Australian
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This clip shows Australia’s first legal dingo puppies being taken to the puppy yard at Bruce Jacobs’s 'Dingo Farm’. It shows the puppies in the yard playing together and suckling from a female dingo. The narrator presents a positive view of dingoes as a domestic breed of dog and challenges perceptions that the dingo is a threat to livestock or that it should be classified as vermin.

Educational value points

• Dingoes are found throughout mainland Australia as well as in remaining natural forest in South-East Asia. They were probably introduced to Australia by Austronesian traders between 3,500 and 4,000 years ago and spread rapidly throughout mainland Australia. In mid-1993 the dingo was recognised by the Australian National Kennel Council as an official dog breed and adopted as Australia’s national breed.

• Indigenous Australian peoples had a positive relationship with the dingo and adopted the animal as a companion to help with hunting. The name 'dingo’ comes from the language of the Eora, an Indigenous group who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.

• The clip shows some of the physical characteristics of the dingo. The colour of dingoes varies. The coat is usually ginger, but can be reddish, sandy yellow, white or black, depending on the surrounding habitat. Unlike domestic dogs, dingoes breed only once a year, howl but are unable to bark and have permanently erect ears. They have a distinctive skull with a domed head, a narrow muzzle and larger canine teeth than those of domestic dogs. While dingoes usually travel in pairs or small family groups, they are capable of forming larger packs to hunt cooperatively.

• Bruce Jacobs, also known as 'Dingo Man’ features in the clip. Jacobs devoted his life to preserving the bloodline of the Australian dingo from extinction. He established a sanctuary for dingoes at Chewton in central Victoria, where he bred dingoes for domestic sale. He struggled to maintain the sanctuary and due to the significant costs involved was bankrupt when he died in 2004. The sanctuary, 'Dingo Farm’, was sold after Jacobs’s death.

• The 'Dingo Farm’, which is surrounded by a national park, has played a critical role in preserving the bloodline of dingoes. The dingo has become endangered as a result of interbreeding with other wild dogs, being shot or poisoned by pastoralists, and the rapid destruction of its natural habitat. Nevertheless, it continues to be considered a pest by most government authorities, rather than an endangered breed.

• In the 1880s a 'dingo fence’ was built to keep dingoes out of the south-eastern part of Australia. The fence stretches 8,500 km from Jimbour in south-east Queensland to the Great Australian Bight in south-western South Australia.

• The clip describes the dingo as 'man’s best friend’ and promotes a one-sided view of the animal. Since the establishment and growth of the sheep industry in the 19th century, dingoes have been considered a threat to livestock. Dingoes were also portrayed negatively in the late 20th century as the result of the highly publicised Azaria Chamberlain case, in which a baby disappeared in 1980 at Uluru in the Northern Territory. Other cases include dingo attacks on Fraser Island in Queensland (2001) and the fatal mauling of a toddler in Melbourne (2005).

• The clip presents a positive view of the dingo’s suitability as a domestic breed of dog. Australian states have different regulations for keeping dingoes as domestic pets. Most require owners to have a permit, but in Queensland and south of the dingo fence in South Australia, it is illegal to keep dingoes as pets. Although dingoes can be successfully bred and kept domestically, there is public concern about whether this is safe.

This clip starts approximately 44 minutes into the documentary.

We see Bruce Jacobs carrying dingo puppies out to the yard of the Dingo Farm.
Narrator At Bruce Jacobs’s Dingo Farm, Australia’s first legal dingo puppies are taken to the puppy yard. They represent the result of a 27-year campaign to change perceptions of the dingo, perpetrated by the pastoralists.

Charming vision of dingoes playing, exploring and drinking.
Narrator Times have changed. Dingoes are now accepted and appreciated as a breed, and not as vermin. Most of the pups here will go as pets to homes throughout Victoria by the time they’re six weeks old. Any older, and they may be difficult to bond to the new owner. This is the true nature of the dingo.

A female dingo jumps the fence into the puppy yard to feed the puppies that swarm around her.
Narrator When the litters mix in the puppy yard, the mothers instinctively form a roster system to feed the pups. So, thanks to Bruce Jacobs and his friends, at last the dingo is returning to its ancient role as man’s best friend – the original.