A dingo–dog hybrid is a hybrid cross between a dingo and a domestic dog. The current population of free ranging domestic dogs in Australia is probably higher than in the past. However, the proportion of the so-called "pure" dingoes (dogs with exclusively dingo-ancestry) has been on the decrease over the last few decades due to hybridisation and is regarded as further decreasing.
Because of this ongoing interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs and the resulting hybrids, there is a much wider range of colours and body shapes today among the Australian wild dog population than in the time before the human introduction of domestic dogs. The full extent of the effects of this process is currently unknown and the possibility of potential problems, as well as the wish to preserve the "pure" dingo, often leads to a strong rejection of the interbreeding.
In 2023, a study of 402 wild and captive dingoes using 195,000 points across the dingo genome indicates that past studies of hybridisation were over-estimated and that pure dingoes are more common than they were originally thought to be.
In 2021, DNA testing of over 5,000 wild-living canines from across Australia found that 31 were feral domestic dogs and 27 were first generation hybrids. This finding challenges the perception that dingoes are nearly extinct and have been replaced by feral domestic dogs.
Causes
Dingoes arrived in Australia together with seafarers four millennia ago, and reverted to the wild there. The dingo has been proven to have existed on the continent for at least 3,500 years, which was confirmed by archaeological as well as genetic examinations and findings. Additionally, it was suspected that there was later no significant introduction of other domestic dogs before the arrival of the Europeans.
European domestic dogs arrived in Australia in the 18th century, during the European colonization. Since then, some of those dogs dispersed into the wild (both deliberately and accidentally) and founded feral populations, especially in places where the dingo numbers had been severely reduced due to human intervention. Although there are few records of such releases, their occurrence is supported by reports of free-living dogs of specific breeds being seen or captured in remote areas. The spread of farming and grazing activities in the 19th century led to a further spread of other domestic dogs, both pet and feral ones. Interbreeding with the native dingoes has probably been occurring since the arrival of domestic dogs in the year 1788.
Forms
Dingoes and domestic dogs interbreed freely with each other and therefore the term "wild dog" is often used for describing all dingoes, dingo-hybrids and other feral domestic dogs, because the borders between the three are unclear.
Interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs is not necessarily unintended and dingoes have been used for the breeding of certain dog breeds. These breeding attempts started in the 19th century. The only attempt to date that was regarded as successful was the breeding of the Australian Cattle Dog. It is possible that the Australian Kelpie is descended from dingoes too; however, that has not been proven.
Occasionally claims are made that interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs together with successful rearing of hybrids is a rare phenomenon in the wild due to supposedly radical differences in behaviour and biology and the harshness of the wilderness. However, cases of dogs that came from human households but nonetheless manage to survive on their own (even by active hunting) and to successfully rear pups have been consistently proven. German behaviourist Eberhard Trumler (regarded as a Nestor of cynology in the German speaking world) believed that cross-breeds of dingoes and shepherd dogs might have good chances of surviving in the wild. In addition Alfred Brehm already reported of interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs of both sexes. There are even reports of dingo-like wild dogs mating with restrained female domestic dogs.