Dog Behavior Martha Hoffman

24/02/2026

23/02/2026

MALE DOG COMPETITION OVER FEMALE IN ESTRUS

Martha Hoffman 2026

Watch the video.

What do you see?

Watch the labeled still shots.

Please comment with your observations!

Seeing behavior at its most intense, lets us notice the same signals in diluted low-intensity behavior.

The most high-value resource for many intact males is a female dog in estrus. Claiming and guarding is instinctive for genetic survival.

17/02/2026

RUST SUMMONS THE TROOPS TO REPEL AN INVADER
Martha Hoffman 2026

Rust is the matriarch of a group of both owned and semi-feral dogs that live in a farming area of my village in Bali. Some are her descendants, some are mixed breed dogs. Neighbors feed the unowned dogs. The owned dogs are free to roam loose. They congregate to play and interact in this area, which is a loose territory of about 200 meters. They rarely roam farther, except for the higher ranking males, who might roam 500 meters if they scent a female in estrus.

Their intense reaction to the arrival of a strange male that I had never seen before, surprised me! Being somewhat isolated from the rest of the village, they rarely see a dog they don’t know.

16/02/2026

BREEDING BEHAVIOR IN BALI DOGS: Searching for the most precious survival resource an intact male dog can claim or protect: a female dog in estrus.
Martha Hoffman 2026

Oldie (white/sable male) has been mate-guarding Merah (9 month old red pied female) for two days. He stays by her side, and although very old, has been able to intimidate and drive away other males, even the larger more assertive males in the village. He lives about 50 meters away. Probably he was able to gain rank over the other larger males when they were vulnerable young dogs, and they remember being corrected by him.

Oldie lost track of Merah. He searched with head high using air scenting mostly. He seemed very distressed. After a few minutes found her again.

Merah is not yet standing for breeding, and snapped at Oldie when he sniffed.

Oldie is an owned pet. Merah and the brindle pup are not owned: they were born in this section of the village by unowned mothers. They are used to my presence and find me to be a neutral factor who sometimes brings food.

21/01/2026

https://youtu.be/Ke_FgiMWkYc?si=KUWV_ySbmEx_ksOt

I was filming Somber and Riri. A fun afternoon in this part of my village with lots of Bali Heritage Dogs and their mixes.

05/01/2026

DANGER DETECTION CANINE: The Southeast Asian Village Dog
By Susan Pinkus
There is a constant struggle for Western country trainers trying to assess and train village dogs. The trainers interpret behavioural signals from village dogs as though the village dogs were golden retrievers. So the dog barks at or eyeballs your guests whenever they move, avoids eye contact, is suspicious of and aloof with strangers, and therefore the trainer thinks the dog is a menace to society.
Yet a hyper-alert barking eye contact-sensitive aloof village dog is acting normal. It’s no more likely to bite your guests than a golden retriever who ignores your guests. The village dog just has a full set of behavioural signals which give it a more easily triggered bark and growl, and it has a much more alert temperament.
Most Southeast Asian village dogs also think their job is to let the humans and other dogs know if something has moved or approached. But none of that really relates to risk of aggression (though it does make these dogs much more sensitive to how they are handled, which does increase risk of aggression in some cases).
I find the village dog modern breed mixes with more modern breed in them have much more risk of pathological behaviour. The village dog temperament is to avoid conflict, even if they make a lot of noise about it. But mixing genetics with modern breeds reduces their avoidance and neophobia and can make them a lot more forward. That’s a very unpredictable combination. These mixed dogs often are quicker to escalate to aggression, while most of the purer village dogs are just going to bark and look sketchy and never go anywhere near biting someone.
I need to clarify that I am only talking about southeast Asian village dogs. The livestock guardian type dogs from Europe and western Asia are very different in their temperaments (and to my mind the average indigenous LGD types are pretty unsuitable to be pets). The small burglar-alarm village dogs from SE Asia are as different from the huge burglar-repelling LGDs and their mixes, as they are from golden retrievers.