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New Guinea
Singing Dogs
We have gladly joined the effort to help save a truly unique animal -
answered by flipping through the pages of the New Guinea Singing
Dog Conservation Society website, or by e-mailing some of the fine
folks who run this site. According to folks in the know, there are only
about 100 of these dogs living in captivity worldwide, and only a few
hundred still living in the wild. And, because of progress, singers are
finding their territory is disappearing. There will come a time they are
likely to become extinct in the wild.
Tina and I spent the better part of Thursday, June 8th helping Dr.
Brisbin run his booth at the Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy's
annual fundraiser on the banks of the Savannah River in Augusta,
showing off Lita to people curious about Carolina dogs. Lita, our
wild-caught Carolina dog, was a big hit, and after a shaky first ten or
fifteen minutes, she settled in and showed everybody what a beautiful,
very sweet girl she is. Dr. Brisbin and his lovely wife, Donna, couldn't
believe the behavioral transformation Lita's made over the last six
months since coming home with Tina and I.
For helping Dr. Brisbin, he and Donna allowed Tina and I to adopt one
of his singing dogs, Jingle. We met Jingle in January, the day we
picked up and brought home Lita.
The first thing that hits you when you see Jingle is, she looks like a
fox! Their sound probably most closely sounds like a coyote.
Please visit the NGSDCS webiste to learn more about these beautiful
little guys, where all your questions can find answers. Tina and I are
extremely new to singing dogs, and since they are SO different from
any other dog, we have to learn everything about them. This will open
a new chapter for us, and, as with the Carolina dog effort, will make us
even more "dog people" than we've ever been.
answered by flipping through the pages of the New Guinea Singing
Dog Conservation Society website, or by e-mailing some of the fine
folks who run this site. According to folks in the know, there are only
about 100 of these dogs living in captivity worldwide, and only a few
hundred still living in the wild. And, because of progress, singers are
finding their territory is disappearing. There will come a time they are
likely to become extinct in the wild.
Tina and I spent the better part of Thursday, June 8th helping Dr.
Brisbin run his booth at the Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy's
annual fundraiser on the banks of the Savannah River in Augusta,
showing off Lita to people curious about Carolina dogs. Lita, our
wild-caught Carolina dog, was a big hit, and after a shaky first ten or
fifteen minutes, she settled in and showed everybody what a beautiful,
very sweet girl she is. Dr. Brisbin and his lovely wife, Donna, couldn't
believe the behavioral transformation Lita's made over the last six
months since coming home with Tina and I.
For helping Dr. Brisbin, he and Donna allowed Tina and I to adopt one
of his singing dogs, Jingle. We met Jingle in January, the day we
picked up and brought home Lita.
The first thing that hits you when you see Jingle is, she looks like a
fox! Their sound probably most closely sounds like a coyote.
Please visit the NGSDCS webiste to learn more about these beautiful
little guys, where all your questions can find answers. Tina and I are
extremely new to singing dogs, and since they are SO different from
any other dog, we have to learn everything about them. This will open
a new chapter for us, and, as with the Carolina dog effort, will make us
even more "dog people" than we've ever been.
get her in the habit being comfortable using the restroom on a leash.
Jingle will need to learn this new way of life, because we have big
plans to show her off and take her lots of places. I'm sure she'll catch
on quickly, though, and although there may be a few rough spots, I
expect things will go fine. So far two of our neighbors have seen
Jingle, and, like we were when we first saw a singer, they're in love
with her. She is the sweetest thing....probably sweeter than our
greyhound, Butternut, and Butternut's tough to go up against!
June 11th: Jingle showed us today she's willing to give us a break!
She went out bright and early this morning and quickly did her
business on the leash. I took her for a walk up on the road, but she
doesn't seem nearly as happy about taking walks as Lita. But, you
know, when I first started taking Lita for a walk on the road, she was
scared to death! Now she's just a goofy, jolly ol' girl, just happy to be
going for a walk. Although, when a squirrel ran across the road just
ahead of Jingle and I, like a bolt of lightning, she took off. I'm glad that
wasn't one of our greyhounds! That might have pulled my shoulder out
of its socket! It's so neat to see people as they pass by in cars. You
can tell they're trying to figure out what she is. I spent the evening
building her a secure pen, one that she can be let off leash inside of. I
saw this little girl scampering up the walls of the run she was in at Dr.
Brisbin's place in January, so I know what she is capable of. It's funny,
but she has shown no interest in trying to get away from us...well,
except for wanting that squirrel really bad.
