South America is indeed a dog lover’s paradise! People love their dogs. Unlike in Asia and Europe, where the stray dogs will break your heart, most of the stray dogs in Latin America look strong and happy. Someone is feeding them and in some cases they even looked loved. This meant that a dog-less dog-lover like myself could ooh and awe at the puppies without my heart breaking.
Here are some of my fave (mostly stray) dogs I’ve encountered over the past 7 months:
Just like people, Countries are either Dog people or Cat people. South America seems like Dog people. But like people should we start judging the Country (some might say unfairly) – for their pet allegiances 🙂
So many of the street dogs in Santiago are just awesome – they’re health and happy and clearly have very important doggie things to do, but sometimes they come and say hello or walk with you for a couple blocks. Loved these pics!
They are so cute! I especially like the one who’s sticking his head out from under the table.
The bulldog in the first picture is so adorable!
Nice pics – you’re right, they do mostly look pretty happy and well fed.
Obsessed! This is definitely the kind of thing that I would post. We always find ourselves surrounded by four-legged friends when we travel. I’m surprised we haven’t brought one home yet. 🙂
Me too, I just want to adopt every big eyed puppy I see.
The dogs in pics two and three are especially adorable! When I was in Spain they referred to the dogs as “hippie dogs” because they were free to roam around, even if they had owners. No leash laws were enforced there. I’d see a dog walk by that I’d assume was stray and a few minutes later the owner would follow.
It is SO nice in South America isn’t it? The only problem for me, at least in Buenos Aires, is the amount of Dog Poop…Everywhere! It is a little out of control in that city. But at least the dogs are nourished and friendly everywhere! I am also a sucker for ohh’ing and aww’ing at all the dogs. 🙂
Every city in the world should immediately have a doggy mural commissioned a la the one you’ve posted a photo of here. NOW.
Dogs in Korea are…hmm…small and rather sickly looking. However, there is the occasional dog cafe where you can play with all different breeds rather than little white rats with their tails and ears dyed rainbow colours.
I’ve often heard that the biggest rabies threat is in South American countries because of all the stray dogs… did you ever find yourself worrying about this or do you think that’s a misconception?
Personally I was much more afraid of the dogs I saw in Eastern Europe which would snarl and chase people. Most of the dogs I saw in South America seemed pretty chilled out. It might be a problem in more rural place though…