I went to a civi dog training school last night, near Coolinga (just out side of Darwin). After everybody had finished and went home I was talking to the lady who ran the classes. I looked up and just on the edge of the light was a dingo! It stood looking at us for awhile then left. After about 10 minutes we heard a howl and turning around saw the dingo about 20 meters away I think that the oval we were on is her regular haunt as she sniffed around looking for any missed treats left by the dog trainers. She was in real good shape as well, a very nice looking dog. Its good to see these animals wandering around.

The lady I was talking to had a friend at Humpty doo that lost her GSP bitch to dingo's not long ago, she found it dead in some long grass. I know of a few people that have lost dogs to dingo's, which makes me wonder if inter-breeding is going on as often as the boffins say.

In the early 60s a Dutch researcher published a paper on the Dingo resulting from 12 or 15 years of close observation. All I can remember is; they are easy to train, among the most intelligent of canines AND can never be totally tamed to domestic standards. AFAIK it is still the definitive study on the Dingo.

Years and years ago the RAAF trialed some for police dogs. They learned quickly but used to piss off and not come back Scratch that experiment!

There is plenty of x breeding with dingoes and wild dogs. There is, however some argument as to how much and how serious its effect is. I saw figures for the NSW/Vic high country which said pure dingoes accounted for only 22% of the population. Even Fraser Island dingoes have some domestic genetics.
Apparently the dingo traits are dominant genes so even after cross breeding the majority of crosses will look dingo like. The further down the chain you go the more dingo will come out in the pups.
Now this is bad for those who like to preserve genetic diversity but those who see the dingo/ wild dog as having a role or place in the ecosystem arent too bothered. The cross breeds still provide the same predator behaviour as full blood dingoes.
Locally there seems to be pockets of wild dogs that have the same characteristics indicating a lack of outside breeding even between relatively close groups that are part of the same population. For example (I apologise for the local places but some may know the area) Tallangatta Valley dogs are usually tan/red/yellow (the usual dingo color), Dartmouth dogs are black and tan, Koetong/Shelley dogs are mottled white dogs. Some different dogs do live in each area but the majority are similar colored. These areas are reasonably close and part of the same larger patch of forest (maybe 30k between the areas at the most).
It is certainly an interesting topic.

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
Years and years ago the RAAF trialed some for police dogs. They learned quickly but used to piss off and not come back Scratch that experiment!

They have been well trained over thousands of years to go walkabout .....

quote:

Originally posted by Alpine Hunter:
Apparently the dingo traits are dominant genes so even after cross breeding the majority of crosses will look dingo like. The further down the chain you go the more dingo will come out in the pups.
It is certainly an interesting topic.

That might explain why all wild dogs I have ever seen, from the Barkley Tableland, thru Qld to New England Tableland, singles and in packs all looked tipical dingoes.

this one i rolled has a foot in both camps..

Sure, but Victoria. . . All sorts of funny things happening there.

No really, I'm out of here, it takes too much time to keep the yanks honest.