One of the hardest things about living in Thailand with a dog is dealing with Soi Dogs. Soi is the Thai name for street so Soi Dogs are basically street dogs. They are dogs which roam the streets or beaches freely. They generally don’t have an owner. Sometimes they will have someone who feeds them so can be classed as their owner but not in the same sense most of us understand. Since they don’t live in the house with the owner and are free to roam the streets. Sometimes they will wander for days or weeks on end.
Soi dogs have to fend for themselves and scavange for food. It is estimated that there are between 100,000 to 300,000 in Bangkok alone. Therefore, you can imagine that it can be quite competitive for food. You will typically find the soi dogs hanging around places where there’s more chance of getting food easy. Places such as restaurants and hotels are most common. As well as around 7-11 stores and bin areas. Many restaurants will leave scraps and leftovers to them at the end of the night. Beaches are also a very common place to see many soi dogs.
As they have to look after themselves, they can become very territorial. So if another dog enters into their territory it can become a problem. Of course they think that the other dog is coming in to try to take their food and they must protect it. Especially if there are puppies around and the mother is protecting the puppies. In my experience most of them are actually quite friendly. However, at first they can come across as pretty vicious and aggressive. But look at these lovely faces.
Westitude
As a Westie, you will know that I can be quite aggressive myself. So upon seeing other dogs sometimes I bark real loud too. No matter how big or nasty another dog may be, I literally have no fear. This really worries my pawrents as I am actually a super softie and would not stand a chance against any dog that wanted a fight.
In Samui I had a couple of experiences when walking along the beach were soi dogs run out of nowhere angrily barking. It really scares my mammy especially. No matter what I can’t back down so instantly go crazy too. Instinct usually kicks in and mammy swoops me up into her arms and daddy is left to shout at the dogs to back off. On all occasions a quick shout of ‘hey’ or stamp of the foot usually gets them to back away. It is never acceptable to hit a dog or cause any harm no matter what.
Soi Dogs Samui
I’ve heard many stories from people who have had bad experiences and have been attacked by soi dogs when walking their dogs in Thailand. Because of this, my pawrents are always very cautious where they take me. In Samui, most of my walks took place at Chaweng Lake. This was a popular spot for dog owners to walk their dogs on a lead and we only ever saw 1 or 2 soi dogs here. These ones seemed to be more friendly than others and would just be trotting around not barking or causing a nuisance.
Since covid hit I went on more walks along the beaches. Since so many hotels and restaurants were closed down there was no food so the dogs moved away. The most deserted beach I found was actually Chaweng Noi beach from The Beach Bar to First Beach Bungalows. There were a couple of dogs that hung around at The Beach Bar but I always got carried past there from the car park to The Sheraton and started my walk from here.
It’s a pretty scary experience when a dog suddenly runs up to you looking super aggressive so you have to be super alert at all times. On the beach you have a bit more warning as they tend to run from afar.
Soi Dogs Bangkok
I have found that in Bangkok it’s a bit worse than Samui. Trying to walk around the streets is really difficult. The streets are very narrow and if there’s a soi dog around they can literally appear from nowhere within seconds. In my first house here, there was a really vicious dog that stayed in the street. It used to put it’s nose under the gate and was kind of foaming at the mouth trying everything it could to get to me. Even I knew I couldn’t win a fight with this one.
It was one of the main reasons we moved from that place. I’ve tried a few walks around the streets in Bangkok but my experiences so far have made my mammy too scared to do this any more. My experience is that if you stick to the main, wide roads it’s OK, but if you venture into any of the side alleys there are more dogs hanging around.
A lot of the houses here seem to have guard dogs and even just walking past the gates they go absolutely crazy barking. Mammy is super scared that one day someone will have left the gate open and they run and get me. It has made her too scared actually and now I only go to Nong Bon park for my walks which is a popular park for dog lovers. This isn’t ideal as I love my big walks.
Thankfully in my condo I have a big garden area that is super pet friendly. It means I can run around here as long as I like and all of the other dogs here are my buddies. So I still get enough exercise.
How to Handle
Not everyone has the luxury of having a big garden or green space so how do you handle the dogs?
When I do see people walking their dogs in the streets here in Bangkok, most of them walk with a big stick. I’ve not seen anyone use it before, but I heard that people will wave the stick at the dogs to keep them away. If you have your own dog for sure you don’t want to cause harm to another one, and I don’t think anyone uses the sticks to hurt the dogs. Rather, they use it as a deterrent to either make a big loud noise or to wave to give space between both dogs.
Others have said they carry an ultrasonic dog deterrent that emits a high pitched noise to warn off the dog. My last house had some of these around the area and when I went near they emitted a high pitched sound. But they didn’t put me off, in fact it made me more inquisitive. So I’m not sure how effective these would be to warn off angry dogs.
I did also hear some people said they used pepper spray. But this seems a bit more cruel and not sure I am happy about this. Of course everyone wants to protect their furry friends, but I think being vigilent and confident in warning the dogs away should be enough.
The soi dogs I’ve encountered haven’t actually been so bad and thankfully have not had any major incidents. But they are scary enough to mean I don’t get to go out like I would in other places. So it is definitely something that makes living in Thailand more of a challenge.
Helping Soi Dogs
Whilst people may have bad experiences with Soi dogs, they usually aren’t bad dogs. With no owners, they are left to fend for themselves through no fault of their own and have to hunt and scavange for food. With so many around they often have to fight with others just to survive. Many get injured in these fights and are left with noone to take care of their wounds.
As they have no owners, they often also breed quickly as they don’t get sterilised by the owner. Roaming freely, breeding rapidly, there’s more dogs to fight over the food and they become more territorial over their areas. It’s a big problem in Thailand.
Thankfully there are organisations such as Soi Dog Foundation and Rob’s Dogs that try to help with the problem. Offering sterilisations to try to keep the numbers down as well as providing shelter and care for sick dogs. There are also many smaller organisations and individuals who help by providing food for them. It’s an endless task and just a couple of unsterilised dogs can multiply so quickly. It’s not cheap to keep such organisations afloat and any donations are greatly appreciated. Both pages have details on how to donate directly to them.
You can also use the code soidog in my shop for a £2.50 discount off any on my shirts. I will donate this to Soi Dog Foundation and give a matching donation to Rob’s Dogs. A total of £5 donated for every shirt purchased.
If you have had any experiences with soi dogs, please let me know how you have dealt with them in the comments below.
Stay safe fellow furry friends, woof woof, Wylie x