What do stray dogs do all day? A Step-by-Step Guide

When you think of dog behaviors, you may picture catching a ball or walking on a leash. But more than 70 percent of the world’s dogs aren’t pets. They’re free-ranging creatures, typically living around people without being part of any human family. Biologists Sreejani Sen Majumder, Ankita Chatterjee, and Anindita Bhadra set out to figure out what these dogs do all day in India.

Many people in India dislike street dogs, perceiving them as dangerous or annoying. They sometimes fight over food and may carry rabies, a serious health concern in India, where two in every 100,000 people are affected by the virus each year. But the researchers found little sign of aggression. In fact, the dogs spent most of their time relaxing. In fifty-three percent of the sightings, the dogs were inactive (coded as “sleep,” “laze,” or “sit”).

The observers recorded 1,941 dog sightings. They found that there were no significant differences between the activities of the dogs in different locations, of different ages, or different sexes.

To figure out what these dogs’ days are like, Majumder, Chatterjee, and Bhadra observed street dogs on several occasions between 2008 and 2011, looking at three different urban areas—the township of Kalyani in West Bengal and college campuses at Mohanpur, West Bengal, and Bangalore, Karnataka. They sampled the dogs’ activity during the day at times when both humans and dogs are typically active—avoiding midday, when dogs usually rest away from the heat, and stopping at 7:30 p.m., when it became too dark to see dogs in unlighted spots. Observers picked a random road within an assigned area and began walking, marking down the apparent age, sex, activity, and vocalizations of any dog they saw. Many people in India dislike street dogs, perceiving them as dangerous or annoying.

Getting to the point

In the study, published January 17 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, Bhadra and colleagues approached 160 solitary stray dogs in several Indian cities. An experimenter placed two covered bowls on the ground near them, one containing raw chicken, the other empty with just the scent of food. A second experimenter, who didn’t know which bowl was which, would then stand and point at one of the bowls, sometimes for just one second, sometimes for the length of the experiment. The hands of the second experimenter were never near the bowls.

About half of the dogs wouldn’t come close to the experimenters; many appeared anxious and had likely had negative encounters with people, Bhadra says. (Related: how your dog knows how you feel.)

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Of the half that did approach, about 80 percent went to the bowl to which the second experimenter had pointed, meaning they understood the human’s gesture. If the dogs discovered that bowl was empty, they were less likely to follow the pointing cue again.

In previous studies, experimenters had been much closer to the bowls. Having the person farther away allows the canine to “judge what the humans intention is and then make a decision,” Bhadra says, as well as process new information based on whether following that cue was rewarding or not.

Overall, the study suggests that untrained dogs can relate to humans, despite likely having had traumatic experiences with them.

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“This is more evidence that free-ranging dogs are just as good as any other dog at using basic human gestures, and that free-ranging dogs are as smart as people often imagine,” says Brian Hare, founder and director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center at Duke University, via email. (Read how dogs changed humans over time, too.)

I think many people look at stray animals and see them as a nuisance. But these are actual living feeling beings that lead incredibly brutal and painful lives. And it’s largely because of things that we humans have done.

Anyone who knows my philosophy knows that I only like to support no-kill animal shelters because I can’t stand the thought of euthanizing a dog simply because it’s unwanted. But an even crueler form of euthanasia is what these animals face on the streets. Starving to death. Dying of untreated injury or disease. Dying painful deaths at the hands of cruel humans.

But you see, in many ways, I was a stray. I came to America. I had practically nothing. I didn’t know when I was going to eat. I didn’t know where I was going to sleep. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I knew I was good inside, but I was here in a strange place away from the family who loved me and I didn’t speak English and couldn’t talk to the people around me. It’s a scary thing to sleep on the streets and not know what the future is going to bring.

I needed help, I’m sure each of you has needed help at some time. We all need help. And these animals most definitely need our help.

April 4th is World Stray Animals Day. There are over 600 million stray animals all over the world that suffer lives of misery — starving, cold, sick, and abused. It’s why I wanted to be involved with this day and why I made this video.

10 Important Guide About Rescuing A Stray Dog/Amazing Dogs

The research could lead to a more peaceful co-existence between free-roaming canines—which number hundreds of millions worldwide—and people.

Humans domesticated dogs, and over our 15,000-year relationship, we’ve bred canines to be friendly and eager companions—as well as skilled at interpreting our emotions.

Now, a new study reveals even stray dogs—animals that have never lived with people—can still understand our gestures.

Up to 300 million stray dogs roam the planet, with about 30 million in India alone. These free-ranging canines often come into conflict with people, and, particularly in India, pose a public health risk as carriers of rabies, a fatal virus that kills up to 20,000 people a year in India, most of them children, according to the World Health Organization.

This has made the management of stray dogs a polarizing subject, with some people killing the animals inhumanely, says Anindita Bhadra, animal behaviorist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata. Stray dogs, she adds, are never sure whether people want to feed and pet them—or hurt them.

Thats why learning more about stray dogs and their behavior is crucial to resolving problems with people, says Bhadra, who has studied the animals for a decade. (Read about the many human signals dogs can understand.)

In recent experiments, she discovered that most stray dogs knew where to look when a human was pointing to an object, suggesting their ability to read humans is innate.

The study’s findings could help educate adults and children—who are often bitten and infected with rabies while sharing food with stray dogs—how to interact with them, leading to “a more peaceful co-existence,” she says. (Take National Geographics dog quiz.)