Weasels

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She is absolutely gorgeous Deedee! The thing is though, studies in both wolves and dingoes show that they have significant (although non-heritable) changes in their skull shape when raised in captivity. This may make them less suited for hunting prey on their own. When you combine this with the fact that you have captive dingo parents who don't know how to hunt either (and can't pass those skills onto their offspring) and you have a population that would not be able to compete in their natural environment. Therefore, the question becomes: are the population you are keeping in cativity 'really' dingoes, if they have to be kept in captivity indefinitely? And these processes will only exacerbate the more generations that you keep them in an artificial environment. There was also a study last year which showed there are quite a few pure dingoes remaining in WA and the NT, but because most previous studies had been focussed in NSW and VIC they had not been quantified before.

We used to have maggies raid the doormat for their nests and peck at the windows. Can't remember what we did about the mat but we put life-sized bird statues behind the windows which made the pecking stop. I like the CDs idea too. Is it dry food or wet food? If it's dry a treat ball would solve the problem.

No not everyone wants biddable dogs, nor the same things in dogs generally - hell I've heard some people even prefer cats! There will always be people who go out of their way to accomodate a certain type of animal, of various species, but it doesn't mean that the majority of people are suited or prepared for the commitment, to the extent that 'exotic' animals should become part of the general pet market. There are aspects of (pure) dingo ownership that concern me in regards to the welfare of the dingoes themselves, the people/animals in the local area, and unprepared owners.

:laugh: the saddest part is that it's my day off work I guess nerding is something more difficult to escape Crossing does make things difficult, but the study looked at so many different genetic markers the over-riding signal should come through, the extra wolf DNA would increase the statistical error but I don't think it would adjust their position in the phylogenetic tree :) The paper - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20237475

The trainer I had at my first basic obedience course put it well I thought - she likened it to a workplace where you are trying to type a letter: would you do better if your boss showed you what to write, or just waited for you to type something then yelled "no!" until you stumbled on the right key? So what HW said - figure out what you want instead and reinforce that :)

I'm going to recommend Crate Games too even though I haven't got all the way through it yet :p (but that's due to my slackness not any comment on the DVD itself!) Megan is right about Control Unleashed (and CU Games), it has a lot of good general stuff for building focus and self-control which are great for any dog :) I find the Leerburg stuff a bit hit and miss - better with the later Michael Ellis stuff but the older stuff has a lot of incorrect information and you have to wade through a LOT of self-promotion Edit - also lots of free videos here :) http://www.dogstardaily.com/videos/training

It's a tough call, since 'in the wild' they frequently have high parasite loads, are hunted/baited/trapped, can be starving etc. so the question becomes: does the relative comfort they experience in a domestic environment outweigh the loss of freedom? *keeps nerd hat on* actually they came across with Asiatic seafarers possibly as little as 4,000 years ago. At a maximum - 18,000 years. Which is why they look almost identical to Thai street dogs :)

Yes they certainly can be kept as pets with a good enclosure - I'm just a big fan of all the amazing selective breeding we've done to make dogs the awesome things they are :) *nerd hat* there was a huge study on the relationships among dog breeds in 2010, and the basenji came out as the first to have split off from the wolf-dog divergence. The next oldest split was between wolves and a group they labelled "ancient and spitz" which included dingoes, NGSDs, chow-chows, akitas, shar-pei, and huskies & malamutes :)

yes, but they have been selectively bred - maremmas, sighthounds and huskies all have other qualities that we have chosen and enhanced to make them better companions to us and our needs. They have been moulded as domestic animals more suited to our lives than a wild animal :)

What kind of training are you interested in Andrewang? Obedience, agility, behaviour modification? I like the Control Unleashed series but they are quite specifically geared towards agility and dealing with highly aroused dogs :)

a second for paw prints, if I lived further North that's where I'd go :)

I would say they are descended from commensal animals that lived in association with man, but not they'd ever been what I would consider domesticated. I'm not saying dingoes can't be good pets, just that we have worked so hard for so long to breed the traits that work for us into dogs, so they make even bettter pets!

Awww so very cute :D The wild pups are always chubby little fluffballs, hard to imagine them growing into the lean wiry adults that they do :p Some people have done a great job with dingoes, but not for a lack of hard work! Some may also be crosses too which would help. Edit: dingoes also have flexible wrists, so they can open doors too

Ah yes KTB, but wolf puppies are also like dogs, until they grow up and say "stuff you meatbag" and start doing their own thing ;) Not a breed, but a wild animal, with wild animal instincts.

I think only NSW and WA allow dingoes to be kept as pets without a permit. We have a few around here, I can't see why people prefer them over domestic dogs. They won't recall if they don't want to, have minimal natural interest in humans and are very tough to train! The opposite of everything we've bred dogs for to make them so wonderful to live with :)

Hmmm.... http://www.ripoffreport.com/animal-services/chat-womach/chat-womach-the-dog-training-s-d2c52.htm

:laugh: -- Beautiful photo Pers, I love sheep pronking :D My kelps saw their first ever roos last week - they were alert but not alarmed :) They went still and watched but didn't chase and could be called away, which was a huge relief given how dangerous kangaroos can be, and apparently there is a mob of roos 2 houses back from where they'll be living next year!

Sorry nothing helpful to add but I just wanted to sent good vibes to dear Toby

And you have every freedom to not use drugs for yourself or your dogs :) The OP is happy with her decision and her pooch is showing improvement. -- I really found kongs and bones helped with my girl's SA. The chewing and sucking is supposed to release serotonin, and they have to sit down and focus which is perfect. Even 2 years later (and all fixed) I still never leave them without giving them something to chew/work at :) I give them a chew about 5 minutes before I go out so they are settled in and busy by the time I walk out the door - not a total solution but something I found handy.

thank dog you're about ML, this stuff makes my brain melt :laugh: It's strangely comforting to know the genes are still being discovered, since there's so much variation :) It is a shame, I'm quite partial to tan points too :) There is a red & tan show pup in WA, owned my Mirawee, and she is just gorgeous

Tan points can be shown but it's not a popular choice for some reason

oh I always thought Weis were blue! I learnt something :)

That's awful Asal From my understanding the dilution gene and the colour gene are separate, so a weim-coloured dog would be dilute and black (??) I think!

God no :laugh: Weez sheds his own bodyweight every fortnight! :p Chess sleeps on my bed every night but you'd barely know it from how little hair she leaves behind. But have Weez on the bed for 5 mins and he leaves a dog-shaped fuzz pile...