I've you've been following along with our blog, you already know that there are stray dogs all over Athens. For the most part, the dogs are all friendly and engaging and the local people here are able to take care of them. However, we all learned today about pack mentality.
When we walk around the city as a group, at any time of day, we resemble a pack. The dogs love it and we are friendly enough to them that they tag along with us for the day, sometimes even going as far as to following us home. They don't really beg for food as much as for attention, so when they get a scratch on the head from one of us, they believe they have been initiated into our pack. We mostly enjoy their presence and find it quirky to be seen walking around the city with a trail of dogs, but this is not always a good thing.
Unfortunately, pack mentality, or mob mentality, is no good. It prevents you from considering situations through your own eyes and crafting your own opinions. In dogs, pack mentality turns into an inferred duty to "protect and serve"! This means that the friendly dog who skipped up to us 5 minutes ago with nothing but a wagging tail, will not be as friendly to people outside of our pack. For the past few days, the dogs that follow us have been sweet to people in our group but have barked and gently harassed others. At some point, the dogs decided that they are our protectors and anyone who looks twice at them is a threat.
Many times the dogs have run into the streets to bark at moving cars and mopeds-their drivers barely picking up their feet in time or maneuvering around the animal but today, the level of intensity really picked up. One dog, who we have named 'Mittens' (because his name tag is in Greek, so...) decided that one of the Greek police officers was posing a threat to our pack. He barked and growled and as the officer attempted to maintain the upper hand and maneuver around him, the dog nipped him in the back of the leg. The officer did not take this lightly and chased after the dog as he pulled out his can of pepper spray. He was unable to catch Mittens but was successful at scaring him.
I felt so terrible for our group. We already draw enough attention to ourselves as a gigantic tourist party. Now we have crazy dogs that attack on our behalf. At one point, a local man snapped at our group in Greek after being harassed by Mittens. I assume he believed the dog to be ours, and from his perspective, we did nothing to stop Mittens from turning his attention toward the man.
At another point in the night, we had a trail of three dogs. They started off barking and harassing all sorts of people that drew near our group but never dared to bare their teeth or nip. They were unfortunate enough to be following us tonight when we climbed a couple hundreds steps to the top of top of Mt. Lycabettus. By the time they reached the top, they were too tired to bother anyone. They did follow us home though and one member of our group arriving to his apartment after his roommates found the dogs sleeping on his stoop.
While in Greece with so many stray dogs, I think it is really important to understand that while the dogs are very sweet one-on-one, they are not our pets. It's really difficult to resist the urge to pet them and give them attention, but we learned today that we should not encourage their attention in this way. It is harming our impressions among the locals and instigating a little chaos and violence at times.
When we walk around the city as a group, at any time of day, we resemble a pack. The dogs love it and we are friendly enough to them that they tag along with us for the day, sometimes even going as far as to following us home. They don't really beg for food as much as for attention, so when they get a scratch on the head from one of us, they believe they have been initiated into our pack. We mostly enjoy their presence and find it quirky to be seen walking around the city with a trail of dogs, but this is not always a good thing.
Unfortunately, pack mentality, or mob mentality, is no good. It prevents you from considering situations through your own eyes and crafting your own opinions. In dogs, pack mentality turns into an inferred duty to "protect and serve"! This means that the friendly dog who skipped up to us 5 minutes ago with nothing but a wagging tail, will not be as friendly to people outside of our pack. For the past few days, the dogs that follow us have been sweet to people in our group but have barked and gently harassed others. At some point, the dogs decided that they are our protectors and anyone who looks twice at them is a threat.
Many times the dogs have run into the streets to bark at moving cars and mopeds-their drivers barely picking up their feet in time or maneuvering around the animal but today, the level of intensity really picked up. One dog, who we have named 'Mittens' (because his name tag is in Greek, so...) decided that one of the Greek police officers was posing a threat to our pack. He barked and growled and as the officer attempted to maintain the upper hand and maneuver around him, the dog nipped him in the back of the leg. The officer did not take this lightly and chased after the dog as he pulled out his can of pepper spray. He was unable to catch Mittens but was successful at scaring him.
 |
| Mittens: the Trouble Maker Here, he is barking at a cat who finds his taunts ntertaining from the other side of the fence. |
I felt so terrible for our group. We already draw enough attention to ourselves as a gigantic tourist party. Now we have crazy dogs that attack on our behalf. At one point, a local man snapped at our group in Greek after being harassed by Mittens. I assume he believed the dog to be ours, and from his perspective, we did nothing to stop Mittens from turning his attention toward the man.
At another point in the night, we had a trail of three dogs. They started off barking and harassing all sorts of people that drew near our group but never dared to bare their teeth or nip. They were unfortunate enough to be following us tonight when we climbed a couple hundreds steps to the top of top of Mt. Lycabettus. By the time they reached the top, they were too tired to bother anyone. They did follow us home though and one member of our group arriving to his apartment after his roommates found the dogs sleeping on his stoop.
 |
| Left to Right: Sparky, Barkey, Malarkey These tired pups ascended the mountain with us. |
While in Greece with so many stray dogs, I think it is really important to understand that while the dogs are very sweet one-on-one, they are not our pets. It's really difficult to resist the urge to pet them and give them attention, but we learned today that we should not encourage their attention in this way. It is harming our impressions among the locals and instigating a little chaos and violence at times.
 |
| This guy didn't have a collar or tags, but since he was black we gave him the Greek name for 'night': Nixta (nick-tuh) He was very sweet and never made a peep at anyone. |
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