It can be quite difficult for us to get some homeless dogs to allow us to approach them even though we are there to help them and come offering food in exchange. Some dogs, likely through many years of abuse and neglect, have come to be quite non-trusting of humans and this is tragic and understandable.
We do have a bit of a plan in the rainy season for dogs we have been keeping an eye on because it is a lot easier for us to approach them in the rainy season since they tend to flock towards a building with an overhang in order to get out of the rain
Our reasons for approaching them are completely innocent and for the dogs' own good but still, we have to be very careful.
One thing that is very important for dog lovers to understand is that just because you love dogs doesn't mean that the dogs know that. I recall when I first moved to Thailand and I encountered a pack of dogs in Bangkok and I tried to approach them with the normal cutsie sounds that you make when approaching a dog and their reaction was one of violence. I nearly got bit and was pursued quite a ways down the street. My crime? Bothering them and trying to approach.
I have learned over the years that there is a certain tactic that must be used in gaining an animal's trust and you cannot rush this. Trying to make the process go fast is an excellent way to both stress the dog out even more, and also to end up getting bit by a potentially diseased animal.
There are certain areas in Krabi that are hotbeds for stray dog activity such as schools and government buildings, all of which tend to have large overhangs where the dogs will end up during storms. It is during these times that we pay a visit with food and try, very slowly, to gain the dogs' trust when they are their most vulnerable.
it's pretty remarkable what you can accomplish with some chicken and most of these dogs are used to getting scraps from children at the schools and workers at the government buildings. What they are not used to, is being handled. Normally we try to coax them into the kennels so that we can transport them to the clinic. We don't just do this willy-nilly. The dogs that have potential problems have been pointed out to us and we have been watching them for a while and keeping notes on their conditions. Well this rainy season we decided to snare a few of them and something funny happened after we had already crated one of them.
once we had crated and loaded up one of them for transport to the nearby clinic, the other one was so curious that she jumped into the other open kennel without even being baited into doing so. I sometimes wonder how intelligent dogs are. Did this dog see the chicken the other one was getting and figure out the steps to make it happen for it as well... that fast!?
Because of this funny situation, it made our day take significantly less time than we had planned on it taking but we still need to be careful. We were merely transporting the females to get them sterilized and also checked out for parasites. This is handled by professional vets who have all the protective gear, decades of experience handling dogs of all sorts, and also tranquilizers if necessary.
The two main dogs both needed sterilization and this is something that can be done in about and hour for very little money so I want to encourage anyone out there with a female dog to go ahead and get the job done. Depending on where you live in the world there is a good chance that this can be done for free. Our own organization sponsors as many free sterilizations as our budget can possibly handle, so there is a good chance that your area has a similar program already in place.
Overall it was a good day that was significantly less difficult than I had expected it to be and we all ended up with about half a day off to go and do other things. It's nice when it works out this way because I am reminded of a time when it was supposed to take one day for us to do something similar to this and it ended up taking a week. You need to celebrate the small victories !
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
Krabi Animal Welfare is a charity run entirely by volunteers and are a registered non-profit organization in Thailand and the U.K.. We aim to relieve the pain and suffering of dogs and cats within Krabi Province.
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