Today is my doggos' birthday. They are 3 years old.
Way back in October 2015 these darling little bundles joined our family and life has most definitely never been the same. Such innocence, such cuteness, much mayhem ....... Here's a link to their very own Instagram.
Along the way they have grown ... and so has the height of my backyard fence. Thor and Loki are mostly dingo. Their mum is dingo and their dad is dingo-kelpie cross. They are litter brothers and yes Thor is the blonde one and Loki is the black one. My husband chose Thor, I chose Loki. In retrospect I would warn against choosing a black dog simply because he is so jolly hard to see at night and the number of times I have fallen over him continues to grow.
Thor is the reason I have an 8 foot backyard fence. Dingoes can climb. Dogs can jump & many dogs can jump quite high and are very athletic in this regard. Dingoes can also climb. They can bear their own weight on their fore-paws and pull themselves up. It's uncanny. Thor can do this. He has done this so many times that my fence is now a patchwork of tin sheeting & multiple layers of mesh. Loki doesn't do this. He likes his food and has generally preferred not getting out to getting out. Mind you, every time that his brother gets out the first I usually know of it is Loki carrying on a treat because he's on one side of the fence and Thor is on the other. They love to run and chase kangaroos.
Both dogs have been a huge learning curve for my family. They are dingoes. They are not dogs. They do not behave like dogs. They will sit on command (because there's often a treat involved) and will come when called (even if they're chasing something but only if I crouch down). But don't be fooled. They are large dogs. Dingoes are deceptively viewed as being medium sized animals. Not these guys. Loki especially packs a bit of size and weight.
Recently my eldest son brought a new puppy home. A rather pretty border collie named Ollie.
When it came to introducing Ollie to Thor & Loki we decided early on that he could not be left alone with them until he was a lot bigger. Their favourite game is attack-kill-maim and they rarely let anything that gets into their yard survive to get out again. The red-bellied black snakes I can handle though the shock of seeing headless corpses still gives me pause, but the birds that Loki kills are something I work with him every day on (ie, don't do it, killing birds is bad). Prior to Ollie's arrival the dogs had recently killed a juvenile possum that had ventured into the yard and given that Ollie was roughly the same size and pretty much the same colour...... we decided that small doses and separate yards was the way to go.
Now that he's bigger he can share the yard with them & we can leave them alone all day without fear of dead puppy. Ollie is a ball dog. Loki is a water dog. Thor is a chase-all-the-kangaroos dog. Thor wants all the pats & Loki wants all the treats. Ollie just wants you to throw the damn ball again, and again, and again, and again. Today is the first day he has actively sought hugs and pats and attention from me and happily climbed into my lap. Ollie loves anyone who will throw the ball for him but especially loves my son who still collects Ollie every night after work & lets him sleep in his room with him. Thor and Loki are very social animals in terms of those they consider part of their pack. They're not great with other dogs straight away but whenever any family member arrives home the dogs immediately demand attention, to such an extent that we jokingly ask "have you begged forgiveness from the puppies yet?" Because you must.
In three years Thor and Loki have taught us to rethink what we knew from our previous dogs (Pepper & Spook were white English Staffordshire Bull Terriers; and Gunji was a blue cattle dog). They have shed a small light on what it means to have dingoes in your family and to be part of a dingo pack. Their capacity to run and run and run and run is incredible. And while I have an 8 foot fence so that I can rest easy from the worry of Thor getting out and running onto the road (we live on a 100 km/hr stretch of country back road) each walk into the bush with them is an experience I am grateful for having.
Happy birthday boys!
PS: I realised I didn't mention cats ... my daughter has kitten named Kharjo. recently she visited with said kitty and while we stayed on the inside we made sure the doggos stayed on the outside. They coped.
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