Dealing with Dogs?

Ricco

I'm a lone traveller in India, I've recently had a couple of unpleasant encounters with dogs.

It seems that the dogs keep themselves to themselves during the day and early evening, and aren't a problem. After it's been dark for a while though they appear to become more and more aggressive.

My recent experience, in Pushkar, involved 4 dogs which were very aggressive towards me. I was walking down a quiet, dark lane towards my hotel, I carried a torch. I believed I was about to be bitten so I hit the nearest one with an umbrella I was carrying. This one dropped back but the others carried on being aggressive, possibly more so. Fortunately I was able to make it to the hotel without being bitten.

Since then I've been wary about going out at night. Obviously I don't want this limitation, but neither do I want to have to take a trip to Deli for a course of Anti-Malaria injections!

Could anyone possibly suggest the best way of dealing with this nuisance?

Thanks

karthik_mitta

Use a rickshaw..
Carry a stick and hit the road hard.. they usually flee
Pretend to pick up a stone and throw at them
Dont glare at them or run, just walk...

And by the way, I have not heard of dog bites giving you malaria!

Good luck.. lone traveller

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KM

In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds - Martin Luther King Jr.

capt_mahajan

Somebody on this forum was talking about high frequency dog whistles....

wonder if they are easily available.

That may attract them, though

Nick-H

Try to avoid groups of dogs. Cross the road, go the other way, whatever...

This is particularly true in the late hours of the night where they are really doing their pack/territory thing.

Trouble with the dogs is rare, but I cannot say that it never happens. In the day, the thing that concerns them most is if you will kick them, or if you will feed them, or if you will at least say a friendly word in passing.

Nuisance? Well, I suppose they can be --- but they probably think the same about you!
But I'd rather have malaria than rabies !

But, infection-carrying or not, the mosquitoes are an incomparably worse nuisance than the dogs.

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Ricco

Oops, Malaria, I guess us blokes can have blonde moments too.

Thanks for the replies.

Nick-H

As can I... never noticed that in the original post .

It always surprises me how friendly the dogs are. Not that I'd take the risk of touching one I didn't know.

A notable example was the dog who, in the theosophical gardens, walked over to where we were sitting and put her head on my lap

vargoje3

When i was in India a swift kick in the face usually deterred most dogs that got a little too friendly.

goangoangone

A friend brought a stun gun back from Thailand. Don't know if they're available in India. Most things are. By the way, I'm not a dog hater, just that when you've counted 19 in a pack, it's better to be safe than sorry.

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GoanGoan......here

brownboy66

Here it is again. Its called a dog chaser. High frequency ultrasonic. Not audible to the human ear, but apparently mildly painful to dogs. Also works on monkeys. There is a distributor for these things in Delhi?, but also available online at numerous sites. Just type in "ultrasonic dog chaser" on google and you'll see what I mean.


This on the other hand has no effect on dogs. It does however work on pigeons. Also good for scaring small children. Has also been suggested that it might work on repelling undesirable spirits...

capt_mahajan

Thanks.


What about desirable spirits, like rum?

vargoje3

I'd also like to point out after monkeys were brought up in the last post that hitting a monkey w/ a stick does not scare it away......it only makes it angrier.

brownboy66

For desirable spirit use this.




oh no...hold on, that was the morning after desirable spirit....

Prashant.M

Poor chap, he is literally feeling blue all over .

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Nick-H

Looks like getting friendly with you would be a big mistake

vargoje3

By friendly i really meant snarling and getting ready to attack. While i was there i actually got real friendly w/ 3 dogs but they were not strays. I'm not even gonna tell you what i saw the people down at the croc bank doing with a couple strays one night.......