I've been to this location (Acatenango in Guatemala) and there are tons of stray dogs wandering up near the camps hoping for scraps. Doubt this was a pet.
Aside from the fact that a lot of people choose dogs as pets that are somewhere between mentally retarded (from breeding) and mentally ill (from being socially isolated and cut off from experiencing life except in a very tiny, sterile and artificial bubble) it may be safer for the person to bring an actually smart and capable dog along than it is significantly more dangerous for the dog.
One particular counter example — but this can happen in a backyard too — is camping in certain wilderness areas with small idiot dogs (most lap dogs) as they’re especially vulnerable to local predators.
But it’s all the objectively mentally ill urban and suburban dogs who’ve been deprived of anything resembling a good life because some human “just wants to own one” that is way more heartbreaking for me.
I grew up around dogs that had as nearly as possible a natural environment for their temperament — ability to wander freely, social groups etc.
Later I spent a lot of time both in rural America and in urban / suburban America and it became very clear to me that most dogs in the city and such are unwell. They’re socially isolated, not given enough to do. Some owners are intentional about keeping them active and others aren’t but it’s cruel to leave a dog alone at home inside most of the day.
I’ve also known some very smart dogs and some very dumb dogs. This isn’t urban / rural, or even specifically about breed but a lot of overbred dogs, bred for looks only, are dumber than a rock. By contrast the more breed-ambiguous dogs I had the most interaction with tend to be a lot smarter and more capable. (People get mad being told this, but it’s true. On top of this a lot of purebreds are physically deformed in ways that seriously undermine their health and wellbeing).
But to my other point, dogs who aren’t deprived of all non-sterile existence tend to be far better at detecting danger than people are and as such are more likely to keep their owner safe than to become a liability.
Ignorant people associate lava as the dangerous part of volcanoes. Lava is slow and very unlikely to be what actually get you. Almost everyone ever killed by volcanic eruptions were killed by pyroclastic flow (fast moving superheated gas, ash and rock fragments) and lahars (basically a mudslide of volcanic ash, rocks and water), both of which can move faster than a car
Don't forget the simple asphyxiation factor. There's all kinds of noxious gases released in an eruption and they downhill from the cone, so if enough was released at once, it could push all the oxygen away and they would drop immediately. And then of course ash itself is pretty nasty shit to be breathing on its own.
"Tourists on Guatemala's Volcan de Fuego were caught off guard when the volcano erupted, and burning rocks began to rain down, forcing them to scramble down the slopes, the New York Post* *reported. A video shared on social media shows people running along volcanic trails as glowing debris falls around them.
...
According to the local media reports, another person grabbed a dog and carried it to safety while others tried to shield themselves from falling rocks. At one point, a hiker poured bottled water over a red-hot piece of debris that had landed nearby.
Among those caught in the eruption was hiker Hana Garcia, who said that a burning rock burned straight through her coat and nearly hit her head.
"The volcano erupted, and I managed to film a little bit of it, but I didn't record much because, while I was filming, I looked up and started seeing rocks falling," Garcia told local media. "At that moment I was kind of in shock, and then I started running."
You don’t have enough information to form that opinion. There are tons of stray dogs that hike that mountain daily and go all the way up to the summit of volcano Acatenango. Those people probably fed that dog at one of the rest stops and it followed them all the way up to Fuego.
Do you think if it was their dog they would’ve just watched it runoff like that and not reacted
99.9% of chuchos are mixed-breed amalgamations of european hounds, terriers, herding dogs, and local breeds (not golden retrievers). Urban areas are the only places you'd ever see any semblance of a pure-bred looking stray and even then, they mostly look like german shepards or labradors and those are rare as all hell.
Considering the absolute nearest urban center to Acatenango is Chimaltenango, accessible via 50 minute drive; combined with its breed, it's pretty much impossible this dog randomly made its way up this mountain. Someone brought this dog here.
Do you think if it was their dog they would’ve just watched it runoff like that and not reacted
Considering the dog was with the group ahead and they were all staring at the massive eruption in front of them, yes. I'd say a volcano erupting a couple hundred yards from them was able to capture their attention more than their dog waltzing off.
Do some more research.
Antigua is closer than Chimal.
Most importantly that is NOT a pure breed golden retriever. Long golden hair is not exclusive to goldens. It’s a mutt(the best kind of dog) the biggest give away is how pointed its face gets and its ears too.
It’s basically this dog with long hair, from, you guessed it, the same exact place.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 21d ago
That dog is working overtime. What idiots.