camping with our dog and dingoes?

[herbs]

Morning all

My family (wife and 2 boys 5yo and 2yo) and i plus our 2 year old Labrador are planning a trip up through the Flinders in to Innamnckia region (cullyamurra water hole) in early august. We have done are research as to where we can and cant have our dog but we are concerned about the presence of dingoes around camp. Our dog is quite well behaved (doesn't bark, generally comes when called etc) but i am worried if she wanders off too far the dingos might have some bad intentions. When seeing another dog she will normally run up to the dog to say hello in a friendly manner but if she does this to a dingo it might turn ugly. She normally comes camping with us and would be sad to see my best mate not come along for the adventure.

Can anyone share any experiences with this situation? She always sleeps inside with us inside the camper trailer at night but may be during the day we have to tie her up?

Thanks everyone for your help

Herbs

[gronk]

Umm, I think you will have to have it on a lead at all times.....common courtesy around any campground !

[achjimmy]

Yep lead for both Courtesy and your dogs benefit. Having seen a small dingo absouluty own a pair of large german Shepard guard dogs I'd be cautious.

[Rumpig]

Good chance if you let your dog wander off about camp when outback that it could eat it something like a 1080 bait, I'd be keeping it close to you or you might watch it due a slow painful death.

[MDS69]

As all the replies above however in addition aren't these areas within a NP. So no dogs???

[glenm64]

Good chance if you let your dog wander off about camp when outback that it could eat it something like a 1080 bait, I'd be keeping it close to you or you might watch it due a slow painful death.

I have muzzles for 1080 areas.

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[Julian Kaye]

 Best advice is to leave the dog at home and enjoy the trip.

[GBC]

Any dog on a lead is just another meal for a dingo. How are you going to house it at night? If it's left out it will bring them in and then bark all night until they eat it.

[Chris.]

My blue heeler comes camping with me. I always stay in campgrounds with other people around, purposely to avoid dingoes. We sleep in a tent, him in the tent with me. I've never seen a dingo or wild dog anywhere near our camp, although I'm sure they've probably been around.

[KingBilly]

Any dog on a lead is just another meal for a dingo. How are you going to house it at night? If it's left out it will bring them in and then bark all night until they eat it.

The OP said his dog sleeps inside his CT at night.  Don't people bother to read previous posts before they have to offer their "wisdom".

Also very much doubt a dingo would bother "eating" a domestic dog, at a camp or otherwise.

KB

[KingBilly]

I have muzzles for 1080 areas.

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Can your dogs get their tongues through their muzzles?  If they can, muzzles will not protect them 100% from 1080.

KB

[KingBilly]

Yep lead for both Courtesy and your dogs benefit. Having seen a small dingo absouluty own a pair of large german Shepard guard dogs I'd be cautious.

Natural instinct for the dingo to protect itself if cornered by a pair of larger dogs.  The Shepards were most likely house bound sooks so not hard for the smaller dingo to bluff them.

A dingo is naturally a shy creature, but it will fight to survive.

KB

[KingBilly]

Morning all

My family (wife and 2 boys 5yo and 2yo) and i plus our 2 year old Labrador are planning a trip up through the Flinders in to Innamnckia region (cullyamurra water hole) in early august. We have done are research as to where we can and cant have our dog but we are concerned about the presence of dingoes around camp. Our dog is quite well behaved (doesn't bark, generally comes when called etc) but i am worried if she wanders off too far the dingos might have some bad intentions. When seeing another dog she will normally run up to the dog to say hello in a friendly manner but if she does this to a dingo it might turn ugly. She normally comes camping with us and would be sad to see my best mate not come along for the adventure.

Can anyone share any experiences with this situation? She always sleeps inside with us inside the camper trailer at night but may be during the day we have to tie her up?

Thanks everyone for your help

Herbs

Mate, keep the Lab out of NPs, keep it on a lead at all times for its own safety, and if in camp for courtesy to others campers, keep it inside of a night (which you do) and all should be good.

A mate lost his dog when he stopped for a comfort break for the dog.  Picked up a bait on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.  Remember to keep it on a lead at all times, no where is safe.

Enjoy your trip.

KB

[GBC]

The OP said his dog sleeps inside his CT at night.  Don't people bother to read previous posts before they have to offer their "wisdom".

Also very much doubt a dingo would bother "eating" a domestic dog, at a camp or otherwise.

KB

Point taken about sleeping inside, I didn't see that. Dingos are proven cannibals and they happily eat other dingos and domestic dogs.

[KingBilly]

Point taken about sleeping inside, I didn't see that. Dingos are proven cannibals and they happily eat other dingos and domestic dogs.

Really?  Don't think you know much about the dingo.

KB

[GBC]

Really.

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.newscientist.com/article/2097952-dingo-cannibalism-makes-for-a-dog-eat-dog-world-in-australia/amp/

Been watching them cleaning up the dogs and pigs we leave them along the dog fence at Ballandean for years. We also saw a male get on a trailer sailer and rip apart a leashed heeler in coongul creek on Fraser. That wasn't dinner though.

I'm no expert but I know what I've seen.

[KingBilly]

Really.

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.newscientist.com/article/2097952-dingo-cannibalism-makes-for-a-dog-eat-dog-world-in-australia/amp/

Been watching them cleaning up the dogs and pigs we leave them along the dog fence at Ballandean for years. We also saw a male get on a trailer sailer and rip apart a leashed heeler in coongul creek on Fraser. That wasn't dinner though.

I'm no expert but I know what I've seen.

Now you are just trying to justify your flawed arguement.  Everybody knows dingoes are carrion eaters.  That is how they survive in the harsh Australian environment.  Of course, they will eat another dead animal.  But a dingo is a bit different in that it will eat another dead dingo. Still just another dead animal though, and when you are hungry, they all taste the same.  Again I would humbly suggest that is just a trait they have learnt/developed after thousands of years of trying to survive in harsh conditions on the driest continent on Earth.

