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New
Guinea Singing Dog Reprinted with permission from New Guinea Singing Dog International History of the New Guinea Singing Dog The New Guinea Singing Dog is truly a living, breathing, four-legged fossil that has inhabited the island of New Guinea since the Stone Age. The island remained isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years, while its native people enjoyed the companionship of the clever, fox-like Singing Dogs. "The earliest known Singing Dog to leave New Guinea, left the island in 1897. Unfortunately, it was dead. Sir William MacGregor shot the dog on Mount Scratchley at an elevation of 7,000 feet. He sent both the skeleton and the skin, preserved in alcohol, to the Queensland Museum. There it lay in storage until 1911, when C.W. DeVis assembled and studied the specimen. He described the dog as 11 1/2 inches at the shoulder and primarily black in color. White markings trimmed the nape of the neck, the throat and chest and the tip of the tail." (A Celebration of Rare Breeds Volume II by Cathy J. Flamholtz 1991) It wasn’t until 1957 that the first Singing Dogs actually left New Guinea. Three years earlier, Mr. Ellis Troughton (the Curator of Mammals for the Australian Museum) arrived on the island and began collecting native mammals, among them a pair of NGSD's brought down from the highlands. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the breeds escape-artist attributes and penchant for poultry. The dogs escaped from captivity and wreaked havoc on the government’s chicken population. They were quickly handed off in disgrace to some natives. In 1956, another pair was captured in the highlands by Medical Assistant Albert Speer and Assistant District Officer J.P. Sinclair. That pair was sent to Sir Edward Hallstrom's native animal study center in the wester highlands, at Nondugl. Hallstrom who had funded the 1954 expedition now headed the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The following year (1957) the pair was sent to Taronga Park where the curator Ellis Troughton (the same gentleman who had endured the embarrassment of the chicken massacre in 1954) determined the Singing Dogs to be a separate species and labeled them “Canis hallstromi.” At the zoo, the female of the pair delivered an historic litter – historic because the majority of NGSD's in the world today descended from it. In fact, the entire captive population of New Guinea Singing Dogs harks back to just eight that were caught in the wild. There are still some living free in the New Guinea highlands, but they’ve proven to be too elusive (and too expensive) to capture. Introduction to the United States The NGSD's were not adverse to breeding in captivity, and the Taronga Park Zoo was quite willing to send offspring to other zoos. Consequently, in 1958 the first Singing Dog to reach the U.S. was a female sent to the San Diego Zoo. Later, she was joined by a male from Sydney. Pups produced by these two Australian imports found their way to other U.S. & Canadian Zoos. In the early 1960's San Diego Zoo began dispersing a portion of their Singer collection. Numerous specimens were sent to zoos across the United States and Canada. In 1969 the NGSD was reclassified as a subspecies of the Dingo. The taxonomic designation thus changed to canis lupus dingo. This in itself had little effect on the NGSD population but to this day has caused confusion and made it difficult to account for all of the NGSD's. There are zoo's today that still display their NGSD's as Dingo's (the New Guinea version). In 1972 the first known NGSD's left captivity for the private sector when Jay Hosler of CA adopted his first NGSD. Jay eventually adopted two more and produced litters. Jay & his family spent a combined total of 100 yrs with their New Guinea Singing Dogs. With little to no information at Mr Hosler's disposal, life with his pack of NGSD's is a story all of it's own. In 1976 a German expedition from the Staatliche Museum Preussischer Kulturbestiz Berlin obtained five additional dogs from the Irian Jaya Mountains (Western New Guinea). These were sent to the Domestic Animal Institute in Keil, Germany and their lines preserved. In 1980 another Taronga Male by the name of Dinkum was imported and added to the North American bloodlines. In 1987 A pair from the 1976 German wild caught line was imported to the Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, Kansas. Although the male never produced, the female (Olga) produced several litters sired by Dinkum the 1980 import. Olga added a 3rd foundation bloodline to the North American breeding program. Also in 1987 a male, Darkie, which the Taronga Zoo indicated was out of another "wild-caught" female in the breeding colony at the Baiyer River Sanctuary in Mt. Hagen, New Guinea, and several Taronga females were imported by Sheryl Langan to Canada. Sheryl was not affiliated with any Zoo but was just a breeder of rare canines with Aussie connections. In 1989 Don & Judy Ehrlich became involved with NGSD's when a woman entered their pet store wanting to sell what she referred to as two Dingo's . She had to get rid of them because they kept killing her prized Chickens. Don took one look and was hooked. So hooked in fact that he tracked down the zoo where they were bred (Clay Center) and found that they were NGSD's. He later tracked down and adopted a NGSD whose bloodlines were 21 years removed from the mainstream zoo breeding program. His name was Old Dingo. In 1990 another Singer was brought over from Taronga in Sydney. A male named Madang. Again this was a decendent of the original pair but now 22 years removed from the original pair. Madang then sired a litter to the daughter of one of the Dinkum/Olga litters named Maddie. Madang was part of a final dispersement for the Taronga NGSD's. In 1992 (5yrs after his importation) Sheryl Langan donated Darkie to Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin, at his Swamp Fox Sanctuary. Dr. Brisbin was already involved with the study of the NGSD at his sanctuary. To this day the status of the female NGSD's imported are a mystery. Darkie added the 4th bloodline to the pedigreed breeding population here in North America. The following year 1993 is when things went all wrong for the Zoo kept NGSD population. The USDA had declared the Dingo and the NGSD as just a domestic