Wiener Dogs to the Rescue!

It happened so quick I couldn’t do a thing about it. Min and I were playing football in the front yard. There is a large fence surrounding the yard and the gate opening to the main road is usually closed but was left open for some reason. I was just kicking the ball around the front yard when I saw Dtua Dahm, the largest of the three family dogs run out to the road to bark at another dog, which suddently turned into a nasty fight.

Recently the dogs have been in feral heat and it hasn’t been pretty. The dogs have been barking non stop and even our dogs (all females) have been humping each other. Anyways, Dtua Dahm ran out of the gate barking at a dog I was pretty sure was the male that has been coming over and flirting with the ladies while we’re away at work. I didn’t think much of the dog at the time, but I was walking over to get Dtua Dahm back inside the gate, scared she might run out into the road and get hit.

The next thing I know there were two dogs, and I was right, the first dog was Dtua Dahm’s “boyfriend” but the second was another male. They immediately ran at each other and started fighting. It looked rough but it’s tough to tell with Thai dogs, they play real rough. They took bites at each other and rumbled together until they fell into the ditch. The ditch was steep enough and with grass tall enough that the dogs had little room to maneuver and or run. Down in the weeds the male got his jaws on Dtua’s face and I realized it had turned serious. I wasn’t considering walking into the dog fight to break it up but Dtau started to really struggle and soon she realized she couldn’t escape the dog’s locked jaw. It was tough to watch because I couldn’t see where the dog’s teeth were sinking in and I remember expecting to see a bloody eye gouged out.

Dtua Dahm is a noisy dog but she’s a pet. She learned this the hard way and when she couldn’t loosen his bite from her face, she began to whimper, then yelp. I didn’t notice where Dtua’s baby’s daddy ran to, but she was alone, without help. It was vicious. When yelping didn’t work she struggled again, and got free for a second, only to allow the dog to bite her again under her front leg. Even with her head free Dtua could do little, the dog’s jaws clenched on her armpit while pinning her down to the bottom of the ditch. And there I was, doing nothing.

I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to break it up but didn’t know how. I yelled which, obviously, did nothing. Then I picked up the soccer ball and threw it as hard as I could against the other dog. I hit him, but he didn’t even flinch. When teeth are breaking skin rubber balls, even if throw hard, don’t make much difference. With little else to do, I looked around for, I don’t know what—perhaps something else to throw.

I saw Pee Took casually walking down from the house to see what all the yelping was about. He stood at the fence, peering down at the dogs and yelled at them. Again, they didn’t respond. It seemed Pee Took had heard the commotion at the same time as everyone else though, and the two wiener dogs, Dtua Daang and Dtua Ngok, came running out as well.

Unaware of their size disadvantage the two little wieners lept into the ditch to save their queen bitch, Dtua Dahm. The went after the dog’s back and with their tiny little jaws bit him hard enough, he let go of Dtua Dahm’s armpit and lept up from inside the ditch. On higher ground, now against three (although more like 1 and 2 halves) dogs, and having already one the real fight, the dog took his leave and scampered off down the road. Acting tough, the wieners barked at him as if to say, “And stay out!” while Dtua Dahm began to limp her way out of the ditch.

Dtua Dahm got her ass kicked. Or bit. Or whatever. She limped back in the gate with her tail between her legs and bleeding. She had blood on her on several different spots so it was hard to tell where she was actually bleeding from. At a glance her face was okay, both eyes intact, though you could see the shame, the defeat, in her eyes. She whimpered far from the gate and laid down to lick her wounds. She took the pain well. She acted hurt for a couple hours but soon realized she was okay and moved on. Dtua had a nasty bite mark where she had been bitten under her arm and she walked gingerly for two days. And then, she was back to barking again, challenging any dog that came to the gate.

There is a vet here in Buakhao but the stories I have heard about the place makes me think that if you fail at becoming a doctor in Thailand, they just tell you to be a veteranarian. Dtua was fine anyways and the evening of the fight we were eating rice and the family was telling and retelling, the story, laughing and laughing again, about little wiener dogs running to the rescue of Dtua Dahm.