What Would Dogs Choose?

Here is a blog post by Christine Hibbard reporting on a lecture given by the dog researcher Ray Coppinger who has studied unowned dogs around the world for many years. As the originator of the theory that wolves effectively domesticated themselves by becoming scavengers around human groups he has a lot of interesting things to say and this blog gives some good highlights.

I would just like to post one quote from it here:

“…if your dog could choose between remaining intact and living a life in the Mexico City dump consisting of foraging, procreating, playing and living an unrestricted life or living in the luxurious prisons we call our homes, they’d probably pick the dump.”

That, I’m sure, is quite insulting to the great many pet owners who provide their own pet with a wonderfully secure, loving and healthy life. Personally, I am sure that any dog that has grown up as a pet in such a household would choose to stay where it is if it could be asked.

However, I would like to encourage pet owners to honestly consider which lifestyle is actually better for a dog. Surely being well-fed and healthy only fulfills part of an animal’s innate needs. And are we not fooling ourselves if we think social interaction with people can replace social interaction with other dogs? How many of us would choose being a well-provided for prisoner rather than have a more-risky but stimulating life on the outside world? Many people enjoy work and many working dogs clearly enjoy the work they do, so is having to scavenge (=forage) for a living such a bad thing?

“Prisoner” is a strong and provocative word, and I certainly do not advocate the “release” of pet dogs in the sense of them getting abandoned to the streets which would be cruel and irresponsible. However, I do believe that most pet dog owners could improve their pet’s quality of life by seriously looking at what is lacking from the dog’s point of view, and that contemplating a dog’s life on the streets/around the village/at the dump can hold some very good clues.

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)