How to tell if your Dog is a Dingo?

[YOLO]

Apologies upfront, I know this a purebred forum, but I've been a member here for a while.

We got a pup from "friends" (farmers whose property neighbours my brother's).  We met the mother a couple of times, a lovely healthy purebred Golden Lab (who is actively used for retrieving.)  They'd always been careful, but obviously not this time.  The obvious assumption was that it was their farm dog (or dogs?) who is a working Kelpie.
Its my daughter's dog.  She actually wanted a Kelpie, but I said they weren't suited to suburban life, so we thought this would be an ok compromise.

The pups were all shades of gold & cream, which I thought was a little odd, as the Kelpie suspect was more of a tan colour from memory. 

She could easily be a Lab/Kelpie cross, except the colouring doesn't match the principal suspect.  She is mostly pale cream, with the fawn over her back and head typical of pale dingos.
Except that her ears are half-baked, she looks very much like this:

I suppose in some ways it makes more sense that the father was a stray or wild dog.

She is also food obsessed, beyond even the Flatties if you can believe such a thing is possible.  That could just be the Lab shining through, but I've heard Kelpies are not.

She has a big personality, but is also a big sook.  At night she will sleep cuddled up to either Chloe or I.
She loves to play with the other dogs, and can sometimes be a bit too frisky for them, but she never displays aggression.

Oh, and did I mention that she howls?

[Diva]

So those are just photos you found on line, not the actual dog? The colour is potentially easy, although without a photo there is only guessing. All yellow labs (and also all golden retrievers if that is what you meant)  are ee ‘recessive red/ee yellow’ which masks the expression of other colours including black and sable, the kelpie just had to be carrying one e gene even if he was a different colour himself to give ee cream. Or it could just be sable with low intensity of pheomelanin. It is not an uncommon colour in mix breeds. 

But if you are curious try one of the laboratories that claim to test breed mix, the tests are pretty cheap. Although Dingos found close to farm land aren’t pure dingos these days, so much dog in them that I don’t know how a mix would test. 

 

 

[sandgrubber]

58 minutes ago, Big D said:

Apologies upfront, I know this a purebred forum, but I've been a member here for a while.

We got a pup from "friends" (farmers whose property neighbours my brother's).  We met the mother a couple of times, a lovely healthy purebred Golden Lab (who is actively used for retrieving.)  They'd always been careful, but obviously not this time.  The obvious assumption was that it was their farm dog (or dogs?) who is a working Kelpie.
Its my daughter's dog.  She actually wanted a Kelpie, but I said they weren't suited to suburban life, so we thought this would be an ok compromise.

The pups were all shades of gold & cream, which I thought was a little odd, as the Kelpie suspect was more of a tan colour from memory. 

She could easily be a Lab/Kelpie cross, except the colouring doesn't match the principal suspect.  She is mostly pale cream, with the fawn over her back and head typical of pale dingos.
Except that her ears are half-baked, she looks very much like this:

I suppose in some ways it makes more sense that the father was a stray or wild dog.

She is also food obsessed, beyond even the Flatties if you can believe such a thing is possible.  That could just be the Lab shining through, but I've heard Kelpies are not.

She has a big personality, but is also a big sook.  At night she will sleep cuddled up to either Chloe or I.
She loves to play with the other dogs, and can sometimes be a bit too frisky for them, but she never displays aggression.

Oh, and did I mention that she howls?

Hard to help without pictures of the actual dog.  I find it hard to believe the dog shown has ANY lab blood and too much bone for a kelpie. 

[persephone]

24 minutes ago, sandgrubber said:

I find it hard to believe the dog shown has ANY lab blood and too much bone for a kelpie. 

I believe the images are of Dingos

[Rebanne]

I had a GSD cross cattle dog (witnessed matings) who looked very much a dingo cross. She was a lovely golden colour. Had several people (pig dog owners) who were very disappointed she was spayed, they were after the 'dingo' part LOL

[asal]

my neighbour had a purebred dingo pup, her hubby was a semi driver and rescued her from a pub where one of the drinkers had found them and brought them in to show off before he killed them... she was a great girl and very friendly.. her only crime was she could pop a six foot fence and loved the neighbours chickens for lunch on occasion.

people forget they were brought here by the aborigines remember? they were domesticated , both Kelpies and cattledogs have dingo in them. so she could look like a purebred from a kelpie dad.

