Dingoes as pets....

Admittedly, most of what I know about dingoes is from nature programs on the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel.  They portrayed the dingo as aggressive, documenting evidence where it has attacked people.  One such attack was a dingo that snatched a young infant from a tent.  The mother chased it down and safely reclaimed her baby, though.  The main point of one segment was whether or not a man was killed by a hungry pack of dingoes.  He'd gotten lost in an area where they live, and due to the extreme weather affecting their natural prey, it was estimated that he fell victim to their hunger. 

With that being said, I wouldn't want one as a pet. 

For the most part, wild dingoes leave people well alone. I saw plenty of wild dingoes when I was working up north and every single one turned tail and ran in the opposite direction as soon as it saw me. Except for one I saw at night around a tourist camp in Kakadu, but it was keeping its distance all the same. I did have a tense moment when I surprised a pair of them making their way through the bush. I was looking for this elusive bird and was very still and quiet. I heard a noise and looked down and there's a dingo with a magpie goose in its mouth just metres away with another dingo behind it. They froze and stared at me and I stared at them for a long moment, then the lead one turned and ran and that was it. I think they were as surprised to see me as I was them.

There is also the notorious "A dingo ate my baby!" story of Lindy Chamberlain. She lost her baby to a dingo while camping out in the outback. I believe the dingo took the baby from near the tent. Lindy was accused of murdering the baby and claiming that a dingo stole it. At the time, Lindy was a local from around here and everyone knew her. No one believed she killed her baby, and eventually they dropped the charges because of this jacket the baby had been wearing that was found torn as if a dingo had ripped it off.

There was a case of a dingo on Fraser Island that attacked a small boy. Fraser Island is a popular tourist location and the dingoes there are quite habituated to people. They think the dingo attacked because people camping there had been feeding the dingoes and it wasn't afraid of them anymore.

I did hear about the supposed attack by a pack of dingoes on that man. Don't really know much about it, though. It's pretty unusual for dingoes to hang out in packs in the first place. I'd be more inclined to believe it was a pack of feral dogs, but I dunno.

With that being said, I don't think dingoes pose more of a threat than a pack of feral dogs do. I don't think they're aggressive so much as they just don't really care, like a lot of wild animals don't really care if they hurt you or upset you. What's it to them if you're angry? I think they do require some very careful socialisation, though. I met a dog that was probably about 90% dingo kept by a wild dog control officer. He took her from the wild as a pup and raised her to help him pick good spots for setting traps by picking out the message posts and whatnot. She was fine with him, but she lived in his truck and if anyone got too close to the truck, she'd snap at them quite seriously. She really hated strangers, but then, she wasn't socialised at all, really. The dingoes I met during my week of work experience at a wildlife park were well socialised, desexed, and had been bred from captive parents. They were totally reliable until you tried to take food off them, then they'd turn on you. I heard there was a girl who had spent a great deal of time gaining their trust and she was the only one that could take food from them safely.

So, I guess they probably have a greater capacity for serious aggression than domestic dogs, but not neccessarily aggressive by default. My biggest concern is just that they seem to have a very loose pack instinct, so they're very difficult to train or control. There used to be a man around here somewhere that had a dingo that escaped from time to time. He said she was always happy to see him, but he could be wandering the streets for hours calling her and she'd cheerfully ignore him and he was pretty convinced she'd never come back if he didn't go and find her. She'd run off every chance she got. I think the problem with dingoes is that they're so independent they don't feel that they need people in their lives. They don't mind the company and the free food, but given the choice, they'd rather be roaming far and wide doing their own thing. Can you justify keeping an animal like that in a domestic situation?

Well, that clears up a lot of stuff I watched.  It's not like I believed it all or anything.  I was relaying the information to you, and I was probably wrong on some details.  That dingo special was on earlier this winter, I think. 

I'd forgotten about the tourist area until you mentioned it.  The special showed where the local government had put up signs warning beach goers not to feed the dingoes and to stay with young children at all times. 

It's probably next to impossible to keep an outdoor pet in Austrailia, isn't it?  Like the coyotes, I assume dingoes make short work of cats and small dogs. 

The way you describe them is so ... cat-like.  Independent and only seeking human companionship in times of hunger.  Granted, not all cats are like that.  If the dingo behaves in such a manner, it would be hard to justify imposing our domesticated dogs' standards upon them.

The closes thing I can even compare this issue to is wolves as pets.  Only those who are educated enough to understand how complex their needs are should own one.
 
If I remember correctly dingoes have been around for even longer than the wolf and were originally from Indonesia.  The aboriginals in Indonesia live with dingoes and welcome them to be a very important part of their life and beliefs.  They come in several colors and are very much dependent on their packs to survive in the wild.  As a pet dingoes would require a whole lot of time and training, more than the average dog.  They also have much different behaviors and needs than a pet dog.  They are wild and unless a person is qualified to handle a wild animal as a pet I do not agree with dingoes as pets for the average person.  The same way I don#%92t believe the average person should not have a tiger as a pet.
 
