30/09/2023
There are three main types of stray dogs that reside on the streets of India.
1. Indian Pariah Dog - These are the yellow or brown short coated dogs that are the most common types of dogs that you see here. They are native to the Indian subcontinent and they are believed to have been living alongside humans for approximately 4000 years now.
2. Abandoned Foreign breeds: These are the dogs that people had once adopted and then have decided to abandon on the streets. A huge portion of the stray dogs belong to this category. People pay money for these foreign dog breeds, bring them home and then abandon them when they feel like they cannot take care of them anymore. These dogs are not accustomed to be living in the harsh conditions of the traffic-filled Indian streets and die most of the times.
3. Mixed Breeds: These are the dogs which have most of the qualities of an Indian Pariah Dog, but don't look like them. They come in various shapes, sizes and colours. They usually have a short coat, but it's longer than the native pariah dog. These dogs are born out of the several generations of inter-breeding among Indian dogs and foreign dogs. Mane owners often let their foreign pet dogs roam about on the streets which leads to mating with stray dogs, which in turn leads to the birth of mix breeds. One way of this happening is when people abandon their foreign pet dogs on the streets and they mate with indian dogs. This goes on and on for second, third, fourth and even fifth generations of these dogs. So that's why you get to see so many coloured stray dogs nowadays.
Here are some pictures of the three types of stray dogs that I just talked about. Kindly open the pictures to see which one of the above are each of these. I have numbered them for everybody's convenience.
1. -> Indian Pariah Dog
2. -> Abandoned Foreign Breed
3. -> Mix Breeds