The Dogs

This week I went with another volunteer to visit our mentor who lives closer to the village of Zhelen. The path to get there takes about 30 minutes and it passes through the house of a neighbour that has some goats providing us with goat milk during summer. The thing is that this guy has an entire army of shepherd dogs so that the goats can be saved and controlled during their free walks outside in the forest. However these dogs are not very popular due to their kindness but rather due to their aggressivity. It’s not just a few stories of volunteers getting scared by these dogs and even one got close to being bitten. Therefore getting to meet them in your way isn’t a very pleasant experience.

This time we were fairly unlucky as we did not just find them but they were keeping all the goats directly on the path that we were following. By the moment we realised the situation it was already late as we were facing angry barking dogs which were not really looking forward to letting us through. 

At this point we remembered that in this situation the advice we were giver¡n is to walk with sticks to defend and scare the dogs. Apparently this technique has been pretty much effective for other volunteers who previously found themselves in the same situation. therefore without thinking too much we grabbed one stick each and slowly but confidently started walking through the herd of goats. 

The dogs which now I counted to be 4 got angrier and barked harder as we approached the goats. Occasionally one of the dogs tried to get closer so to prevent further incidents we raised thesticks and the dog jumped back in fear every time this happened. We repeated this ritual with the same dog several times while the others were just following and barking. 

By the time we got to the other side of the herd my adrenaline levels were at their peak however it was time to relax as we already passed by the goats and left them behind. We kept going however one of the dogs was still following us in the distance I guess it was to ensure that we are far enough. This happened for around two minutes when finally I lost the dog from my sight.

I understand that this won’t be the last time I meet these dogs, however now I feel more confident towards how I should act in case I meet them again. If you’re reading this article in fear of meeting these animals on your morning walk don’t worry too much. Just try to act confident armed with a strong stick and avoid going between the herd of goats. Just go around.

Ivan Herrera