If you’re thinking of adopting a dingo as a pet, it’s absolutely essential that you do your research. Dingoes are not necessarily suitable as pets and there’s also debate about whether or not dingoes should be even considered pets at all. 

As you know, I have two adopted wild-born dingoes, so I’ll be sharing my own perspective on reasons not to get a dingo. If you’re looking for reasons to adopt a dingo, and want to find out more about dingoes as pets, click here to read “One reason you might want a dingo” where you can also watch a video about adopting a dingo.  

Today I’ll share ten reasons why you shouldn’t get a dingo. If you’d prefer to watch a video, I posted 5 reasons not to get a dingo on YouTube, here’s the clip:

Dingoes as pets: why you shouldn’t get a dingo

Reason 1: Dingoes belong in the wild

Dingoes are wild Australian animals who are self-sufficient in the wild. They play an important part in our ecosystem, for example they keep kangaroos and emus in check. They play an important part in reducing the number of feral animals in check, such as goats and deer and animals that have caused huge problems for our native fauna, such as cats, foxes and rabbits. In fact recent studies are starting to show that alpine dingoes on the east coast of Australia are starting to prefer deer as their choice of game.

David Pollock runs Wooleen Station, a dingo-friendly cattle station in Western Australia; if he sees dingoes he doesn’t shoot them, he doesn’t set out poisoned baits or traps either, he just lets them be. 

In doing this David has discovered that dingoes have actually helped to reduce the native and feral grazing animals on his property. This has allowed native grasses to grow more abundantly on this land, leaving better quality food for his livestock. 

You can find more information about David Pollock and Wooleen Station in the Dingo Channel’s video below. 

The controversy of taking dingoes from the wild

It’s not ethical to take a dingo from the wild. 

Don’t take them because they’re cute, don’t take them because they’re free. 

Leave dingoes in the wild, just let them be. 

Plus, it’s illegal.

If you see a dingo that’s injured or in danger, contact your local wildlife service — they’ll monitor the dingo and evaluate the best course of action. If you see a dingo cub that appears to be on its own, leave it, contact your local wildlife service. Sometimes, their pack might be nearby and you may not realise that the dingo is fine. 

Too often, dingoes are taken from the wild and abandoned when their owners realise how different they are to dogs. In addition, in Western Australia, there are no laws around the sale of dingoes, meaning dingoes can be sold to anyone, regardless of their ability and knowledge around caring for a dingo. Sold for a quick buck, with no regard for the dingo’s long-term welfare. 

Rusty, for example, his parents were shot, he was taken from his den and sold in a pub. He then bounced around from home to home until we adopted him. If there were laws around the sale and adoption of dingoes, dingo owners would be more prepared and less likely to give them up. It would also prevent dingoes being taken from the wild. 

The controversy of buying a dingo

Don’t buy a dingo — there are so many looking for new homes — adopt a dingo instead. You can find a list of places to adopt a dingo here.

Avoid “backyard breeders” and of course, don’t buy a dingo in a pub. 

Reason 2: Dingoes like to dig

Don’t get dingoes as pets unless you’re willing to have them dig a den in your backyard. Dingoes are den animals, they build shelters underground to protect themselves from the rain and the sun and probably the cold.

Check out my video to see the den they dug in my backyard. It’s massive, there’s a tunnel that’s about six feet and it goes deeper around the corner. 

Obviously a lot of dogs like to dig too, so that is one similarity they share. 

In Victoria, if you adopt a dingo, you actually need to have a metre of mesh at the base of your fence, facing inward, or have the fence built on a cement slab, so that your dingo is deterred from digging under your fence and escaping. 

Our Colourbond fence is actually on top of a 2 foot limestone wall, which also goes down 2 feet into the ground, however, they almost dug under that too, so it’s important we check their den/s regularly, fill them in and move them if needed. We’ll probably add some mesh or something else along the perimeter of our limestone fence, to encourage them to dig in the middle. 

We’re happy for them to dig the centre of our garden, because they’re not going underneath any of the fencing and they’re not going to end up in my neighbour’s garden. That’s where their den is now. Sometimes I might get their den started for them or we put logs in the place we want them to dig. 

It does mean that they bring a lot of sand in the house… so it’s a lot of vacuuming. 

