Before I came to live here, I probably came for a dozen vacations here in different parts of the country.

Of course, I’ve met street dogs before, in many different countries. But now I have an understanding of them since I’ve gotten to know a few here in Mexico.

What you should know about a lot of street dogs in Mexico is that they are not homeless. Many are kept by people, but are allowed out on the street all or part of the day.  This explains why so few of them look undernourished or mangy.

I know several dogs here in Villa del Carbon who we pass on walks, behind gates and fences, but at other times we see out in the street.

I have found that in general more people are apprehensive here about the threat of a dog attack, before they know a dog, than in the States.  I think this is because lots of people here have dogs for protection of their persons or their property.  Dogs like that are not necessarily meant to be nice. Barking and warding off intruders and outsiders is their job.

In my experience not as many people have dogs for companion pets as we do in the US, although it’s not uncommon. Probably many dogs here act as protectors and pets.

Once in a while I come across a dog or two who really seem wild. They seem unresponsive to peoples’ overtures and have a wild unkempt appearance. These might be truly homeless dogs living in the street.

Because many dogs are kept for protection and deterrents for intruders, amiability is not as valued a characteristic. These dogs are allowed, and sometimes encouraged, to be loud and hostile to people outside their gate.  When these dogs are allowed to roam the streets, they often have a different attitude and are not guarding their territory, so their approachability depends more on their personality.

As I walk my dogs here, and I do it three times a day, we frequently encounter “street dogs” of one kind or another.  I have become very aware of their body language and eye contact during the last few months.

Because Viggo is so friendly, aggressively friendly, he wants to meet every dog up close. I used to allow this when we first got here, if the other dog seemed into it.

But then Viggo got attacked when we were in La Manzanilla. It was a German Shepherd and I remember thinking “he looks tense” and the next thing I knew he had Viggo on his back and was snarling and biting.  It only lasted 10 seconds and then the dog let Viggo up, and he was in between my legs whimpering.  I was screaming bloody murder and the other dog ran away.  Luckily, besides the shock of being attacked, Viggo was not injured.

After that, I thought Viggo would have learned some caution around other unknown dogs, but he still likes to run up to dogs and see if they’ll play. I have to restrain him. In the rare case when we encounter another young dog who looks like he wants to play I try to give them a moment to horse around. It would be nice for him to make a friend. Olive plays with him a little, but mostly she’s irritated by his puppy play.

Bringing the dogs over the US/ Mexico border was very easy. Mexican immigration had a rule years back about your dog needing a health certificate when you cross the border into Mexico, but they dropped that a few years ago.  I have also heard that you must crate your dog in the car, but I didn’t.  I brought vax records, spay record for Olive, microchip records, and proof of flea and tick meds and dewormer.

No one cared.  Every time I got stopped for inspection they noticed right away that I had big dogs in the back seat. The first stop was official entry inspection (I think). It was a lady and a young guy. The lady asked if the dogs would bite. I said no. She then inspected my trunk where I had an enormous amount of clothes and household things packed in there. 

I got cleared to go and I went. On the way through Sonora and Sinaloa I got stopped twice more. Once waved through the check point, and the next actually stopped, by who? I don’t know. They had kaki pants and black shirts with no insignias, heavily armed, and some covering their faces.  One guy without face covering asked me where am I from? Where am I going? Are my dogs dangerous? I smiled and said no. He then asked for my TIP and I reached to get it but he was already waving me through.

No one has asked to see any of my paperwork for the dogs. I understand it’s another story if you are flying over the border. Airlines have their own rules and apparently at airports they are more demanding of documentation.

I understand that, so far, I have gotten off easy when it comes to “inspections”. Many other people recount experiences of very thorough searches of car and even of their persons. Maybe, because of my dogs, I haven’t had that experience.

Recently, the CDC announced that they were changing their requirements for bringing dogs and pets into the US, and there’s been some confusion about this. I don’t plan on taking my dogs back into the US anytime soon, so I’m waiting for the dust to settle on the CDC’s new rules before I freak out about anything.

Before I go any further, I’d like to actually introduce my two funny angles. I always start my videos like I’m just continuing our conversation, and have not really introduced them.

I’ve had both of them for less than a year. Olive came into my life in special circumstances, and if you’ve seen my videos from the start you’ll know why. If you want to hear that story you can watch “Catching Up”.

Olive was in a sprawling rescue in northern Cali when I found her. They said they thought she was about 4 years old, and her name was Olive, but didn’t know much else about her. They rescued her from a shelter in Los Banos, Ca, and I think she had been in the rescue for many months.  She was in an outdoor pen with another dog, in the blowing wind and dust, with a tiny shelter/dog house.

It’s clear that Olive had abuse in her young life. Very skittish and nervous, she would flinch like I was going to hit her all the time.  When she got to my house in Oregon she was trembling with fear.  She wouldn’t sit and relax for hours. We had quiet time and she let me give her belly rubs though.  After about 3 hours of being on guard, I heard her give a heavy sigh, and she finally laid down.

I remember the first time she wagged her tail because I hadn’t seen her ever do that. It was a couple days after she got home and I was bringing her dinner. She wagged just for a moment and I was so happy!

Olive is still a nervous dog, afraid of loud noises, and things that look like sticks, from a fly swatter, to a broom or my tripod. She flinches and cowers away.  I told her, her hard times are over. Nothing but love now.

I got her last October. In November, when I brought a puppy home, she looked horrified. She wanted nothing to do with him for a while and was jealous of affection I gave to him.  I’ve always been careful to give her equal attention.

Viggo was 9 weeks when he came home with me. He had been raised with his siblings and his mother, in a family with kids.  He was the most adorable thing I had ever seen!  They called him “funny face” because the markings on his face are different than all his sibs and standard Bernese Mountain Dog markings.

