Love may not be enough
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Dogs, no matter how small they may be need regular exercise outside of the house to help their digestion and control their aggression
A LADY who lives around the corner from me has a Bangkaew, a beautiful boy of white and brown.
At least, I think he’s beautiful. I’ve never seen him clearly. When his owner opens the door to do some work in her garden, she ties him to a banister inside her house. He never comes outside; I’ve seen him only in shadows.
What I’ve seen is a beautiful dog, a bit thinner than the usual Bangkaew. This medium-sized breed should be a bit broad in the muzzle and shoulders, but this particular dog looks slender.
Nevertheless, he demonstrates an untrained Bangkaew’s reputation for aggressiveness. The minute the dog sees me as I look in from the street, he growls at me and begins fighting the rope around his neck. He wants to get me, I think, to tear me apart.
This is one unfriendly dog.
His owner turns to me with a smile. “What do you think of my dog?”
I’d like to point out how aggressive he is, but when someone asks you what you think about a beloved child, you don’t mention negative qualities.
“He’s beautiful,” I answer.
She shakes her head doubtfully. “You know, I think he’s too thin,” she says.
Well, that’s true. He is thin, for a Bangkaew. I ask her if he’s purebred, and she says yes.
She adds that he eats well, and she feeds him the best dog food she can find - no grilled pork or chicken for him.
“Does he have regular exercise,” I ask.
Oh, yes, she answers. When the front door is closed, he’s loose, following her up and down the stairs several times a day. “That should be enough for him,” she says.
Exercise of this kind, though, isn’t even enough for my poodle Wan-Wan. As I found out, although my little dog follows me up and down the stairs, she began to suffer digestive problems, just because she needed to run much longer distances.
“Do you ever take your dog for a walk?” I ask the owner.
She looks at me as if I were crazy. “I couldn’t control him,” she says. Of course. She’s a small person, a bit taller than my neighbour Khun J but still petite. Even a medium-sized dog would be too strong for her.
At this point, all I can think of is how lucky my soi is that Mee, J’s part-chow, is not really aggressive. When she jumped on my tiny poodle last week, she wasn’t trying to kill her, but play with her.
Mee just doesn’t know her own strength. She could have easily injured poor Wan.
This Bangkaew, though, is another matter. Yes, he wants to attack.
Why would this owner choose to own a dog she cannot control? I guess that since she, like J, lives alone, she feels safe with such a dog in her home. Also, this lady is very proud of her Thai heritage. She would consider owning only a Thai dog.
I suppose like J, she’s also proud of how much the dog loves her. That love between owner and dog is part of a commitment. No matter how dangerous the dog is, she would never give him away.
She doesn’t realise it, though, that by tying him up and not giving him sufficient exercise, she herself is contributing to this aggressiveness, as well as to his poorly developed muscles.
Actually, you can make almost any dog aggressive by tying it up and limiting the exercise its body requires, especially a powerful breed like a Bangkaew.
