With more and more street dogs becoming available to be rehomed often with less stringent criteria for rehoming, it is often easy to miss out on the fact that they are in many ways a different breed to the dogs we breed in the UK. This little guide will give you advice on what you need to know and how best to choose a rescue to help you find your new pal.
Bambi - when he was found in Romania
First of all when choosing to bring any dog into your home as your companion it is important that you consider your lifestyle and what you want a dog for and not how cute the dog looks, or how forlorn or what a sad story it has. Choosing a dog to suit your lifestyle helps massively with building a successful relationship, but does not guarantee success especially where an unknown genetic makeup exists in the street dog but does assist to ensure that your needs for getting a dog are met along with the needs of the dog.
Things to consider are your home, the environment itself and how you spend time within it including your working hours and hobbies and people coming to your home. This is vital for any dog but there are a few differences when we look at rehoming a street-dog - regardless of age they do have slightly different traits to the domestically bred dogs we get from breeders and rescues in this country and it is important to take into account this facet.
Street dogs are defined as urban free ranging dogs and live almost everywhere cities exist and humans allow, for the purpose of this guide, lets also include those from villages as although there will be subtle differences much of the important points will be the same. Street dogs have a variety of origins some may be abandoned purebreds (often not familiar to the UK) or feral dogs that have never been owned, ultimately with all their natural breeding they will be a mix of both.
Photo courtesy of Kabul Small Animal Rescue
Dogs have 39 chromosomes and there are various influences on the genome that affect how the genes play out. Unlike the domestic dog there is no artificial selection where traits such as trainability, stranger aggression, attention seeking, attachment and predation are prized and bred for. Although genetically a street dog may have specific breeds in them that we are familiar with, it is the environment and survivability that drives how traits and appearance manifest.
A dog bred on the streets and living on the streets may not adapt to being in a home, no matter how comfortable it is and how enriched the owner tries to make the life for the dog - the presence of 4 walls and lack of freedom to roam can stress a dog not genetically inclined to live that way, with an independence our domestic dogs don’t have and in the worse case scenario prompt them to escape. The lifestyle of these dogs is based on survival and the flight risk of an overseas dog is very great and I don’t think a day goes by when one doesn’t go missing on arrival in a home. Sadly there are many still missing and living as a stray dog unable to be caught.
Life on the street can be harsh and interactions with humans may not have been positive - dog catchers, poisoning, abuse and subsequent placement in a shelter can cause trauma to a dog that could take years to recover from if in fact they do. Experiences and behaviour of these dogs are also transferred genetically from generation to generation which is something called epigenetic inheritance. The area they live in and the experiences, environment and choices of generations before them will all affect their expectations of humans and their behaviour and maybe even their dietary needs. Therefore, it may make no difference to behaviour traits whether you get a dog as a puppy or an adult who is a more hardened street dog.
There are places where street dogs are cared for by the community but others where they are mistreated and feared because of rabies to name one factor. No matter how caring you are, this is not something that can just be corrected without a lot of work. The long distance transportation to their new home can also be a key factor in leading to stress and trauma.
How adaptiv these dogs are is based on the demands and opportunities of the environment they live in, and can vary from country to country plus their genetic inheritance of their breed characteristics which you won’t know can have an affect on the suitability to your lifestyle within the home and the people you share it with and who you interact with. Behaviour that is desired in a home is often at odds on the street and some of these behaviours have a sizeable genetic component such as training responsiveness, the willingness to follow commands and biddability are less pro survival on the streets whereas another strong component that of independence is. We also know that aggression threshold and biddability is inversely related and the latter is going to be less successful for survival on the street.
One more thing to consider is that a lot of these dogs find themselves in rescue as the result of an injury often resulting in a permanent disability, the characteristics of the dog may originally have been unsuited to domesticity but now needs to be domesticated as physical limitations will impact on its ability to survive on its own.
Mazar when he was found in Mazar-e-Sharif - Afghanistan
So taking all this into account is the dog or puppy you have seen going to be suitable for your home and lifestyle?
Assuming you have read so far and think it's ok and that you still want to adopt one of these dogs then how do you choose whether a rescue is a good one to use.
Inka on her way from Romania to live with me
Something else to consider is does the rescue have a lot of dogs go missing on arrival in their new homes and is there a history of dogs being returned due to inappropriate rehoming. These 2 things might be harder to establish but a trawl of FB posts will undoubtedly yield the required information. Because if these 2 things are frequent occurrences, then it is likely the rescue is not operating in the best interest of the dog and you might end up with many problems.
Street dogs can and do make wonderful companions but like any breed of dog you must do your research and ensure that their characteristics will suit your lifestyle and you theirs.
If you would like to learn more about my 3 street dogs Mazar, Bambi & Inka please see my FB
@Mazardog & IG
@Mazardog to see my disabled trio in action.
For advice on settling your dog in and using aromatherapy to assist or for helping your dog recover from trauma please contact me for a personalised consultation.
Download my eBook on How To Choose Whether A Street Dog Is Right For You.