He’s always been playful, with moments of shyness around new people, but super confident and friendly.  He’s been in love with Olive from day one and slowly and persistently worked his way into her heart. And her space.

Viggo has no idea about personal space. He’s very affectionate and happy, like a human that nothing bad has ever happened to.  Open hearted and funny, he’ll flop down on your chest or rest his face against yours.

Obviously, he grew fast and became the beautiful shaggy boy you see now.

Viggo seems quite the novelty in Mexico, especially here in Villa del Carbon. Every day on walks, cars and motorcycles stop to look at him and ask about him. Three times I’ve been asked if I wanted to breed him! I didn’t understand at first, but hand motions made in clear. One man here has seen us twice walking and stopped to ask excitedly if I wanted to sell him. Or breed him and make little Viggos.  I’m afraid to let this man know where we live in case he tries to steal Viggo!  He’s really into it.

Viggo is not fixed yet because he’s only 10 months old. I never considered breeding him, I don’t want puppies and if he created excitement with, what would be, his beautiful puppies, there would be even more dogs running around, and the existing dogs needing attention would get less.

Viggo has sensitive skin and when we first got to Mexico he had a rash that turned into a nasty infection. After seeing the vet and medication, it cleared up. Within a month he was getting multiple hot spots and one, once again, became infected. He was very sick but responded well to medication again. That was about 2 months ago and he’s been fine since. Maybe it was the intense heat near the coast, where we were.

I stupidly assumed our airbnb had AC in that first month, and that it wouldn’t be too hot in April, but it was. I have to be very aware of possible heat issues, with Viggo especially. I’ve never seen fur on a dog like his. It’s intensely thick to allow him to live in the snow.  That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get up, into the mountains, for cooler weather.

Olive is a great watch dog, like all German Shepherds, it seems. Alert to any change in the environment, she will let me know if something’s going on.  She’s got a big bark to scare off outsiders!  She, and I, don’t get all the attention that Viggo draws, and that’s ok with both of us.

She likes to stay within eye contact with me and is pretty dependent on me emotionally. That’s ok, her hard days are over. Unfortunately for her, Mexico is very noisy with fireworks and traffic, and now a lot of thunder here in Villa del Carbon. This makes her very nervous. I’d like to think she’s getting used to it, but I’m not sure. She seems hardwired with nervous tension.

Viggo, on the other hand, is not phased by anything, noises included. He’s more independent and since he was a baby, will go outside by himself and sniff around and watch the birds.  He loves toys and playing footsy.

I try to get us places with outdoor space, obviously. That doesn’t always happen, but they adapt and seem to be doing well going out three times a day on walks, even without a yard.

It’s difficult in a place like Guanajuato city, where there is very little green space in centro, to have big dogs. People do it, but I don’t think it’s optimal. And I’d much rather pick up poop off the ground than a sidewalk!

I used to be afraid of street dogs attacking, but now I’m more relaxed about it. The majority of dogs will back off with me raising my arms and telling them to go away. The fact is, if a dog went around attacking other dogs or people it wouldn’t be allowed to survive here, or in the States either.

So, having dogs in Mexico is very doable. I’ve had little problem getting rentals with these two. I do try to protect any upholstery in our rentals with my bed sheets. Even if they stay off the couches, there’s fur flying around and it’s harder to get off the fabric.  Occasionally an owner will ask me for a bigger cleaning fee for a rental, which I am happy to pay.

When it comes to food, Mexico has a variety of dry dog food, some names familiar and some not. It is more expensive than in the States, especially for canned food, which I get them once in a while because they like it. It’s like McDonald’s for dogs: not very good for them, but they like it.  I’ve been happy to find Costcos in Mexico. I’ve been feeding them the Kirkland brand dog food from Costco from the beginning, and they do well with that. I add eggs, ground beef, or tuna.

I do have to include this in the video: I think my dogs were poisoned at one point a few months ago in La Manzanilla. We were at a neighbor’s house and the dogs were running around in the garden below the house. I heard them scrambling up the stairs and I looked to see Olive with a big hen in her mouth. She and Viggo were very exited! I screamed! I thought she killed the hen, but at my scream she released the bird and it flew back down into the garden. I was glad it seemed alright.  I heard a female voice nearby saying “pinchi perros! and I felt bad if the dogs had chased someone’s chicken, but the chicken wasn’t supposed to be there, it had flown over the fence.  A few minutes later I looked over and down into the garden to see my dogs eating something on the ground, something that looked white. I told them to come and they did, and we left soon after.

Olive spent the next four days vomiting. Viggo vomitted once.  I think they ate something not good for them thrown out there by the mad chicken owner. I have no proof of this, it’s just what I think happened. Olive and Viggo recovered.

I read about a spat of poisonings in Ajijic from a couple of years ago. Someone was throwing some kind of poison on the street and a couple of dogs died. I’m not sure if they ever got to the bottom of that.

So don’t let your pets eat anything on the ground. Sometimes nice people leave food out for the street animals, but you just can’t know if there’s anything wrong with it.  If you do a search of dogs poisoned in Mexico you’ll see it’s not unheard of.

My only regret about having dogs on my travels is that we are even more dependent on the car. Busses are known not to take dogs onboard, and if I didn’t have the car, busses would be the main transportation. But that’s one of the reasons I came to Mexico: so I could drive the dogs with me.  I’ve thought about giving up the car at some point in the future, if we’re settled in a town where I don’t need it. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

I’ve felt a little guilty for bringing my dogs on this long trip. I think dogs really like having a territory and a routine. Every time we move they have to get used to the new place. But they are adapting well, and maybe we will settle somewhere for longer, soon.