter outside of Mexico City, lots more to come.

Day 1

After a long but uneventful day of travel, we made it to Mexico City yesterday, and then after another few hours, finally to the village of Valle de Bravo.

The reason we came here is that Sue and a few others on this trip have been here before to study dogs, for the first time in the mid-2000s with renowned professor and expert in canine behavior, Ray Coppinger. He was one of he first people to purposefully study street dogs, and he would often follow dogs to their prime scavenging grounds—ie city and village dumps. There are a few people on this trip who were fortunate enough to be able to study the “dump dogs” with Coppinger, and we all owe him a lot for reframing how we look at their behavior and understand their evolution from wild animals into pets in our homes.

We started today early and ended late, with multiple walks around the main part and outskirts of town, as well as visiting a training center owned and run by one of our hosts, as well as reviewing videos from today and analyzing and discussing behavior.

We saw many. many dogs in action today—many on the street who were not belonging to anyone specifically, but also many who clearly were, and also variations on both themes. In general, most dogs here are NOT really confined, whether they are owned or not. We did see some dogs on leashes, and some behind barriers, but most were not. And, the ones who were constrained or confined, generally, had the loudest opinions and the most frustrated displays of behavior. When we were walking in the afternoon, we came upon dogs guarding their space more than a few times, and while some of these dogs were stronger in their “move away” signals than others, they still did not display the types of overtly aggressive behavior we have become accustomed to seeing in the States. They would stand their ground and bark at us, even posture, but there was no charging, rushing, or offensive actions that we often see in dogs on leash or behind gates. Oh yes, and more dogs on roofs (or what could be considered roofs!) seen today than I am pretty sure I have ever seen combined in my lifetime. Ha.

On our first very early outing of the day, we saw a young adolescent female dog actually eye, stalk, chase and catch a pigeon in the square. According to Sue that is hugely unusual that these dogs will go through that predatory motor pattern—they aren’t hunters, they are scavengers, so this was a highly unusual event. To add to that, the dog caught the bird, began to finish it, but in her efforts to find an appropriate place to finish and then possibly consume it, she was interrupted by a man who approached her—assumedly to get her to drop the already mangled and mostly dead bird. She backed off and dropped the bird, and moved away. Which was unfortunate for both parties, as she didn’t get to finish the sequence, and the poor bird was left to suffer on its own. Sigh. There was some debate over whether she actually intended to consume the bird. She was young and struck me as “experimenting” more than anything, while she was an accurate hunter, she didn’t have the intensity I see in dogs that have true intent to kill and consume. Either way, it was fascinating to see, especially considering that isn’t a common behavior for these dogs. Sue may or may not have said “Ray would have shit his pants.” She’s hilarious, as I have already mentioned.

The second (or maybe the first) best thing was our “black chain dog.” We saw this dog also for the first time in the early morning. He was cruising around near “pigeon dog” and he had a chain collar on, so we assumed he belonged to someone. Later in the morning we were back at the square. He was begging/hanging out near some of the food vendors so our group started observing him. He started putting on a show, and began soliciting touch from one of our group people. He may have been itchy, he may have been scent marking her, or he may have been soliciting attention, or all of the above, but he was really hamming it up and remaining engaged with the group. As we began to move around the square, he began to follow us. We needed to head back to the hotel for lunch and left the plaza to walk about 1/2 mile. We were in a group of about 12 people, and this dog stayed with us, the entire time. We even purposely stopped and let him go ahead, and he would stop and come back into our group. At one point, we stipped again, he peeled off up a side street and we kept moving, assuming he was done with us. Nope. He came back, found us, and got into the middle of the group again. We finally lost him when we got back to the hotel, but I was told he rolled back past the front of the hotel and seemed to know where we had gone. We are hoping to see him again tomorrow, he is a fascinating character.

This video was when we were right near the hotel, before we seperated from him. Pretty fascinating dynamic here with dogs on roofs, navigating traffic, tons of people in the street etc. You don’t see this everyday in the States!

My main takeaway from today—which is not “new” but it is cemented even further into my brain—is that dogs that have more agency are more mentally healthy dogs. We saw SO many dogs today that were in no way shape or form confined, and yet, were making the choice to attach to their people, or attach to their space. They were able to communicate very calmly and elegantly to other dogs, as well as to humans. They cross the street, again and again, safely (though I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few cringeworthy moments). And they are allowed just to “be a dog”, which in its natural state, entails a lot of freedom.

I’ll circle back when I get my hands on some more video, mainly hoping to get some of Black Chain Dog walking with our group, as that was really special.

More pics from the day…

Preparations

Hey everyone.

I’m honored you’ve come here to follow this journey I am about to partake in. Anyone who knows me knows I have been an animal lover my whole life. I have spent my whole life observing and working with animals, and am still learning on a daily basis how to do right by them. Most of what I have been taught, and the ways in which I typically engage with animals has been pretty typical, and yet often I find myself questioning “why” we may have this or that traditional “method” of dealing with a dog, or a horse, or otherwise. As I become more knowledgeable, and more adept at my own interactions with animals, and dogs in particular, my ultimate goal is always to be as fair and unobtrusive as possible, while still working towards the best outcome for everyone involved. That intention involves the human half too. If I am teaching a sport dog and handler team, or a pet parent and their dog with “issues,” I always want to communicate as efficiently, effectively and as kindly as possible, with all involved parties. And, I am forever continuing to learn that what dogs are saying, both to us and to the other members of their species, is the foundation of more effective and fair communications with them.

I first saw Sue Sternberg speak in person well over ten years ago. I was immediately drawn to her genuine enthusiasm for sharing her vast knowledge from her many, many years in sheltering and studying dogs. But of even greater interest to me, was her sincerity and extreme care for not only the dogs, but for the human part of the equation. She cares deeply about studying and observing dog behavior, and how to leverage that ultimately to strengthen the dog-human bond. Listening to her was like a breath of fresh air, and her bravery in speaking hard truths in the face of a very “traditional” crowd gave me so, so much respect for her. To top it all off, she’s both hilarious and humble, so that was the hook, line and sinker for me. I have “fan girled” since, and have learned so much from her over the years.

Fast forward to a few months ago, and on Facebook I see a post go by. Wait a second, what is this? Sue just casually throws out there; “Who wants to go to Mexico City to study street dogs? Anyone potentially interested?” I gasped, dropped whatever I was doing, and immediately replied, “yes!” I had no idea of the details, but I knew if I could make it happen I would. Details evolved, the social media gods somehow smiled upon me and I caught the application process in time. Then, again, the “loteria” gods made good, and here we go.

There will be about 15 of us meeting in Mexico City this Sunday. We will head to a town called Valle De Bravo about 2 hours away where we will stay for the week. We will be having lectures and video review in the morning, and then heading out in the afternoon to observe the street dogs in their natural habitat. There will be much documenting, I have no doubt, and more video I am sure than any of us will know what to do with. Except for Sue, she certainly already has hundreds of terabytes of storage for her infinite video archives.

Most people I have told about this trip are as excited about it as I am. To observe dogs in their truly natural habitat—not at a dog park, or in a daycare, or in an apartment, or at an agility trial—but in the street and towns that are their habitat, living just as they evolved tens of thousands of years ago, is an incredibly special opportunity that I could not pass up. To be able to go on this adventure with some of the world’s best observers of behavior is a fantastic privilege, and I hope to document it in a way that is useful and interesting to others! I’ll try to update daily, and even if I don’t manage to, I will surely make this the dumping ground for video and images and all things observation. And probably a little bit of Mexico culture too, I can’t wait to eat all the foods. :)

Wish us much luck and smooth travels!!!

.l