June 16th: Our greyhounds have now decided they fully accept Jingle
as a member of our family, and have given her her full rights of
citizenship. So Jingle is spending most of the time free in our house.
Now, singers are consummate escape artists, so we REALLY have to
be aware of where she is whenever a door is opened. Corky, bless
her heart, tries her best to play with Jingle, but Jingle either doesn't find
Corky amusing, or she's just not ready to play yet. She is patient, I'll
say that for her, because I'll spot Jingle with her entire head in Corky's
mouth, and she quietly puts up with it. Corky thinks its her job to
entertain everybody in the house.
June 20th: Jingle went to the vet today to be checked over and get
up-to-date on her shots. She wasn't extremely overjoyed to be there,
but she did fine once inside. It goes without saying that no one had
ever seen a singing dog, and if the truth be known, they'd probably
never heard of them, either. And, as usual, we had several people ask
if she was a fox! She weighed in at 21 pounds and is quite healthy.
She's a sweetheart, and is a pleasure to show off.
June 30th: Jingle is still very spooky. Although she enjoys coming up
to us to make contact with us, she still prefers keeping her distance.
We hope so much, since it's only been three weeks since she came to
live here, that she's still in her breaking in period. I know it took Lita
over two months to figure out that we are really the good guys. But,
boy, when she learned it, she learned it well. Hopefully Jingle will follow
that same path.
July 9th: Jingle has shown signs of wanting to play with a couple of our
other kids this past week. She seems to like Comet, and Comet
seems very intrigued by this little girl. I guess he and Willow are finally
glad to see us bring home someone smaller than they are. Tina and I
took Jingle and Lita for a walk on the road yesterday evening before
dark, and our neighbor, Ben, got to see Jingle for the first time. Well,
I"m off to the property to clearly mark where our home driveway is to
be. With a little care, this is going to be as pretty as the driveway to
the lodge.
July 24th: We are having a tough time connecting with Jingle. What
we originally thought would be easier than making friends with Lita,
has, in fact, turned out to be much more difficult. It probably has
everything to do with the fact that we isolated Lita in the beginning,
forcing her to ask for attention, whereas Jingle is living upstairs with
Tina and I and her seven brothers and sisters. She has the opportunity
to scurry to another room if she so desires, to escape having to deal
with us, which just makes it easier for her to decide to run the next
time. Our friend with the New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation
Society has suggested that we put her on a leash and keep her with
us, even in the house, all the time until we break this fear/avoidance
response that keeps her ducking us. Having never been well
socialized before coming to us is making it tough for her to change.
Just a bump in the road, though, and we'll get this solved like we do all
the other sticking points that come along.
Aug. 31st: Dr. Brisbin mailed us a package last week containing a
large, sort of scary looking, shot needle. It had instructions saying it
was an ID chip to be implanted in Jingle. Tina made an appointment
with the folks at Douglas Oaks Animal Hospital to do the honors. It
was a Home Again brand ID chip, and Douglas Oaks has a chip
reader for that type chip. We took Jingle for her appointment this
morning, stopping at the property to check on the progress taking
place at our home site. Once at Douglas Oaks, they took us back after
as short wait and implanted the chip. Jingle took it without flinching. It
goes without saying this was their first time seeing a New Guinea
Singing Dog, and for some there, their first time hearing of one. One
thing you can always count on hearing from people when they see her
is that she is so beautiful; she certainly is.
Sept. 10th: Jingle continues to make very slow improvements, some
days better than others. She has found a friend in our new stray, Pete,
who we took in a few weeks ago. I don't know if it's because Pete is
more her size than any of our other dogs, or if it's because he's an
intact male (not for long!), and she sees him as a possible mate. Who
knows, but bringing him in has helped her come alive for the first time
since we got her from Dr. Brisbin back in early June. And learning to
enjoy herself some, she's loosened up a little around Tina and I. She is
still very wary of us, but seems to trust us more than before Pete. But
one thing's for sure, she really enjoys her daily walk. In fact, she won't
let you forGET her daily walk! You learn very quickly why they're called
singing dogs, because she will howl and yodel until you give and take
her out on the road. We walk about a half mile, then I put her in the
house and take Lita our for a mile or so walk. I have traditionally done
the dishes after supper, but Jingle has decided as soon as we finish
supper is when SHE wants to go for her walk. And since we're trying
our best to make a connection with her and to keep her happy, as
much as I hate not doing the dishes (sarcasm inserted here), I obey
her wishes and we got for a walk. Once on the road, she's a different
dog. She goes from overly cautious to one happy little girl. You can
see the smile on her face as she trots along. In the last two or three
weeks, Tina and I have seen a ray of hope that she will eventually be a
happy dog here. It's so strange that we haven't been able to figure her
out. But singers are SO different, it becomes very clear they truly are
wild dogs. But I have learned by talking with other members of the
New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society, that if they are taken
as a young puppy to be raised closely with people, they are quite able
to learn the ways of living with humans. I hope we have the chance to
have a puppy one day.