As for the healer chained up on Fraser, those dingoes on Fraser have a very tertitorial attitude. I'm guessing here, but I wouldn't be surprised that the healer was a dog (a male) and was in the dingo's territory. If the healer put up some sort of challenge, then I could understand the dingo attacking.  Happens in the dog walking park down the road, no different.

KB

[herbs]

Thanks for the input guys

dogs are allowed in Innamincka regional reserve, just not any national parks eg coognie lakes etc.
https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/Find_a_Park/Browse_by_region/flinders-ranges-outback/innamincka-regional-reserve

baits is something that is good to know about. Where do people get the muzzles from? I realise that they may be still able to lick but it may help.

Whats interesting with my female lab is that even though she is desexed, a lot of male dogs still try and hump her lol. Must be a scent or something?

It sounds like if she comes being tied up is the only option....

[Chris.]

I don't do anything different with my heeler when I'm walking him at home or when I'm camping, he is either on a lead or tied up on a cable to the tow bar if I'm cooking etc.

I have always found dingos's very shy. A guy I knew a while ago (who is a #1 dick) was sold a 6wo tan/black pup for $20 by some aboriginal kids in Warakurna & bought it home with him to Adelaide, pretty sure he still has it, from memory he registered it as a kelpie. It was a very shy dog, ended up wrecking half his house.

[corndog]

Think my dog doesn't want me to go camping. Just found he has chewed all the wiring under the camper. Good thing he runs faster than me.

[glenm64]

Thanks for the input guys

dogs are allowed in Innamincka regional reserve, just not any national parks eg coognie lakes etc.
https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/Find_a_Park/Browse_by_region/flinders-ranges-outback/innamincka-regional-reserve

baits is something that is good to know about. Where do people get the muzzles from? I realise that they may be still able to lick but it may help.

Whats interesting with my female lab is that even though she is desexed, a lot of male dogs still try and hump her lol. Must be a scent or something?

It sounds like if she comes being tied up is the only option....

I use a basket type muzzle for my staffy. Not a perfect guarentee against baits but better than nothing. Like in this picture.
Dingoes arent overly aggressive to other dogs. Plenty of stray dogs have ended up running with and mating with dingoes.
My older staffy normally sleeps outside. She is very obedient and doesnt leave the van.
I have a new pup in training. They will both be coming to Cape Leveque this year. I am thinking about a small dome tent for them to sleep in at night. I have seen others do this with their dogs.

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[KeithB]

If dingoes will attack children, I guess they would also go for an unprotected domestic dog. This from a new article in February 2012:

"New figures on dingo attacks on Fraser Island have been collated by the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM). They will reportedly be provided as evidence at the Azaria Chamberlain inquest.

They show 98 "dangerous dingo attacks" have been recorded since 2002. There were two high-profile attacks before 2002, including a mauling that resulted in the death of nine-year-old Clinton Gage in 2001. In 1997, a five-year-old boy was also badly attacked by two dingoes."

There was also another article in Mackay the previous year where three domestic dogs were attacked by four "dingoes" in their front yard. One pet was carried off before the owner intervened. Maybe the one cautionary note is the tendency these days to call every wild dog a "dingo".

[TonyF8]

Yes 1080 baits can be the demise of the family pet for sure,  now to cut through some of the bs, 1. dingoes don't bark, 2. you can traverse national parks with your dog,  as long as it doesn't leave the vehicle, if necessary, the dog requires a comfort stop,  you will need to bag the waste and dispose of it in an appropriate manner outside the national park,  we have travelled all over tnis big country of ours with the girls and never had a problem. Our dogs are under voice control, but being a lab, they will eat anything, so be very wary of what they consume, 1080 baits can be carried klms from were they were laid by birds. We have done the big lap twice and  Cape York 46 times and as said never had a problem,  I would rather camp near someone who has animals than screaming kids, and for the record, my dogs don't use nappies, the disposable ones you find everywhere,  they dont drink beer and leave the cans or stubbies in a fire or lying around and ive never caught them smoking behind the landcruiser so the don't leave cigarette butts everywhere. Take your dog and enjoy the experience regardless of the nay sayers.

[KingBilly]

"New figures on dingo attacks on Fraser Island have been collated by the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM). They will reportedly be provided as evidence at the Azaria Chamberlain inquest.

They show 98 "dangerous dingo attacks" have been recorded since 2002. There were two high-profile attacks before 2002, including a mauling that resulted in the death of nine-year-old Clinton Gage in 2001. In 1997, a five-year-old boy was also badly attacked by two dingoes."

There is a lot more to both of those attacks on children than what was sensationalised in the media.

The true dingo, as on Fraser, is a wild animal.  It will fight to protect its territory just like any wild animal.  On Fraser, repeated, irresponsible human behaviour had caused the normally shy and reclusive dingo to become more and more bold, encroaching into camp grounds looking for handouts. Visitor numbers have increased every year on Fraser putting further pressure on the dingoes.  Visitors generate money for the government and businesses which lobby governments so instead of reducing visitor numbers, the simple solution is to blame the dingo.

There was also another article in Mackay the previous year where three domestic dogs were attacked by four "dingoes" in their front yard. One pet was carried off before the owner intervened. Maybe the one cautionary note is the tendency these days to call every wild dog a "dingo".

Dingoes in inverted comas is correct.  You wouldn't find a dingo in suburbia, nor attacking domestic dogs.

Wow, this has strayed way off topic, sorry

KB

[Rumpig]

There is a lot more to both of those attacks on children than what was sensationalised in the media.

my question..."where were the kids parents at the time of the attacks?"...I already know the answer actually.