Dog psychology

I wasn’t really aware to what extent peoples from different countries react differently to dogs.
Russia: people with dogs themselves quickly pick up their little dogs, no way that they can sniff another dog. Generally people are scared of dogs. When they see one coming into their view, even though the dog is not the slightest interested in them, they fall into a karate pose, one arm up one leg thrown towards the dog, and shout, what, I have forgotten by now. The dog of cause feels threatened and now starts to bark and if on leash or not to run towards the attacker. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Mongolia: they are even more scared. The initial reaction is a different one though, with the same effect: they pick up a stone and walk two steps towards the dog with raised arm, prepared to through the stone. Mongolian dogs usually run away, as they all have felt stones, mine however doesn’t.
If the dog is locked inside the car, they might make a big bow around the vehicle. I was once sitting in my van and observing a man, going past the car, Rex barking at him. He runs away, hiding behind a tree. Once he realises, the dog really can’t do anything, he tantalises the dog: runs towards the car, knocks onto the window and goes into cover behind the tree again. After the third time I showed myself, and he stopped this game.
Children love to walk as close to the dog as the leash allows sufficient distance and make loud Wow, wow noises, which of course annoys the dog. The parents find that really cute and funny. Once, after that went on for quite a while, I went down to all fours and barked at the child, which started to cry. I felt really bad after that.
Kazakhstan: similar to Russia, karate stance, but not as phobic. Sometimes you can see dogs accompanying the Sheppards, which might help with the acceptance of the animal.
And then you cross the Tajik border and everybody is really friendly with dogs. You see them accompany the children, the women walk to fetch water accompanied by their dogs, the sheppards have dogs, dogs sleeping on the streets and suddenly my dog is much more relaxed, nobody is scared of him, nobody threatens him, he is getting treats and pets.

I really wonder what expects us in Uzbekistan and Iran. We’ll see.Read more