Nov. 14th: Jingle is doing very well, but the wild beast inside her still
won't let her trust us fully. She has learned to sing with Tina come
mealtime, though. It's hilarious, y'all! Jingle has turned into a pig of a
singing dog, and carries on, matching Tina's calls to her, while we're
fixing their meals. For the first two or three months, she had so much
fear in her, she didn't let much of her personality show. Now, though,
she is relaxing enough to show us she is quite a comical little girl. Still
much work to do! We're not looking forward to having to move her into
a new house within the next few weeks. It will be upsetting enough for
our "normal" kids (dogs), but Jingle, being so insecure, will really have
a tough time adjusting. It may even cause Lita some trouble, because,
as big a goof as she has become, still, her root, wild inner-being, won't
allow her to completely relax. We will take whatever measures we can
think of to help them make the move as stress-free as possible.
Dec. 29th: Lita is still doing well, and seems to get funnier every day.
I'm telling you, living in a home where humor is king, they will show their
funny side before too long. We are nearly finished building our new
home, as well as being near finishing the pet lodge, and we're very
interested/concerned how well Lita and Jingle will take to the huge
change in their lives. From our point of view things should only get
better for Lita, because up to this point, she's only had a small pen to
run loose in without being on a leash. Although I do believe she
couldn't be chased off with a stick, since she came from the wild, so I
wouldn't doubt that she might take an opportunity to wonder around
some. But the new place, built with dogs in mind, will have a very
large, very secure fenced yard. Not secure enough for Jingle, but Lita
will do fine. Her having seen a lot of new people and a lot of new
experiences since coming to our home almost a year ago, she should
bounce back quickly. Now, Jingle, she's a whole different deal.
Though making good progress over the past few weeks, still, to say
she's leery is putting it mildly. At times she seems to want to be
friends, then a few minutes later, she's back to being scared to death
of us. I've never seen anything like her. But, we'll do what we need to
do to make their move into a new home and new life go as smoothly
as we possibly can.
It's funny, but as I was typing this, I heard Jingle playing in the den. I
snuck up the hallway to find her either playing with Corky or by herself, I
couldn't tell which. She saw me, started wagging her tail and got a
very impish look on her face. I asked her if she wanted to go outside,
and with a happy look on her face, she ran to the front door, tail
wagging away. I took her out, she did her business, I gave her a treat
and made a big fuss, then came back in. Sometimes I get the feeling
we're about to make a huge breakthrough with Jingle. Then other
times.....not so much.
Since this was as much about Lita as Jingle, I copied it to both LIta's
and Jingle's page.
Feb 25th: We've been in our new house for two weeks as of today.
We were so worried how Lita and Jingle would take moving to a
completely new home, kind of figuring that our "normal" kids would just
be happy wherever their food bowl is. We still can't get over how well
both of them are doing here! Especially Jingle, the one we were
worried about the most! In fact, she seems happier here than she did
in our old house. She seems to be more comfortable here, choosing
to lay smack in the middle of the pack while we're all watching TV in
the evening. Lita is doing great, too, and hasn't seemed to notice the
change. I don't know, I wonder if it has anything to do with how much
sunlight there is in this house. Our old house was kind of dark inside,
but this new one is all windows, and is quite sunny indoors. It's not only
Jingle's mood, but she just seems more accepting of us and even
goes so far as to seem more loving. She's jumping up on our legs
when she wants a treat, something she never would have done in the
other house.
Jingle will need to learn this new way of life, because we have big
plans to show her off and take her lots of places. I'm sure she'll catch
on quickly, though, and although there may be a few rough spots, I
expect things will go fine. So far two of our neighbors have seen
Jingle, and, like we were when we first saw a singer, they're in love
with her. She is the sweetest thing....probably sweeter than our
greyhound, Butternut, and Butternut's tough to go up against!
June 11th: Jingle showed us today she's willing to give us a break!
