BIG BERENICE AND THE LITTLE RED DINGOES

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that Berenice’s Dingoes excelled at obedience training. I hope you enjoy this cartoon and article from the Sun Herald, mid 1976 about Napoleon and Snowgoose’s success. 

The Story of

BIG BERENICE AND THE LITTLE RED DINGOES

Once upon a time all Dingoes were regarded as big bad dogs, evil, savage and untrainable, a threat to man and beast.

Then along came NAPOLEON AND SNOWGOOSE

The Sun Herald printed the following story with the cartoon about mid 1976.

 DINGO TOPS THE CLASS AT TRAINING SCHOOL

"Not only is the dingo top of the class, he's eaten half of it!"

A FULL-BLOODED Australian Dingo has topped his class at a Sydney dog obedience school, putting fashionable and expensive breed to shame.

The dingo’s performance – 98 points out of 100 – will bring new demands that the native dog, labelled as vermin by Australian law, be treated with respect.

The dingo’s owner, who declined to be named – it is illegal to keep dingoes – said: “They are marvellous animals, beautiful and intelligent. I want their rightful image restored. A Sydney man who takes his two dingoes to work every day said: Dingoes have higher intelligence than most dogs, and they love children. They have to be kept in check in some areas but they should be protected where they are becoming scarce.

Senator Tony Mulvihill, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and the Environment, said yesterday he was determined to use upcoming sessions of the woodchip inquiry to examine the dingo question.

Runners up were two dobermanns with 92 and 91 respectively - an indication of the dingoes' intelligence and suitability for this type of work, their owner said.

The woman has kept Napoleon, now 12 months old, around the house without any problems she wouldn't have encountered with other dogs, she said.

Neither Napoleon nor Snow Goose had seen a lamb before the picture on this page was taken. Their first reaction was curiosity but they were easily restrained, and within minutes bad 1 to be further restrained to keep them near the lamb so more photographs could be taken.

But Snowgoose did set off after a duck, another first sighting, and might have killed it if she had not been pulled off. Most other breeds of dogs would have done the same thing, the woman said. "People don't realise that any domestic breed of dog is still a wild animal. It's heartbreaking when the most savage and aggressive overseas breeds can be imported and their pups sold to the general public while the dingo, which is far less aggressive, is discriminated against in its own country.

"In Switzerland dingoes are shown as a miscellaneous breed pending official recognition. In America they're shown as a rare breed, again pending official recognition. Here they are vermin."

She said dingoes were frequently blamed for attacks on livestock by domestic dogs because few people would accept that all dogs are wild.

For this reason she is also ·campaigning for a review of the whole question of dog ownership….. owners must be held responsible for their dogs, and that no dog should be allowed in public without a leash.         

***

Of course the Dingo and owner who refused to be named was Berenice Walters, with Napoleon, and the Sydney man whose dingoes accompanied him to work was Fred Wirrer with Cornelius and son.

Dingoes Snowgoose (left) and Napoleon showed only curiosity when six year old David Finey fed his pet lamb.