A Dingo for a pet.
A few weeks ago, I saw a lady in Eltham's Main Street, with two dingoes on leads. I stopped to pat them, and ended up talking to her for about 15 minutes. She told me about the Dingo Care Network and what they are doing to try and preserve pure bred dingoes. Ken and I have often talked about acquiring a dingo for a pet but didn't know where to look for one. This lady breeds them, and is always looking for good homes for the pups.
When Ken came home that night, I told him about her and he immediately looked up the Network on his computer, downloaded the application form and joined up! When we got all the membership information, he phoned one of the breeders, and talked to her for ages. We can buy a pup (for $300), but we'd also need a government permit, and a special enclosure built to keep the dingo in our back yard. Ken is really wild about this, as he says people are allowed to keep larger and potentially more vicious dogs such as rottweilers and bull terriers without all this rigmarole, and it's only because the dingoes are so-called 'wild dogs' that the authorities make it hard for people to have them as pets. And of course, many people simply freaked out over the Azaria Chamberlain affair all those years ago, and still consider dingoes to be dangerous.
Everyone says we'd be mad to have a dingo with the chooks and the cat, but as the breeder says, if we get a pup, it will learn that the cat, being older, is boss, and as for the hens - they are secure in the locked aviaries. She said the pup would guard the yard instinctively, so any cats, foxes or anything else that tried to come into the yard after the chooks would be chased off by the dingo. She said our kookaburra family would not come down into the yard any more with a dingo there! But we can feed them out in the front yard instead, if we make a spot for them apart from the other birds that come down.
We hope to be seeing the latest batch of puppies some time this week, and will learn more about what the restrictions are. I've just discovered another website here in Victoria, with more information and some lovely photos. They claim that Victoria is the only state in Australia that allows people to keep dingoes as pets.
When Ken came home that night, I told him about her and he immediately looked up the Network on his computer, downloaded the application form and joined up! When we got all the membership information, he phoned one of the breeders, and talked to her for ages. We can buy a pup (for $300), but we'd also need a government permit, and a special enclosure built to keep the dingo in our back yard. Ken is really wild about this, as he says people are allowed to keep larger and potentially more vicious dogs such as rottweilers and bull terriers without all this rigmarole, and it's only because the dingoes are so-called 'wild dogs' that the authorities make it hard for people to have them as pets. And of course, many people simply freaked out over the Azaria Chamberlain affair all those years ago, and still consider dingoes to be dangerous.
Everyone says we'd be mad to have a dingo with the chooks and the cat, but as the breeder says, if we get a pup, it will learn that the cat, being older, is boss, and as for the hens - they are secure in the locked aviaries. She said the pup would guard the yard instinctively, so any cats, foxes or anything else that tried to come into the yard after the chooks would be chased off by the dingo. She said our kookaburra family would not come down into the yard any more with a dingo there! But we can feed them out in the front yard instead, if we make a spot for them apart from the other birds that come down.
We hope to be seeing the latest batch of puppies some time this week, and will learn more about what the restrictions are. I've just discovered another website here in Victoria, with more information and some lovely photos. They claim that Victoria is the only state in Australia that allows people to keep dingoes as pets.
posted by Gina E. | 1:50 am
3 Comments:
Goodness! I had no ideas that dingoes (or is it dingos?) were able to be tamed. How interesting.
Well, I guess people just have to remember that any animal, be it domestic or wild, is capable of turning on humans or other animals for no apparent reason. Take our cat Topsy for instance; she'll be snuggled up on our bed purring one minute, and the next minute she will bite or scratch us if we try to pat her! Dingos generally have a placid temperament, but are not as domesticated as say, spaniels or fox terriers, so the owner has to treat his pet dingo accordingly.
Gina, I always remember that Lindy Chamberlain attributed the behaviour of the dingoes at Uluru to being altered or warped by human interference, particularly the begging for food etc.
I should imagine the domestication of a dingo would involve the fact that he has food security and doesn't have to go hunting each day.
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