She went out bright and early this morning and quickly did her
business on the leash. I took her for a walk up on the road, but she
doesn't seem nearly as happy about taking walks as Lita. But, you
know, when I first started taking Lita for a walk on the road, she was
scared to death! Now she's just a goofy, jolly ol' girl, just happy to be
going for a walk. Although, when a squirrel ran across the road just
ahead of Jingle and I, like a bolt of lightning, she took off. I'm glad that
wasn't one of our greyhounds! That might have pulled my shoulder out
of its socket! It's so neat to see people as they pass by in cars. You
can tell they're trying to figure out what she is. I spent the evening
building her a secure pen, one that she can be let off leash inside of. I
saw this little girl scampering up the walls of the run she was in at Dr.
Brisbin's place in January, so I know what she is capable of. It's funny,
but she has shown no interest in trying to get away from us...well,
except for wanting that squirrel really bad.
June 16th: Our greyhounds have now decided they fully accept Jingle
as a member of our family, and have given her her full rights of
citizenship. So Jingle is spending most of the time free in our house.
Now, singers are consummate escape artists, so we REALLY have to
be aware of where she is whenever a door is opened. Corky, bless
her heart, tries her best to play with Jingle, but Jingle either doesn't find
Corky amusing, or she's just not ready to play yet. She is patient, I'll
say that for her, because I'll spot Jingle with her entire head in Corky's
mouth, and she quietly puts up with it. Corky thinks its her job to
entertain everybody in the house.
June 20th: Jingle went to the vet today to be checked over and get
up-to-date on her shots. She wasn't extremely overjoyed to be there,
but she did fine once inside. It goes without saying that no one had
ever seen a singing dog, and if the truth be known, they'd probably
never heard of them, either. And, as usual, we had several people ask
if she was a fox! She weighed in at 21 pounds and is quite healthy.
She's a sweetheart, and is a pleasure to show off.
June 30th: Jingle is still very spooky. Although she enjoys coming up
to us to make contact with us, she still prefers keeping her distance.
We hope so much, since it's only been three weeks since she came to
live here, that she's still in her breaking in period. I know it took Lita
over two months to figure out that we are really the good guys. But,
boy, when she learned it, she learned it well. Hopefully Jingle will follow
that same path.
July 9th: Jingle has shown signs of wanting to play with a couple of our
other kids this past week. She seems to like Comet, and Comet
seems very intrigued by this little girl. I guess he and Willow are finally
glad to see us bring home someone smaller than they are. Tina and I
took Jingle and Lita for a walk on the road yesterday evening before
dark, and our neighbor, Ben, got to see Jingle for the first time. Well,
I"m off to the property to clearly mark where our home driveway is to
be. With a little care, this is going to be as pretty as the driveway to
the lodge.
July 24th: We are having a tough time connecting with Jingle. What
we originally thought would be easier than making friends with Lita,
has, in fact, turned out to be much more difficult. It probably has
everything to do with the fact that we isolated Lita in the beginning,
forcing her to ask for attention, whereas Jingle is living upstairs with
Tina and I and her seven brothers and sisters. She has the opportunity
to scurry to another room if she so desires, to escape having to deal
with us, which just makes it easier for her to decide to run the next
time. Our friend with the New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation
Society has suggested that we put her on a leash and keep her with
us, even in the house, all the time until we break this fear/avoidance
response that keeps her ducking us. Having never been well
socialized before coming to us is making it tough for her to change.
Just a bump in the road, though, and we'll get this solved like we do all
the other sticking points that come along.
Aug. 31st: Dr. Brisbin mailed us a package last week containing a
large, sort of scary looking, shot needle. It had instructions saying it
was an ID chip to be implanted in Jingle. Tina made an appointment
with the folks at Douglas Oaks Animal Hospital to do the honors. It
was a Home Again brand ID chip, and Douglas Oaks has a chip
reader for that type chip. We took Jingle for her appointment this
morning, stopping at the property to check on the progress taking
place at our home site. Once at Douglas Oaks, they took us back after
as short wait and implanted the chip. Jingle took it without flinching. It
goes without saying this was their first time seeing a New Guinea
Singing Dog, and for some there, their first time hearing of one. One
thing you can always count on hearing from people when they see her
is that she is so beautiful; she certainly is.