breed of dog and thus a 3rd classification was given to them canis lupus familiaris. That change meant that any Zoo that housed Singer's or Dingo's had to follow a completely different set of rules with regard to everyday handling. These now (declared) domestic dogs had to be given much more time then they did as exotic zoo animals. This made keeping either breed at a zoo undesirable. For the Dingo it meant little because there were very few here in North America anyway. For the NGSD it was a disaster. Taronga no longer held any NGSD's and now the gates were in essence being kicked open for the zoo population of NGSD's. Most were dispersed to either the public or the exotic animal world. Once the NGSD's were sent from the zoo's, there was no official registry in place to hold their pedigrees. ISIS is not available to the general public or the exotics people. All of these NGSD's ended up becoming undocumented. The new kid on the block (for the exotics people) the NGSD was readily bred and dispersed. The few exceptions to this were the direct result of Dr Brisbin & Don Ehrlich. Dr Brisbin took home to his sanctuary dogs from the eastern half of the country along with the San Diego Singers. Don Ehrlich took home the foundation stock from the local Kansas zoo's including Olga (Germany) and Madang the Taronga import. Dr. Brisbin was granted access to the ISIS database to continue documenting NGSD's. He along with help from Don Ehrlich prevented the end for the ISIS listed NGSD. It was also Dr Brisbin who eventually persuaded the UKC to start a registry for the NGSD's but not until 1996. By then it was a bit too late for the bulk of the distributed NGSD's. Nobody really seemed interested or wanted to spend the time to try and retrace any bloodlines of the dispersed NGSD's. The logic here for the Conservationalists was why bother? We already have the 4 founding bloodlines represented along with the 3 re-introduced lines that held their ISIS status. The most recent occurrence in the NGSD North American population came about in October of 2006 when the NGSD known as Benji was imported from Neumunster Zoo in Germany. To date however he has failed to produce a litter here in the states and there is concern that he may be sterile. This brings us to today where we have maybe 40 to 50 Singers in the breeding program but 100's of them in North America that are currently without traced and verified pedigrees. Most through no fault of their owners. Many of these owners have kept records but it's the paper and pencil method rather then a registry that keeps official records and issues certificates and pedigree papers. Today there are a handful of NGSD's with four different registries. The UKC United Kennel Club, the CKC Canadian Kennel Club, the CKC Continental Kennel Club, and ARBA American Rare Breed Association. Each of these clubs have a handful in their registry. A far cry from from the number of NGSD's that should be pedigreed. With the NGSDI being directly involved with Singing Dogs and the tracing of their bloodlines, we have seen very few instances where a singer has been hybridized. This is likely a combination of their uniqueness along with the extra security needed to live with one. The NGSDI has moved forward with a registry that exclusively deals with the NGSD. This should bring you up to date on the history of the NGSD. If you have read through this website, you already know what we at the NGSDI are attempting to do (see Mission Statement). In many cases we have run into dead ends because we just could not get info from folks to track down verifiable pedigrees. In many other cases however we have been able to trace back a Singers heritage right to the zoo that set them free back in the early 90's. Portions of the above history were graciously provided by Alice Bixler who has been a professional dog writer since the 1970's and has researched NGSD history. She also judges for the AKC, CKC, ARBA, Canine Rarities, and IABCA. She breeds and exhibits Bearded Collies, Briards and Löwchen's. Is a New Guinea Singing Dog the right dog for me? So, you have read the history, watched the videos, listened to the audio, and looked at the cute photos and you think that it would be neat to own a Singer. The following guide has been written to help you make you better understand what life with a Singer will be like. Part of the NGSDI's committment to the breed is to do everything possible to assure that each placement goes smoothly and that both the Singer and it's owner live happily ever after together. Many Singer owners have compared them to owning other primitive breeds such as the Basenji or the Shiba Inu. Life with a Singer goes a bit further however. Although there are exceptions to the rule, most Singers have strong instincts to hunt for prey and to travel great distances in search of prey. They have a strong desire to be free and so most will do everything possible to attain their freedom. Most Singer owners label them as "escape artists". Singers have not been selectively bred to look and act a certain way. You will not likely be training your Singer to fetch your slippers or even a ball in the yard. Singers are rarely interested in entertaining you. Their thought process is different from pretty much any dog you have ever owned. An owner will at best get a mutual respect from his or her Singer with all bets being off when something triggers their instincts to take over. Owners who
have tried to instill a regimented life for their Singers have met with
negative results. Yelling or screaming at a singer will either render
it shy and submissive or have it overcome it's natural fear of adult humans.
If this happens life for both owner and Singer become miserable.
What
is a New Guinea Singing dog? Negative
attributes of the species? What
is their average life span? How
well do they interact with people? How
easily do they train? What
type of housing do they need? What
do you feed them? How
do they interact with other household animals? How
destructive are they for an average household (gnawing, climbing, etc.)? Are
there any problems associated with their nails? How
messy are their dropping and can they be litter trained? At
what age would it be best to get one? What
personal traits should someone keeping them have? Other
consideration for owners of them? |
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