Reason 3: Dingoes can have destructive behaviour

Dingoes love to chew and destroy, another similarity with dogs. If you have precious furniture, dingoes might not be a good pet for you. Our dingoes (I’m looking at you Jalba) have chewed the corner of a dining chair, the couch, a hallstand, a coffee table and more. 

They destroyed their outdoor mattresses within a couple of weeks, their indoor beds get chewed on regularly and the stuffing ripped out, but somehow, these have lasted a year. They chew their blankets, but not too much. They’ve run off with an expensive sock and had a fun time playing tug of war with that, they’ve run off with quite a few socks actually, slippers, flip flops and the odd sneaker, but we always get these back. 

They also love to chew pegs and can take them off the drying rack. We have our books jammed into the shelf pretty tight, but if they find a stray book or once Jalba used a ribbon from a book to pull it out, they managed to pull the spine off that one. 

If you have dingoes as pets, everyday kennels might not be needed. Our dingoes have kennels that we bought second hand, and they destroyed the base of these within days, mostly from running in and out of them. Store-bought kennels are often not strong enough for animals like these!

So what do we do to minimise destructive behaviour? We walk them each day, let them have a good sniff on their walk. We give them good things to chew on like super strong dog toys, deer horns, strong ropes, coconuts, frozen Kongs and lickimats. We very rarely give them kibble in a bowl, instead we use it to train them (and tire them out) or we sprinkle it in the yard so they can sniff it out and decompress. 

If they start chewing a section of furniture, which is rare these days, we sometimes spray it with anything — they hate spray bottles. We have one filled with a lavender deodorising spray made for them, we might use this or the lavender room spray or the best deterrent is the wound bitterant spray from the pet store (expensive stuff though). 

Reason 5: Dingoes aren’t domesticated animals

Dingoes are wild animals, they haven’t gone through the domestication process. While some dingoes do live in homes, this doesn’t mean they are a domesticated animal. Below, I’ll cover a couple of points related to this. 

Dingoes as pets: dingoes are hard to train

Dingoes are difficult to train — they will happily learn some commands, like I can get them to change direction if I want to, if I want to walk a different way, things like that. They sit and wait for their food, which is fantastic. I think that’s the best thing and I think that was actually the most important skill for them to learn because they even listen to my kids when it comes to food.

They also know “paw”, they’re okay with “down” and they’re getting very good with “wait”. 

In Victoria, dingoes are never allowed off lead in public. In other places, they’re treated like dogs when it comes to being off-lead. Where I live, dingoes as pets and dogs are supposed to be on a leash no more than 2 metres long and if they’re off-lead, I need to have full control of my dingoes, meaning that they have good recall. Dingoes typically do not have good recall. 

There are some exceptions out there, like Kimba dingo seems to run around and have a great time in the forest and returns to his/her carer. But most dingoes don’t return when called, and need to be on a lead of some form all the time. 

When Rusty was with SAFE, the alpha dingo would round up the other dingoes and make them return to their owner, but even then, Rusty was never off lead, if he was “off-lead” he actually had a super heavy rope to slow him down and to ensure he was catchable, only out on an open, isolated beach, so there was no real risk of tangling or encountering other people or dingoes or dogs. 

My dingoes know their names and will orient themselves to me sometimes, but if they see a kangaroo or something and they’re off lead, there’s no way I’d be able to catch them nor would they have any interest in coming back until they were ready. So Rusty and Jalba both wear vests and martingale collars. Some people even put two leashes on, one on the vest and one on the collar. 

Dingoes as pets: dingoes have a high prey drive

As an apex predator, they have a high prey drive, so it’s not recommended that you have smaller pets in the house, especially pocket pets. Admittedly, we do have two guinea pigs that we had had a long time before adopting the dingoes — they belong to our oldest teen, who we had serious conversations with before adopting the dingoes. 

The dingoes are always separate from the guinea pigs, the guinea pigs are in a fully enclosed hutch, in a room where the door is always closed, and there’s also a safety gate before that door. The door has a round knob — we replaced all our lever door handles throughout the house because Rusty knew how to open them. 

The high prey drive also means they’ll pounce on any small animal if they want to. If they find a skink in our yard, they’ll try and catch it, insects too. Rusty detects lizards and other small animals with freaky accuracy when we’re out on a walk, so I’m always careful to keep him away. They turn into beast mode when they see a kangaroo, so walking them is always eventful. In my video you’ll see what they do when they detect a kangaroo — they can tell the roos are nearby before I can, even if they can’t see them. 