[persephone]

I have been told, that without DNA testing , it's not 100% . 
there are kelpies who look much like a dingo ..
there are dingoes who look like stocky kelpies ...  
In our area , a few folks have had 'Northern kelpies'  over the years   
 

[Rozzie]

Post a pic of the actual dog you have, not some randoms from Google.

My dogs howl. They are Mini Foxies. 

[asal]

1 hour ago, Rozzie said:

Post a pic of the actual dog you have, not some randoms from Google.

My dogs howl. They are Mini Foxies. 

Australian Champion Pureheel Royal Echo, howls and yodels with the best............  perfectly named, he is a purebred registered Australian Cattle dog....

Edited December 20, 2018 by asal

[Rebanne]

You should hear my greyhounds go for it, though we call it rooing, not howling

[tdierikx]

My Lab has a particular Dingo trait... she can turn her wrists... she can open round door handles! She came from Moree, so could be a possibility of a Dingo somewhere in her lines I suppose... but she looks exactly like a yellow Lab.

 

If you want to be 100% certain of any Dingo in your dog, then go to the university or Dingo conservation types, and offer to pay for a DNA test... no other way really.

 

T.

[asal]

3 hours ago, tdierikx said:

My Lab has a particular Dingo trait... she can turn her wrists... she can open round door handles! She came from Moree, so could be a possibility of a Dingo somewhere in her lines I suppose... but she looks exactly like a yellow Lab.

 

If you want to be 100% certain of any Dingo in your dog, then go to the university or Dingo conservation types, and offer to pay for a DNA test... no other way really.

 

T.

problem with that is if the kelpie is her dad dingo will come up anyway

 

[Dogsfevr]

You still have the issue is it a pure potential Dingo or just a another half breed stray running around.

Kelpies also come in a variety of Colours so the colour is very possible
 

[asal]

1 hour ago, Dogsfevr said:

You still have the issue is it a pure potential Dingo or just a another half breed stray running around.

Kelpies also come in a variety of Colours so the colour is very possible
 

Yes, my friend Les's black and tan kelpies produced,, blue, chocolate, lilac(same shade as the weimarinar breed), cream and gold, sometimes all of these colours in the same litter.

[tdierikx]

9 hours ago, asal said:

problem with that is if the kelpie is her dad dingo will come up anyway

 

But the percentage will be fairly low... so nowhere near purity, and less characteristics would be coming through...

 

T.

[sandgrubber]

Who cares? It sounds like she's a lovely dog.  If her mother is a Labrador, and the area doesn't have pure dingos around, she's unlikely to have a lot of dingo blood... probably less than ACDs and kelpie.  

[asal]

WONDER  what happened to the OP?

 

 

hope the pup is ok

[Guest]

I believe hybrids, so to speak, are pretty common. Part of the reason the Dingo is endangered is due to the amount of breeding with domesticated-turned-wild dogs which occurs on the mainland.

 

I was told once by an American that almost all dogs (I guess those that are hardy enough to survive) left to the wild will all eventually revert to breeding Dingo lookalikes, just the Pariah dog of whichever continent they’re on basically. That’s why you can go anywhere in the world and take photos of street dogs which look exactly like a Dingo/your pet/your mate’s pet etc.

 

I read once (and think is pretty legit)that Labs are over represented in shelters partly because of the false assumption that any dog with a smooth coat and medium build plus a biddable temperament is in some part a Lab, many forget that other breeds were bred to perform working duties and thus are biddable too.

 

Depending on which state you’re in, I’d give a sanctuary a ring and discuss your dog. If they were a stray or come from a long line of rural, mixed breed dogs which were able to roam, there could be a bit of either Dingo or 5th generation wild dog in there. 

Not sure what the council ramifications would be though as far as owning one.

 

I personally reckon things like the coat (softness, absence of any dander, absence of any odour, covering the whole body), the temperament (timidity, type of intelligence - read up on Dingo cognitive behaviours), bark sound (they can bark, even pure ones will in the wild on rare occasion, but others can learn from other dogs), jump ability, neck and head range of motion, stuff like that, might give you a bit of a hint or at least something cool to think about if you pair that info with the general appearance. 

 

Otherwise, just enjoy your dog regardless. 

[asal]

considering they know who the mum is,  there is no way the pup is a dingo.

 

the chances of the dad being anything but carrying part dingo is so low the question of the percentage is academic

[Maddy]

I know this is definitely in very poor taste (and I feel terrible already) but.. the first thing that came to my mind was.. "How does the dog like babies"?" 

If there is a hell, I'm quite possibly going there.