Attitude to Dogs

fidobsa Serial expat

508POSTS

12 years ago

Earlier this year I got my first dog, Charlie, who is an elderly Basset Hound. I had been thinking of getting a dog for some years but where I lived in Scotland was a very busy road and I was worried about safety. Charlie is a rescue dog who had been left in kennels for over a year by his previous owner. I take him for a walk every day and this has made me unpopular with some people in my village in Hungary. Charlie himself is quiet and harmless enough but he sets off the other village dogs barking. Most people have a dog but they are kept chained up outside as guard dogs rather than pets. Nobody else ever takes their dog for a walk. I have been shouted at several times but mostly people just glare at me and do not reply to my greeting. Before I got Charlie everyone I met when walking around the village would either initiate or respond to a greeting.
I wondered if I am likely to encounter such hostility in Croatian villages?

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tango15 Active member

34POSTS

12 years ago

I saw quite a few chained dogs in Croatia.聽 Heartbreaking.聽 Also some strange behavior toward cats.聽 It wasn't as bad as some parts of the world...a challenging part of travel is seeing how animals are treated in different cultures.

eugqua Member

10POSTS

12 years ago

Well, yes, sometimes they do chain dogs, but that wasn't the question.
Fidobsa asked if people will taunt him for walking his dog trough the village.
No, they won't.

And don't worry, most of the chained dogs are chained during the day when yard gates are open and they are free at night and when owners take them with them to the field, hunting, in the village, etc.
Those that are chained are often chained on a chain sliding on an long wire so they have a lot of space to walk around even when chained.

When you see something like that next time, ask owner a bit about his dog, what breed it is, etc. and ask him if you can play a bit. You will see that 98% of those dogs are normally socialized and have no psychological traumas.

IMHO, those dogs have better life then city dogs that are alone in apartment during the day when their owners are at work. That seems much crueler...

fidobsa Serial expat

508POSTS

12 years ago

I agree with you about the dogs locked indoors on their own. If people have to leave a dog on its own for 8 or more hours a day, 5 days a week, they should choose a different type of pet, such as a cat.

zageb423 Active member

44POSTS

12 years ago

Hi.it seems to me that most people buy or build a house and then get a dog. Where we live many people take there dog, as do we for a walk. But many are still聽 chained up in yards all day. We are lucky that there are plenty of fields and open spaces for our dog to walk and urinate etc without fouling paths etc.

fidobsa Serial expat

508POSTS

12 years ago

Having now got a better idea about what is on offer I've started looking for a house on the edge of a village rather than in the centre, where I am now. Hopefully I will be able to head away from the village when I take Charlie and not need to pass too many houses. I can do this here but the only road I can access that way is a dirt track road which gets very muddy in wet weather. I did take to sometimes driving the car out of the village to countryside and walking him聽 somewhere quiet but on one such outing the car got vandalised. That incident is one of the main reasons I want to move from Hungary.

eugqua Member

10POSTS

12 years ago

You see, here in Croatia, individual freedoms are at really high level.
That's unlike economic freedoms that our government tend to mess up completely by over-regulating and building more welfare state than we can afford.

Occasional smile and wave and you're "in" in no time.

So, concerning climate, natural beauties, personal security (one of the lowes crime rates in the world), cost of living, people, etc. Croatia is one of best places to live.

Best place to live if you don't have to deal too much with state bureaucracy and if you can make money from abroad.
All our governments have socialist mindset and instead of reducing regulation and moving toward free market, they tend to regulate and do what governments are best at: mess the things up. Yet another downside for Croatia is that it became EU member.

If you want similar climate, decent personal security and economic freedoms, my guess is, you should head fore Chile...

tinica Member

15POSTS

12 years ago

I traveled to Croatia from the US with my rescue dog George for years, and he was treated like a beloved guest. I haven't returned since he died, and people probably won't recognize me without him!聽

聽 Over the years, some local rules changed - I couldn't bring him indoors on the katamaran to my island, for example - but the dog and I never encountered any hostility whatsoever, at least not from humans. I let him run free in a familiar area and he was bitten by a huge dog that had arrived on the island with a German couple. Now, that was a tourist dog that should have been on a leash, not my 7 kilo sweetie. The Germans later brought me Champagne as an apology. Most restaurants even let him sit at my feet. If Charlie is well-behaved and quiet, there will be no problem. At first, people thought I was a crazy "Jenki" for bringing my dog with me, but then they fell in love with him, too.