Boonie Dogs of Guam

[Human_84]

Boonie Dogs
Mike Pulte says that boonie dogs couldn't have become so ugly by chance. It had to have been the result of a deliberate breeding program. Someone out there was selecting for ugly.

You can't get much uglier than a dog with no hair and teats longer than its legs. When they trot, the teats swing up and smack them on the sides with every step.

They are full of mange on the outside and hookworms on the inside. If you prick a boonie dog with a pin, it explodes in a shower of what looks like white noodles and gray dust: worms and their eggs. That's all they have inside. They certainly don't have any food inside.

Generally speaking, Guam would be better off without boonie dogs. They do serve one useful purpose, however: they are useful in turning up murder victims. Every once in awhile, someone finds a boonie dog gnawing on a human body part by the side of the back road to Andersen.

If you are foolish enough to jog or bicycle here on Guam (and these are truly high-risk behaviors here), you have to carry a big stick or a small rock hammer to fend off the dogs.

For awhile, Yigo Elementary School had a steady visitor in the person of a dog that the children had named "the butt dog." This animal had a large growth the size of a grapefruit under its tail. The children regarded the butt dog with fascinated horror and spent a lot of time speculating about the cause of its condition.

Such strange growths are common on boonie dogs. Some seem to have both testicles and teats, for example. Seeing boonie dogs with gangrenous body parts is commonplace. Once I saw one with the bones of its tail sticking out of the second half of its tail. The rest of the tail was gray and banded, like an armadillo tail.

People can and do adopt boonie dogs. Given proper care and feeding, their looks can be improved dramatically, but most of them would still make a reasonable showing in an ugly dog contest. A common dog type has a relatively normal-looking dog body on extremely short legs, with a huge head and enormous bat ears. These dogs are inevitably fat and female, with long pendulous teats that never have time to shrink between litters.

Source: http://www.heptune.com/Guamcrit.html#Boonie Dogs

 

[Leaferne]

Poor things--the lives they must lead. :nooo:

Here's one which found a nice home:
http://www.noltestockphoto.com/minervan ... -1344.html

http://www.booniedog.com/booniedogs/

Boonie Dogs are the direct descendants of United States Marine War Dogs, which arrived with the first waves of invading troops during the liberation of Saipan in 1944. They served bravely as soldiers and mascots, seeking out mines and enemy positions, as well as providing comfort and friendship to their human counterparts. The end of the war found many of these dogs lost or stranded in the jungles, forced to rely on their instincts and provide for themselves. Fifty years later, the Boonie Dog is a breed which is independent and rugged, yet maintains a strong allegiance to man.

 

[Human_84]

Poor things--the lives they must lead. :nooo:

Here's one which found a nice home:
http://www.noltestockphoto.com/minervan ... -1344.html

http://www.booniedog.com/booniedogs/

Boonie Dogs are the direct descendants of United States Marine War Dogs, which arrived with the first waves of invading troops during the liberation of Saipan in 1944. They served bravely as soldiers and mascots, seeking out mines and enemy positions, as well as providing comfort and friendship to their human counterparts. The end of the war found many of these dogs lost or stranded in the jungles, forced to rely on their instincts and provide for themselves. Fifty years later, the Boonie Dog is a breed which is independent and rugged, yet maintains a strong allegiance to man.

The picture you posted a link to seems to be in much better condition than the ones mentioned here in this article. Seems as though most the dogs in guam are disgusting creatures. This almost makes me gag...

"If you prick a boonie dog with a pin, it explodes in a shower of what looks like white noodles and gray dust: worms and their eggs."

 

[Philo_T]

From the evidence provided by Leaferne, I'm wondering if the writer didn't have an axe to grind or was just trying to be humorlously bombastic.

Worms are treatable, aren't they? (err... maybe not heartworm...) I wonder how bad any mainland feral population is in that regard?


Seems like Guam could be small enough that inbreeding could lead to problems.

Does anyone have more in-depth information?

 

[Leaferne]

It's interesting that feral dog populations will, after a while, sort of "boil down" to a very similar type of animal: prick ears, short fur, etc.

http://primitive-dogs.dog-breeds.designerz.com/

 

[hedgewizard1]

Interesting to note that while the one article claims that boonie dogs are descended from USMC War Dogs, they have the look of two Japanese dogs, the Akita and (especially) the Shiba Inu. Also, the breeds used would not result in something like we see in the picture of Minnie

Those breeds found most suitable were: German Shepherds, Belgian Sheepdogs, Doberman Pinschers, Collies (farm type, with medium length coat), Schnauzers (Giant), Airedale Terriers, Rottweilers, and positive crosses of these breeds.

from a US military report cited at militaryfactory.com

Here are two nice pics of Shiba Inu:

Here's a Japanese style Akita:

And the American style:

Based on all this, I would guess that the boonie dog has been on Guam a lot longer than 60 years.

 

[Kondoru]

But most Japanese dogs (with the exception of toy breeds) are generic northern `laika` type mutts...

 

[hedgewizard1]

And the point of that is?

 

[Kondoru]

There are lots of dogs in the world after that fasion

 

[hedgewizard1]

This is true. However, mixing Collies, German Shepherds, GianT Schanuzers, Doberman Pinschers, Belgian Sheepdogs, Airedales, and Rottweilers Are unlikely to come up with this sort of beast in only 60 years. It's more likely boonie dogs are a mix of breeds of more local origin. I suspect that the author of the original article has fallen prey to folklore.

 

[Human_84]

I think that the boonie dogs probably go by another name in guam. And that they are certainly ugly, but this man has without a doubt stretched the truth a bit, look how he writes his sentences.