I think if the average person wants a dingo as a pet they should consider an Australian Cattle Dog instead.  ACDs were originally a mix of a collie and dingoes so that they could survive the wild outback herding cattle, were as other dogs could not.  ACDs are very independent but are breed more to work with humans and are much easier to train.  Even at that, the person should find a breed that fits into their life rather than own one just because…

Steve Irwin went to some area where Dingo's were VERY okay with approaching and begging food from people. He pointed out how this is a recipe for disaster as with bears or any other predator that should live apart from people....becoming less fearful of them.
 
Just because an animal can become "used" to people...that does not to me equate with "domestic' or suitable as a pet. From what I have seen of the Dingo's interaction with the native people...it is not a pet relationship but one of symbiosis...the Dingo and man both need each other but neither is totally dependant. That's is a respectful way to live with one...if one must.
 
If the Dingo in it's state now...needed to be changed AT ALL, in temperament, instinct, appearance, ANYTHING to be an acceptable pet...then it ceases to be a Dingo and becomes something else.
 
In short...with over 200+ BREEDS of dog worldwide...no...the Dingo is not a pet nor should it be.

weren't dingos brought to australia by humans? so they were domestic dogs once. I suspect they are similar to some of the more "primitive" breeds of dogs like basenjis and shiba inus.

[linkhttp://www.dingoconservation.org/origin.html]http://www.dingoconservation.org/origin.html[/link]
 
This site puts them at over 5000 years on Australia...not a lot of that time spent with humans, they also were never selectively bred by humans even as basically as "best hunter to best hunter". IMO that makes them quite different than a Shiba or Basenji.

IMHO, all these traits can be found in various breeds of domestic dogs. There are breeds with just as much prey drive, breeds that are just as independent, breeds that are just as likely to run off. Personally, I would be hesitant to try and take food from some of the terrier breeds.
 
It sounds like Dingoes are in the not for everyone catagory, and so are many conventional breeds. They would not be my cup of tea, but if this is what someone wants in a pet I don't see anything wrong with it. Dingoes kept as pets seem to fit in as well as some of the more primitive breeds. It does not sound like they are particularly aggressive.
 
Wolves are a whole 'nother story. They don't fit into and adapt to our world.

I think what is believed now is that most common domesticated dogs are more closely related to the dingo than the wolf.  Basenjis being one of the oldest breed of domesticated dogs and defiantly not the breed for the inexperienced dog owner.  I'm just going by my memory but I think the oldest dog ever found had a structure similar to the basenji and dingo rather than the wolf.  But that still doesn't make the dingo any less wild. 

It's like asking if foxes and hyenas should be kept as pets also because they are similar to dogs as well.  Yes, they can live with people, any animal can live with people but that doesn't mean they should.  You can find dog traits in a tiger but that doesn't make the tiger a pet.  I don't think that it should be illegal to own one but I do think that a person who does own one should be screened and have to have a permit otherwise they can not own it.

I don't know enough about Dingos to say if they should or should not be kept as pets, but a lot of what corvus said sounds a lot like my basenjis.  They have PREY DRIVE coupled with no inborn desire to please humans.  They would be happy to run around with thier human chasing them all day long.  But, and I don't know how Dingos as pets compare, my basenjis are happy to see family when we get home, they wag their doughnut tails when they are happy, they will come up to me when they want to be petted (and do so often), I can take food away from them (but with high value items, I'll trade or take the dog away from the raw meaty bone in the case of my tri). 
 
The other breed that sprang to mind is the New Guinea Singer.  The Singer people I've talked to make this breed sound wilder than a basenji. 
 
PADS has the Dingo listed as one of thier breeds of dogs, for whatever that's worth. 
 
[linkhttp://www.canineworld.com/PADS/breeds.htm]http://www.canineworld.com/PADS/breeds.htm[/link]
 
Certainly Dingos aren't a good pet for most people, but I'd say that about my badsenjis too.
 
 

i don't think a dingo should be a pet anymore than i think wolves should be. dogs are already domesticated, nothing we can do about it now other than be responsible and care for them. i think it is idiotic to take a dog-like creature from the wild as a pet when there are plenty enough domestic dogs to go around.

I would agree that they're very much like basenjis. I'd say basenjis are about the closest thing to a dingo within domestic dog breeds. I've never spoken to anyone at length who owns a dingo, so I'm not sure what they're like with their family. I understand they're safe enough, just next to impossible to train and a serious threat to other people's cats and poultry and possibly sheep or goats. I think in the right hands they can make a rewarding, if special needs, pet, but it's all the wrong hands that I worry about. I consider them to be worse pets than wolves, because at least wolves have an incredibly strong pack instinct. Dingoes really don't and are as happy on their own as they are with other dogs or humans. I imagine that they're pretty 'meh' about their owners in general. I've never ever seen a dingo excited over a human. Kim, do you think a basenji kept in an enclosure outdoors all the time would be happy to see any human that walked in?

