Clever Stray Dog or Itchy Stray Dog?

The poster of this Youtube video suggests that this is the world’s smartest dog feigning injury in order to beg for food. Having a lot of experience of Thai dogs I suggest that it is actually a stray dog with mange trying get some relief from the itching by dragging its leg along the rough ground.

For me this is a good illustration of how when it comes to dogs (more than any other animal except the primates) we are extremely quick to interpret their behaviour as if they were human and that this is no accident. I believe that the dog’s evolution has behaviourally adapted them to induce such a reaction in us and thus make it more likely that we will care and provide for them, and that this originally came about as a development from the need to deflect our aggression when their wild ancestors began living close to human communities.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)