Who let the dogs out?

Dogs in Chile are like squirrels in North Carolina. They are everywhere, don't typically bother people and every now and then you see them do something absolutely ridiculous. I'm pretty sure that my former fear of dogs came from my first visit to Chile when I was about 3 years old. It doesn't help that sometimes they are my size or bigger are definitely capable of knocking me down. Now that I am older, however, I have learned to appreciate the hundreds of stray dogs that are such an important feature of every town.

The dogs are especially important for young females on those occasional nights when you have to walk down a dark street alone. At first it may seem weird that a dog you've never seen before in your life will walk by your side, but then you realize this dog is not only your friend - he is your protector. Dogs are extremely smart in the city and they can immediately tell a person minding their own business from one with bad intentions. My host sister told me that sometimes when she's walking alone and someone is coming towards her, a group of dogs of 3 or 4 will surround her acting like her security guards. It's been nice having these companions by my side at night and it's going to be weird having to walk completely alone sometimes back in the states.

Yesterday when I was walking home I noticed something else that is common among all the city dogs: they all hate the cops. Two police officers were standing near my bus stop and all the dogs in sight came over to bark at them. At one point, one of the officers tried to get one of the dogs away by kicking in the air. This whole situation made me wonder, do the dogs know something that we don't?

Aside from being able to read personalities and thus serving as guardians at times, I've also observed that the dogs from different communities/cities have distinct personalities. The dogs around where I live and closer to the city center seem to be very alert, but calm. The dogs in Puente Alto, where our office is located, always seem to be asleep and sometimes it even looks as if they aren't even alive. It's not uncommon to see a dog knocked out right at the top of the escalator getting out of the metro, causing a bit of mess when people try to walk out of the station. Our visit to Valparaiso was the first time I remember being afraid of dogs during this trip to Chile. The dogs in the beautiful port city are the most aggressive I have seen and during our tour of the city they even scared us away from going down a particular alley. They become especially aggravated when they see a car and I was always afraid that the dogs were going to cause some sort of accident before my eyes.

A picture of the dogs that scared us away from the alley in Valparaiso.

Some people around the world think that stray dogs are a problem, but without them Chile definitely would not be the same. They add character to every city and town and it's always nice to know you can a friend by your side.

~Christy