There are two schools of thought about how domestic dingoes have been in the past. One says they came with Aboriginals and were pretty much like domestic dogs. The other says the relationship between people and dingoes was never very solid. Aboriginals sometimes took in a dingo pup if they found a den and raised it as a pet, but mostly dingoes just hang around camps and fed on garbage. The fact that by the time Europeans came to Australia, there were really only wild dingoes and no domestic population suggests to me that a few came over with people as companions, then buggered off to make the most of an environment with few large predators, never to return to the fireside.

So, I think they were never really domesticated. And I think they're far too independent to be happy in a domestic environment. I think they could probably turn savage with comparatively little provocation, and that the whole bundle together makes them an inferior companion animal. I expect most pet dingoes are status pets. I'd rather people weren't allowed to keep high maintenance animals as pets at all if it meant wiping out the disturbing trend of people keeping exotics as status pets.

And Roxie, most of Australia is safe for small pets outside, but not up north in the tropics where there's wildlife right through all the cities. Dingoes aren't as bad as coyotes, I don't think. I was surprised to discover you couldn't keep outdoor cats up north because of the dingoes. I've been down on the temperate coast my whole life and have only seen 2 wild dingoes the whole time, and one was mostly domestic dog. Up north, though, I saw too many to count in the 2 months I was there.

Kim, do you think a basenji kept in an enclosure outdoors all the time would be happy to see any human that walked in?

 
No.  My experience with a puppy mill basenji (she'd lived her entire life in a crate.  vet estimated her age between 2 and 4), was that she was terrified of everything unfamiliar, which was EVERYTHING.  Thankfully she had a nice enough temperment so that she didn't bite when I picked her up, but she was clearly terrified.  She was the dog that expanded the flight or fight theory to flight, fight or freeze.  Given all options this dog would flight, but if that was eliminated she just froze.  Lights were on, but nobody was home.  very sad.  She learned to enjoy DH and me, but didn't generalize that to all people.  She did learn to LOVE to run in the fenced yard and would race around the house with an empty gallon milk/juice plastic jug.  While I fostered her, she really came out of her shell, but was still scared of many things.  (She, and another basenji from the same situation were placed in a home where she could be a housemouse.) 
 
There were many basenjis in this situation and I was on a fosters list that discussed the problems/issues with these dogs and I don't remember any basenjis that were thrilled to see humans right away.  Some reacted aggressively.  My breeder acted as the intermediary between the government (the animals were siezed) and the basenji rescue community and I believe she picked an "easier" for me to foster, perhaps thinking I may decide to keep her.  And out of all the dogs I've fostered, she was the only one I really became attached to.
 
 
 
I guess for me it boils down to the taxonomy of the Dingo. 
 
[linkhttp://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/The+dingo]http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/The+dingo[/link]
Here it says dingos are now canis lupus not [font=arial][size=2]canis familiaris which means it is a wild animal.  If the dingo is canis familiaris it is a "breed" or type of dog and breed banning is a very slippery slope that I am opposed to.  Some argue that the domestic dog should be canis lupus familiaris which I oppose because I believe there are enough behavioral differences to separate wolves from dogs.  Just because 2 species can interbreed and produce viable offspring does not make them the same species.  Wolves and coyotes, coyotes and dogs can all interbreed and produce viable offspring, but I don't hear any noise about lumping all of those into one species.  Again, I don't have enough knowledge about dingos to say if they are canis lupus  or  canis familiaris, but if they are  canis lupus, then it seems quite clear that dingos are wild animals, not pets.  [/size][/font]
 
Does your government have laws about owning other wild animals?
 
 
 

ORIGINAL: agilebasenji

Does your government have laws about owning other wild animals?

Yep, quite strict ones. You can own exotic reptiles, but have to have a licence. Your first reptile has to be from a beginners group, like a gecko or blue-tongue lizard or a small python. Frogs are under the same laws. A lot of wild parrots are kept as pets, but you have to have a licence for them as well, and you're only allowed to keep captive-bred ones. You can't keep any wild mammals as pets. Dingoes are the only ones, and they have to be raised in captivity. You have to have a licence for them as well.

The irony of it is that the government is more or less lumping dingoes in with other restricted breeds like the APBT. Same sort of requirements, except that I don't think you face the same hefty penalties if your dingo is caught on the streets. It seems pretty illogical to me, because there are plenty of dogs around with a little dingo in them that are treated like normal domestic dogs. I guess it's the same problem that you have with wolfdog hybrids. It's hard to prove whether your dog has wild blood in it or not when they're not obviously 100% wild, so it's nearly impossible to police. Considering dingoes pop up in shelters now and then identified as other breeds, to me it's frighteningly easy to get hold of one and not be subject to the legal requirements dingo owners are supposed to adhere to.

Your basenji story is very sad. I think that's what dingoes would be like in the same situation. What always struck me about dingoes is that even when they get regular, positive contact with people, they're still never that thrilled to see humans. They'll come over and check you out, but if you don't have any food on you, they lose interest pretty quickly. Do you think the small size of basenjis is important to their suitability as a pet?