THE DINGO- CLIMBING DOGS-THE ANCESTOR OF ALL DOG BREEDS.

By Claudia Bensimoun

 

FRASER ISLAND DINGOES

Image Credit: Jeniifer Parkhurst

Wild Dingo On Fraser Island Video

 

There’s probably no better subject for this blog than the Australian dingo, a wild dog so unique to Australia and mainly found in the outback many years ago. However many are saying that the hybrid Dingo can be found world wide today.

It is believed that the Dingo is the ancestor of all dog breeds and the base stock of the 600 true dog breeds. The dogs and people made their trek before Australia was cut off from the mainland and surrounded by water.

Captain William Damphier wrote about the wild dog in 1699, and this was the first mention about the Dingo.

It is believed that the dingo’s original ancestors arrived with one of the waves of human settlement thousands of years ago, at a time when dogs were undomesticated and closer to their Asian grey wolf parent species,canis lupus.

As with the interbreeding of the African Bush dog with other domesticated dogs in Africa, the dingo has been interbred and thus has affected the population of free ranging domestic dogs in Australia. Most of the dingo population today is not “ as pure” as dogs with exclusively dingo ancestry and the pure bred dingo is on the decline.

The resulting hybrids-dingo-domesticated dog have resulted with a larger range of colors and body shapes, temperaments and health problems, not seen before. Dingoes that have been domesticated tend to use their homes as a base from which to roam and often are abandoned when they reach adulthood, thus not learning social behaviors that prevent mating and cross breeding. Because many hybrid dingoes are rejected by their domesticated homes, they then tend to breed with “pure dingoes.” Dingoes have often mated with livestock herding dogs in Australia, the very dogs that were acquired by cattle farms to kill dingoes.

According to some sources, the dog population of Southeast Australia and along the East Coast now consists to 90% of dingo-hybrids, other sources state that the dog population along the East Coast consists of 80%  hybrids and only 15% to 20% of the dingoes in Southeast-Australia and South-Queensland are supposed to be “pure.

Description:

Yellow to orange eyes

Small, rounded erect ears

Bushy tail

Hindquarters lean and muscular

Soft coat. Texture will vary according to climate

Yellow-ginger coat that can also be tan, black or white in color, sometimes brindle or albino

Purebred dingoes have white hair on their feet and tail tip

“Dingoes do not have due claws.There the ADCA maintains a breeding population of 31 purebred dingoes. “We try hard to maintain that genetic purity,” says ADCA vice-president Gavan McDowell. “We even separate our breeding packs into sub-types, like mountain, desert and tropical dingoes.” The association’s ultimate aim is to breed a number of pure dingoes that can be released into the wild to recolonise areas cleared of feral dogs.” via Australian Geographic

 

Jennifer Parkhurst

Save Fraser Island Dingoes

Fraser Island Wiki

Australian Geographic Dingo

Australian Dingo Conservation Association (ADCA)

Woofs &Wags!

Thanks for visiting my dog blog!

C.B

Copyright© 2012 by Claudia Bensimoun