Todos Santos dog packs

Here is a picture of Willa making friends with one of the dog packs we see frequently each day.

There is a Vets without Borders group of about 8 vets and vet assistants here this week from Canada. I think they said the city invited them to come and offer their free services to any village pet owners and any strays that could be caught. They nueter, give rabies shots and a parasite treatment. We learned that the dog packs I have written about so much before were much greater in numbers about a year ago. However, some disgruntled person poisoned a large number of the strays. We are told that within a few more days, they will have pictures and their experience here in Todos Santas posted on their web site.

I was going to comment also that we have had quite a bit of opportunity to observe dog pack behaviour. The behaviour mostly centers arounds females in heat. Those are easy to observe in that there is usually up to six males following one female as in the picture above. Sometimes these males fight over their position in the pecking order. I've not actually seen a fight up closely, but have heard several start and see the final result, which usually is the loser pulling back from the pack about 10 feet on three legs (these fights don't seem to exclude the loser from the pack.) Seems as if the tactic in the fights must be to go for the legs, crippling a leg for several days, if not for life. So, when you picture these packs of males following their favorite female, be sure to include the one or two dogs eagerly loping along on three legs, holding the fourth up.