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Podengo Central

A place for Podengo owners and fanciers to share information and research the breed in a topical manner. Supported by the APPMGC & APPPC


    Why Podengos dominate world wild dog populations.

    james ensor
    james ensor


    Posts : 190
    Join date : 2012-02-01
    Location : London, England

    Why Podengos dominate world wild dog populations. Empty Why Podengos dominate world wild dog populations.

    Post  james ensor Mon Jan 02, 2017 4:00 am

    DMCarty has made an interesting point: that all wild dog populations revert to primitive types, over time. Actually the Basenji in Africa, the Dingo in Australia, the Pariah in India, the New Guinea singing dog and the Podengo in Latin America are all close relatives. It is now known that the Dingo was brought to Australia at the time of Christ by Indians, who merged with the Aborigines.  The Pariah, in India, like the Podengo is descended from the Pale Footed wolf of the Levant but travelled east by ship or by caravan at or before the time that the Podengo came west with the Phoenicians.  All this can now be surmised from dog DNA as well as, in some instances, historical and archaeological records.

    The African, Latin American and Pacific island populations of dogs were brought by Portuguese and Spanish sailors, from the time of Vasco da Gama and Magellan. That is why so many resemble Podengos. Survival in a wild or semi-wild state relies on three factors; the ability to find food and water: the ability to form packs to fight other predators to protect those food sources: the ability to collaborate with other dogs to obtain food.    

    The Podengo has Olympic gold medal capability when it comes to finding food. Maria can smell a sleeping butterfly at night. No lizard, crab, field mouse, baby turtle, fly or cockroach is safe when she is around. Brando a Labradengo, combined with two other dogs to overturn dumpsters (dustbins) to eat the food. The Italian hotel owners, paid to transport hotel rubbish to land fill sites in the Cape Verdes, simply dump it behind the nearest hill. Dead fish and human faeces are abandoned everywhere, as the human population is still largely savage. From my experience conditions are similar in Africa and South-East Asia and also in southern and eastern Europe. Only in Northern Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan, are stray dogs collected and perhaps given homes. In London, a stray will survive for no more than  a few hours, before it is sent to a pound. Most London pound dogs are pit-bulls crossed with Mastiffs as the American pit-bull is a banned breed, These attack dogs are the defender of choice of West Indian drug dealers, who keep them in studded collars and metal chains, until they bore of them and let them loose.

    Most strays as DMCarty rightly says are abandoned as puppies, often when they need to be fed. With little or no wild game in many warm countries, they live outside and depend upon humans for food and water. Some puppies are actually driven to and abandoned at wealthier communities, where it is hoped that they will be cared for. Others make their own way, attracted by the availability of water in shower footwells or ornamental fountains. The fecundity of the Podengo type - up to 11 puppies once a year - and their fitness for survival ensure that their gene pool remains strong in any community where dogs choose their mates.

    Other introduced breeds, which get to mate, produce podengo crosses but most gradually die out as they are not such good survivors.

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