Taking care of a dog in Ecuador

Hi guys!

I have never used this site before, but I feel like this is the best place to get help with the issues I am having.

My situation is that I have been living in Ecuador for about 7 months, working for a christian outdoor organization as a backpacking guide.
We have a big property (300 acres) and are situated in a village of about 4200 people.
I live 5 minutes away from the property, in a two story house - I stay in the ground level (but I am pretty much only sleeping there), my Ecuadorian host family in the 1 level (I spend my all my other time with them, like eating and chilling, etc.).
Recently I got the idea of adopting a dog, which I wanted to train to become a friend who accompanies me in the mountains, but after a lot of research, some money already spend on things that you should have before you get a dog and visiting a few dog shelters I found out that in Ecuador, you can't take dogs into the Natural Parks, where I will go for a lot of my backpacking trips, and therefore decided it wouldn't be responsible for me to get a dog when at many times throughout the year I won't be around for 2-5 days at a time.
Now, my host family has a dog (used to have three when I came, but one probably died and the other probably got stolen), a small 2-3 year old (I guess) cairn terrier mix, who I started to spend time with, train her, take her for walks and even though I never liked small dogs, I think I have "fallen" for her (if you know what I mean .

Before I come to my questions, I feel I need also to explain how the dog situation is in Ecuador.
Dogs don't live in the house, they live in the yard, often without any fencing, and are never allowed to be inside.
People don't train their dogs (not even the basics), don't really spend time with them (the only time is if they are in the yard and the dog isn't in the way of whatever they are doing), they get usually fed leftovers (if there aren't leftovers - no food for the dog), and non surprisingly they get never washed, cut their nails or taken for walks.
Of course there are exceptions of this, but especially in villages (or in the village I live) I would say this is the case for 95% of the dogs.

So now to finally get to my questions, as I have written I started to take care of my hosts family dog (the name is "Peluza", which means "Fuzzy") and I have seen huge improvements in her behavior since then.
She used to be super jumpy whenever she meets someone, while she now stays on the ground or sits (the "sit" command was the first thing I told her).
Like all dogs here she sleeps outside (in a cupboard in front of the door), but I am considering letting her sleep in my part of the house, at least when I am not away on trips.
Would you guys think that would be good for her, or should I let her stay where she is?
I think she really would like to, as the normal procedure in the evening by now is that I sit in front of my door with her napping on my lap for a bit, and once I go in she will wait for some time in front of my door before she goes to her bed.

The second questions I have is about walking on a leash.
In my village I have never seen anyone walking a dog on a leash, if people are walking somewhere where the dogs can come along they walk freely, but even though I have started to put Peluza on a leash whenever I go to work and back.
She is surprisingly good, the only problem is that sometimes she just stops and it takes quite a bit of work and maybe a treat for her to continue, but that is not my question.
I am wondering how important it is for her to continue to walk on a leash, as I know she enjoys it more (as probably all dogs) to walk free.
She is super good at coming when I call, and as the other dogs that live outside next to a street also good at not running in front of cars or bikes.
What do you guys think?

My last question is for any advice you would give me as well.
I have never had a dog before this, but I have been reading loads of different things on the internet (which are of course not always the same).
I train her using positive reinforcement (treats and praise), am interested in clicker training but have felt like that was a daunting task (and I wouldn't know where to get a clicker in Ecuador anyways).
I know I probably never will take her on 5000ers, but I also would like to see how well she will do as a mountain dog for smaller trips (she loves to explore, run and so far no walk has been long enough for her to make her seem like she wants to stop), as I believe that would be something that she would really enjoy.

I'd be very grateful for every help I can get!

Cheers,
Andreas

Hmmm.... can I ask why you have her on a lead if it's not normal in Ecuador and why you want to do it now? It seems to me that it's not necessary if she is already street-smart and has good recall.

The other training you are doing with her sounds good. And if she does get knackered on a really long walk, she's small enough to carry.

You seem to have it all sorted.

Well I somehow had the impression that that is one of the things you need to do with your dog, some kind of behavior training, but that's why I was asking

So what do you think about her sleeping in my house?

Well, it is here because of the laws about off-lead dogs near roads. But if it's not that way your village I wouldn't worry about it.

As for sleeping in your house, try it and see if she is comfortable with it. If she's used to sleeping outside, she may not want to. But if she finds a bed in your house much more comfortable, you may never get her out again. See what she likes and work with that.