Hi all, I've been busy and haven't been on much of late, let alone post. I wanted to share an amazing day I had recently. I took my mum to Kurrajong to visit her sister Chris a few weeks ago. Kurrajong is at the foot of the Blue Mountains in NSW. Chris has I don't know how many acres of uncleared land edging on to the National Park. Well, she has a Dingo compound there, and 4 Dingos (3 in compounds, and 1 wild boy who comes in regularly). She has a big boy and girl in together, and in a separate compound she has a small girl called Tingo. The 3 she has are rescues, the wild boy is just wild. Well, what I didn't learn about Dingos.....

Firstly, I can't remember why Tingo is separate, but it may be that the other female may have a go at her, she would come off second best as she is very fine and quite small. These animals are affectionate and came for a pat and cuddle, but as Chris demonstrated, are oblivious to obedience as we know it. They don't do commands so to speak, but they are intelligent. The wild boy off course doesn't come close enough for a pat, but was not skulky or aggro in any way, just cruising around. Chris confirmed that indeed Dingos are killers and are capable of anything you care to think of to survive

Sadly Chris says there is no place for these beautiful animals in Australia anymore. You people on the land don't like them for obvious reasons, even on Frazer Island where there is the last genetically pure group, the locals are all hysterical and cull regularly because a dingo had a go at a young boy a few years back. I am alternatively sad and angered by this. The Tourist epidemic on Frazer Island is endemic. 20 years ago only 500 people a year would even go there, now it is many thousands. It is the tourists who have taught the Dingos to hang around and be bold by feeding them and luring them to get up close, and Nat Parks in Qld. who have allowed it to happen. So now the answer is to cull the Dingos out.

I say cull the humans out there. I really had no idea how beautiful these animals are up close, and the affection suprised me.

As for the Koolies, Jacksy and Alby were gentlemen. We were a bit worried about taking them, but they were good as gold, as were the Dingos too. My dogs only carry on on their own territory, which is fair enough. So here's some pics.

This is Tingo the Dingo



The big Boy



The girl of the pair

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Both with Chris

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The wild boy dropping in

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Two very tired and gay (ha ha) looking Koolies in their commo hoodies after the day

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I agree with you Shaunagh. When that news story hit about the boy being attacked I wasn't surprised, by feeding them and encouraging them into camps. I think they need to ban 4WD from Frazer, have a cap of how many people go over there each year they are destroying a prestige area. We have pure dingos around here, I have seen two so far and I have lived here for nearly 12 years. I think the only way of protecting the pure strain is on Frazer Island, but well, humanity is the way it is and there is a lot of people out there that don't have respect for others whether it is human or animal.

The main problem here is wild dogs, but a lot of farmers don't really care if it is wild, dingo or domestic. They usually shoot any dog that strays on the properties.

They are beautiful creatures, a lot like the coyote being misunderstood.

A great experience for you Shaunagh! How lucky you were! There is a dingo in the local obedience club! Paxy and I met her when we went for a looksee a little while ago. She was quite friendly with Paxy. I spoke briefly to the owner and she said one of the main problems she had was with mouthing - the dingo has much sharper teeth than domestic dogs so mouthing hurt a little bit more!

I think one of Australia's problems is that there are so few large carnivores we have become very complacent about the dangers of living with these creatures. When we went to Canada and Alaska last year we had continuous warnings about approaching animals, what to do if approached etc, always warned about bears and even elk. Because they look like dogs we treat them like dogs and thus pay the consequences. I agree visitor numers should be regulated so the natural habitat of the whole place is given a chance to survive.

God it's not like there aren't other places to see or visit.
Can't people see the devastation they cause all for money.
If they don't get tourism under control there won't be anything left to draw them.
The burocrats are so stupid and slow to act and then when they do, it always has a negative impact on the animal they claim they are protecting like the muling of sheep, same crap.
Lucky you for visiting someone who cares.
Your boys look cool.

No Way! How does it go? Is it a pure bred? Chris is a bit of an authority and says forget about traditional obedience with the Dingos. She previously bred and was involved with ACD's so she knows obedience. If this dingo is any good, let me know and I'll pass it on.




Tjukurpa, please don't get the idea I dress the dogs. I saw these Cammo hoodies for dogs on Ebat and thought it would be a good photo op. We had them dressed as draculas a few holloweens back. They actually hate being dressed up. Jacksy in particular goes all spazzy and comatose. Truth is I should have bought a new halti with the money, but I couldn't help myself.

As for humans, if you think about it, the amount of Dingo attacks on humans has been miniscule compared with the amount of attacks in the city from Pit Bulls, and other badly trained, psycho or bred to be mean domestic dogs. Dingos get a bum rap, they are wild animals and part of our Australian heatige and should be protected where we are able to. And true, of the whole of the East Coast of Australia, with barrier reefs and beaches and islands and rainforests, why infest itty bitty little Frazer Island with bloody nong tourists!

I'm not sure how the dingo was at obedience. I met the owner and dingo at the end so didn't see how they were going and I haven't been back to the club again. There were quite a few other dogs around and she(?) was on lead and seemed to be reasonably well behaved. We did decide to move on though as Paxy was deciding that she wanted to play and so was the dingo so our conversation was stopped by the necessity of moving them on before they got too excited!

PS I do love the hoodies - they looked like very relaxed gangstas!

i adgree shot the humans. now have a look at this dingo he is pure not a cross he lives in Q.L.D outback well away from any dogs he is wild but they drugged him and took his DNA there is no dog in him, Click to view attachment

not all dingos are sandy in colour the ones around Maryborough can be cream or cream and black saddle marked, i almost hit one as i was going to work one morning i lived out at thinoomba west of Maryborough and were i worked was another 40kms west of thinoomba cattle county and all the working dogs out there are border collies the saddle marked dingo that i seen was very skinny running away from some thing and was just about on his last legs so he was not running that fast and i got a very good look at him he only had white markings on his toes and tail tip so i belive that he would have been close to pure. i only wish that i had my camera with me that morning and a dead roo so that he could have had soming to eat i don't think that dog would had lived to the end of winter he was far to thin you could see every bone in his body. the other dingos that i have seen up that way were the sandy ones dead on the side of the road near mungar but they came in a mix of colours from sandy through to a rich gold some with saddles and some without saddles but you could always tell which were cross bred from the straight dingo's

Oh wow Royalla, what beautiful colouring. I did see a dingo of that colouring here about 5 years back at a farmers property. Thought it was a dingo cross, we were on the verandah and it came across the back paddock. The farmer said right gonna get the gun, I looked at this "dog" and started doing the mental telepathy think, run get out of there. It looked towards the house and did, run. By the time the farmer came out he was gone. That was about 45 minutes inland from where I am. It is eerie looking at the photo because what came to my mind was "Kelpie".

Royalla
This is one of the things that I found out which suprised me. In Dingo DNA there are in fact no recognisable dog genes! They can DNA test for Dingo. I always thought that there would be common dog in them because they came over apparently with traders from SE Asia to the North on the continent yonks ago, and would have been related to some domestic or working dog. But no. It's intriguing.

As for the colouring. I always though they were that sandy golden colour. Didn't know there were variations. I wonder if they've developed colour variations over the thousands of years since being here? The ones I was visiting are beautiful, but they are well fed and cared for, even the wild one gets a feed when he comes in (which is not all the time so he must go ok on his own as well, probably eats possums as there is no stock around Kurrajong and the Nat park). Must be a tough life for the poor skinny things in the outback.