Sunday, February 13, 2011

Making friends with dogs

This is not exactly farming related..but some experience in dealing with dogs on the way to my farm. It has been 3 years since I bought the farm, but since last year after moving to Palakkad,Kerala my visits are more frequent, at least 2-3 days in a week. Earlier it was once in 2/3 months and that time I used to take my sister's car and never realised the issues with dog.

On the first day I got down from the bus and started walking towards the farm and had a big-shopper (kind of a bag made out of cloth) with me with my lunch/water. A pomeranian came barking at me and it was really ferocious, I some how defended with my bag and I came to know that I got some extra courage to deal with the situation. This house had 3 pomeranians and two were tied but one was roaming around freely, there was no one at the house and they had no gates, but there is a fencing for the compound. I was really angry that they don't tie the dogs, but there was no one to shout at. On the way back, I carried a stick to defend the dogs. The same dog again came barking at me and but since I had the stick, it didn't come that close. The owner of the dog were there, I complained to him about the dog and he said, it does not bite,just barks. I had a heated argument with him and he asked me, even if he ties the dog, there are more on the road, so it is not useful. But strongly argued to him he should take care of his dogs.

Later I realised that there are more dogs on the way. There is one black dog which is very old but will bark at me and he does not come out of his boundary so I was not much bothered at him. Then I found another two dogs one black and white pomeranian another local variety and both come out of their boundary and comes directly at me barking. Then there is one more old dog which also does not come out of his house, even though there is no gate for that compound also. All this made my life miserable and I carry a stick and some day they come barking at me and I defend them with sticks. The white pomeranian comes running at me and I  became very scared. I also heard that the same dog had bitten one person a month back. 

But with the stick I was able to defend them nicely. 6-7 months passed and still dogs didn't get familiar with me or since I carry the stick they were always in the hostile mood. I again had some arguments with the owner of the white pomeranian and once with his wife. Some people started making fun of me, seeing me carrying the stick.

Later a friend told me he used to throw bread pieces to calm down the stray dogs which comes attacking. I thought of trying this and bought one packet of  'Sun Feast' brand biscuit which comes at 3 rupees. I gave one biscuit to the black old dog and it ate that, next day onwards it stopped barking at me. It started coming to me wagging his tail for biscuits. White pomeranian also got adjusted to my biscuits now they don't even bark at me. There is one reddish colour dog which now comes running on seeing me and some time water drips from its mouth on seeing me at thought of biscuits. Finally I have some good friends and some time some escort me to the bus stop. But still carry the biscuits and give them one each and even if I find some new dogs I throw some biscuits and my mind has calmed down a lot while walking to my farm. The owner of the pomeranian started smiling again at me which he had stopped after I had the argument with him.