Sept. 10th: Jingle continues to make very slow improvements, some
days better than others. She has found a friend in our new stray, Pete,
who we took in a few weeks ago. I don't know if it's because Pete is
more her size than any of our other dogs, or if it's because he's an
intact male (not for long!), and she sees him as a possible mate. Who
knows, but bringing him in has helped her come alive for the first time
since we got her from Dr. Brisbin back in early June. And learning to
enjoy herself some, she's loosened up a little around Tina and I. She is
still very wary of us, but seems to trust us more than before Pete. But
one thing's for sure, she really enjoys her daily walk. In fact, she won't
let you forGET her daily walk! You learn very quickly why they're called
singing dogs, because she will howl and yodel until you give and take
her out on the road. We walk about a half mile, then I put her in the
house and take Lita our for a mile or so walk. I have traditionally done
the dishes after supper, but Jingle has decided as soon as we finish
supper is when SHE wants to go for her walk. And since we're trying
our best to make a connection with her and to keep her happy, as
much as I hate not doing the dishes (sarcasm inserted here), I obey
her wishes and we got for a walk. Once on the road, she's a different
dog. She goes from overly cautious to one happy little girl. You can
see the smile on her face as she trots along. In the last two or three
weeks, Tina and I have seen a ray of hope that she will eventually be a
happy dog here. It's so strange that we haven't been able to figure her
out. But singers are SO different, it becomes very clear they truly are
wild dogs. But I have learned by talking with other members of the
New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society, that if they are taken
as a young puppy to be raised closely with people, they are quite able
to learn the ways of living with humans. I hope we have the chance to
have a puppy one day.
Nov. 14th: Jingle is doing very well, but the wild beast inside her still
won't let her trust us fully. She has learned to sing with Tina come
mealtime, though. It's hilarious, y'all! Jingle has turned into a pig of a
singing dog, and carries on, matching Tina's calls to her, while we're
fixing their meals. For the first two or three months, she had so much
fear in her, she didn't let much of her personality show. Now, though,
she is relaxing enough to show us she is quite a comical little girl. Still
much work to do! We're not looking forward to having to move her into
a new house within the next few weeks. It will be upsetting enough for
our "normal" kids (dogs), but Jingle, being so insecure, will really have
a tough time adjusting. It may even cause Lita some trouble, because,
as big a goof as she has become, still, her root, wild inner-being, won't
allow her to completely relax. We will take whatever measures we can
think of to help them make the move as stress-free as possible.
Dec. 29th: Lita is still doing well, and seems to get funnier every day.
I'm telling you, living in a home where humor is king, they will show their
funny side before too long. We are nearly finished building our new
home, as well as being near finishing the pet lodge, and we're very
interested/concerned how well Lita and Jingle will take to the huge
change in their lives. From our point of view things should only get
better for Lita, because up to this point, she's only had a small pen to
run loose in without being on a leash. Although I do believe she
couldn't be chased off with a stick, since she came from the wild, so I
wouldn't doubt that she might take an opportunity to wonder around
some. But the new place, built with dogs in mind, will have a very
large, very secure fenced yard. Not secure enough for Jingle, but Lita
will do fine. Her having seen a lot of new people and a lot of new
experiences since coming to our home almost a year ago, she should
bounce back quickly. Now, Jingle, she's a whole different deal.
Though making good progress over the past few weeks, still, to say
she's leery is putting it mildly. At times she seems to want to be
friends, then a few minutes later, she's back to being scared to death
of us. I've never seen anything like her. But, we'll do what we need to
do to make their move into a new home and new life go as smoothly
as we possibly can.
It's funny, but as I was typing this, I heard Jingle playing in the den. I
snuck up the hallway to find her either playing with Corky or by herself, I
couldn't tell which. She saw me, started wagging her tail and got a
very impish look on her face. I asked her if she wanted to go outside,
and with a happy look on her face, she ran to the front door, tail
wagging away. I took her out, she did her business, I gave her a treat
and made a big fuss, then came back in. Sometimes I get the feeling
we're about to make a huge breakthrough with Jingle. Then other
times.....not so much.
Since this was as much about Lita as Jingle, I copied it to both LIta's
and Jingle's page.
Feb 25th: We've been in our new house for two weeks as of today.
We were so worried how Lita and Jingle would take moving to a
completely new home, kind of figuring that our "normal" kids would just
be happy wherever their food bowl is. We still can't get over how well
both of them are doing here! Especially Jingle, the one we were
worried about the most! In fact, she seems happier here than she did
in our old house. She seems to be more comfortable here, choosing
to lay smack in the middle of the pack while we're all watching TV in
the evening. Lita is doing great, too, and hasn't seemed to notice the
change. I don't know, I wonder if it has anything to do with how much
sunlight there is in this house. Our old house was kind of dark inside,
but this new one is all windows, and is quite sunny indoors. It's not only
Jingle's mood, but she just seems more accepting of us and even
goes so far as to seem more loving. She's jumping up on our legs
when she wants a treat, something she never would have done in the
other house.