Some dogs are smarter than others and this one is at the top of his game. Boji, a Sivas Kangal and shepherd dog, a local stray dog, has become a local celebrity in Turkey’s metropolitan city of Istanbul by learning how to get around by public transit. He travels using ferries, subways, and buses to get around the city.
It started with a few people snapping the adventurous dog moving around the city by public transportation. As his popularity grew, more and more people began to recognize him. Eventually, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality decided to attach a tracking device on his back to trace him and ensure his safety.
The tracking data reported on something that the city had never seen before. Boji travelled across 29 stops in a day, covered 30 kilometers by public transit, and even went from continent to continent on some of his routes.
Bogie, which means an undercarriage with six wheels pivoted beneath the end of a railway vehicle, became his name, Boji. He is known to not disturb anyone and quietly sleeps in the back car.
On Aug. 18, Boji was taken to Kemerburgaz Animal Temporary Shelter with the help of expert teams of the Municipality’s Veterinary Services Directorate to exam his health. The exam showed that he had already undergone a health check in the past, and he was re-released into the city.
Reviewing the data, it seem that Boji isn’t just aware that he is taking public transit, but he also seems to know where he’s going. He’s clever and he even reportedly knows the rules when getting on and off the trains, buses, and ferries. People have noted that he even waits for all the people to enter or leave the trains before taking his turn.
If that wasn’t amazing enough, he even knows which elevators, and sometimes which escalator, to take to get to his subway line. While there are many dogs that learn many things, we have seen few as clever as this local city mutt.