We’ve heard of some people having small dogs, cats or chickens and their dingoes are okay with them, but I can say with confidence that if we had a chicken in our yard, Rusty would make a meal of it pretty quickly. 

Reason 6: You have young children

Dingoes are rough, they’re wild and they’re strong. Did you know that dingoes have a stronger bite force than dogs, for example a German Shepherd’s bite force is around 230 psi whereas a dingo’s is estimated to be around 400 psi. While the number of children injured by dingoes is very very small compared to injuries from dogs, I wouldn’t recommend having dingoes if you have young children. Younger children are unpredictable, they tend to be easily excited and this behaviour could frighten or excite a dingo. If this happens, a dingo could easily knock over a child. 

Younger children may easily forget any rules about dingoes, for example, if a child hugs a dingo, that could result in a nip. It can also obviously be a lot worse, just like with dogs, accidents happen, and it’s just not worth it. 

My youngest was ten when we adopted our dingoes, and she’s never unsupervised with our dingoes — there’s always someone in the room, watching or listening out for her and the dingoes. She has good command of them and is very confident, but she’s still young and sometimes pushes the boundaries, so it’s important we are nearby.  

Reason 7: Travel can be challenging

If you like to travel, keep in mind that you might not be able to travel into certain areas in Australia with a dingo, such as South Australia, if you’re going south of the dingo fence, and Queensland. The laws are all different and change once in a while, so check the relevant websites before travelling.  

Also keep in mind that dingoes need super secure and high fencing, and most pet-friendly accommodation providers don’t have adequate fencing. We’ve seen some dingo pets set up with really secure outdoor crates, kudos to those families for going the extra mile! My dingoes probably wouldn’t be too happy with a crate for long periods but some are. 

Reason 8: Dingoes are escape artists

If you want a pet that can be off-lead, a dingo is probably not for you, as mentioned previously. They also have very high intelligence and dexterity — they can escape even when you think they can’t — they’ll wiggle out of harnesses and collars, they’ll undo latches, squeeze through gaps, jump over fences, pull down on door handles, jump safety gates etc. Check out the Dingo Den for more info!

If you want a dingo as a pet, look up your local laws and consider the cost. We have two sets of gates on both sides of our house (like a zoo!), 2.5-3m high fencing, and limestone walls 2 feet into the ground. We also never have anything pushed up against the fence or walls so they can’t jump onto the roof or over the fences. 

Reason 9: Dingoes don’t bark like dogs

Okay so this one is a total positive for us, we love that they don’t bark, but if you’re looking for a guard dog, dingoes are not your animal. Dingoes don’t bark like dogs, where it’s quite constant and frequent, instead, they only bark on very rare occasions. Rusty has only barked at a person that he didn’t like (like when our nosy neighbour sticks her head over our fence), and Jalba likes to bark at the vacuum. 

But on the plus side, we’d still know if there was danger, because our dingoes bolt inside the house if they get frightened, the hair on their back will go on-end and Jalba will huff through his nose — but they don’t bark, so if you want a big barker, dingoes are not for you. 

Reason 10: Long life span

Dingoes live a very long time in a domestic environment, about 15-20 years. If you’re thinking of moving overseas or don’t think you can care for them for that long, perhaps consider a different pet. So if you are being serious about having a dingo in your home and you want to try and help rescue an animal that needs to be rehomed, then you need to realise that you’re going to be making a commitment that’s going to last for around 20 years.

Do I recommend dingoes as pets?

You’re probably wondering why I’m listing all these reasons not to get a dingo, especially given I have dingoes and I love dingoes and I know they need homes. I’ve listed these reasons because every would-be dingo owner needs to make an informed decision when adopting a dingo, not just for their own sanity but to make sure their dingoes find the right home and to minimise the number of dingoes going out for adoption. 

I love our dingoes, they are beautiful animals and part of our family. If you’re thinking about adopting dingoes as pets, research as much as you can, think about your ability and your family’s ability to manage their unique traits and hopefully you’ll come to the right decision. 

For more insight into what it’s like having dingoes at home and being a dingo guardian, check out my social media links below. 

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