New Guinea Singing Dogs

Mildred Landreth was more than a bit reluctant when she agreed to foster two rescued New Guinea singing dogs (NGSD). 

The extremely rare dogs had been rescued from a puppy mill along with four basenjis. Landreth had been involved for years with basenjis, the barkless breed that originated in Africa, and was an active supporter of their rescue efforts.

She wasn't sure when basenji rescue asked to her take on the singers.

"I was real nervous about taking them because everything I had read indicated they were extreme predators. I thought 'Oh no, what have I gotten myself into?' but I couldn't have been more wrong. They are the sweetest things we have ever been around. 

 

"I have been involved with rescuing dogs and working with dogs for more than 20 years, and I have never experienced anything like this," Landreth said.

Ancient Past, Uncertain Future

Estimates suggest there are only 100 to 200 New Guinea singing dogs in captivity. The ancient breed still runs wild in the mountains of New Guinea, a remote island off the coast of Australia. They hunt down small game and have been known to scale a tree in pursuit of prey.

Stone Age relics show depictions of dogs looking similar to them, and they remain largely unchanged from those fossil records.

"They have been so isolated on New Guinea that there has been little change; they are totally natural without man's intervention," said Landreth, a long-time dog fancier and humane society worker in Brevard, North Carolina.
The outside world discovered the NGSD in 1957 when the first pair was brought down from the New Guinea highlands and taken to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Originally declared a unique species, they were grouped in 1969 with the Australian dingo as a feral wild sub- species of the domestic dog. Because breeding has subsequently declined. 

No one knows how many singers are still living in the wild. Rampant interbreeding, destruction of habitat and an influx of domestic dogs which are breeding with the singers, threaten their lives in New Guinea. 

As a result, the future of the compact little red dogs is uncertain.

Landreth and her husband, Lee Roy Landreth, now have five singers, including two puppies. They have become devoted advocates of preserving the breed and have convinced the Transylvania County Humane Society to take up the cause. "As a humane society, our goal is to limit the number of births of dogs and cats and stop the overpopulation, but we decided we would do something different with these dogs and devote ourselves to conservation - to saving this breed and keeping it from extinction," she said.

Landreth's local group follows the lead of a national organization, the New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society. The society has members around the world devoted to keeping the breed around forever. 

The group's founder, Janice Koler-Matznick of Central Point, Oregon, discovered singers nine years ago while researching the origin of dogs as a graduate student at California State University. She read about the breed in the Atlas of Dog Breeds and wrote to the book's authors to find more information. They referred her to Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin Jr., senior ecologist at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Brisbin has been researching singers for years. Brisbin placed three singers with Koler-Matznick, and the two have now joined forces on exploring the breed's origins and in promoting a responsible breeding program for singers.

They also work to place singers in proper homes. "It takes a year sorting through about 200 inquiries to find a handful of appropriate homes. Most of these homes have to be pet homes where the singer will be neutered/ spayed," Koler-Matznick said. "We often get asked why, if they are so endangered, we encourage people to neuter singers. Because of the small population size, if all puppies produced by one pair were used for breeding, their genes would quickly over-dominate, thus reducing the genetic diversity in the next generation. Also singers make much better pets if they are neutered/spayed." 

Conservation society members believe singers are a unique species, different from wolves, dingoes and domestic dogs, and they hope to convince others so the singer may be declared an endangered species and protected.

A Singing Sensation

The singer's name comes from their unique vocalization, which is different from that made by any wild or domestic dog. Research has shown the singer's larynx is constructed differently. Their call is a melodic yodeling similar to a wolf howl with overtones of whale song. When in a group, one animal starts and then others join on different pitches, each with its own unique voice.

"They truly sing with each other. One will start with the melody, and the rest will join in with the harmony," Landreth said. 

Other singer behaviors that differ from wolves or dogs include dropping their ears forward and down in submission rather than back. Their play invitation is a "stalking" posture rather than the wolf/dog play bow. They lower their entire bodies and aim an intent, staring gaze at their playmate. They also have an "open-mouth play bite" that has not been recorded for dogs or wolves, but is seen in coyotes. 

Singers do not appear to be pack animals, like dogs and wolves. Their carnassial tooth, the second lower molar, is larger, usually greater than 10 percent of the length of the skull. Their eyes are more light reflective than domestic dogs, shining bright green in low light. As with the dingo, females average one heat cycle a year, usually in late summer or fall, unlike most modern domestic breeds that average two cycles a year. 

The small dogs weigh about 20 to 30 pounds and stand from 13 to 18 inches high at the shoulder. They are born chocolate brown, but that color lightens to a red or sandy color as they mature. There are a few rare cases of black-and-tan singers. Breed members have prick ears and curled tails. They clean themselves like cats and have no doggy odor, Landreth said. Their life span can be as high as 15 to 20 years, and despite the small genetic pool, the breed has no known health problems.

Before you start to think they are the perfect breed, there are some things to consider before you adopt a singer. 

"They are escape artists. We have to keep covers over their kennels or they will climb right out. They are powerful climbers, and they can also squeeze through small spaces," Landreth said.

Singers should rarely be allowed to run loose. They are extremely fast and if they catch sight of a bird or squirrel they can disappear before you know it - and difficult to recapture once gone. Although they are sweet and submissive around people, singers retain their strong hunting instincts and are very predatory. Puppies who are brought up with smaller dogs and cats are usually fine, but older singers must be watched around small animals.

Some can be aggressive toward strange dogs, especially those of the same sex. They love people and bond strongly with their owners, but can be reserved around strangers. They need early socialization. Older rescued dogs that received little interaction with people can be difficult to socialize and place in homes. 

NGSDs are very intelligent and make entertaining companions, but they need lots of mental stimulation or they start finding their own ways to entertain themselves around your house. 

"My best analogy is they're like a cross between a cat and a monkey in a dog suit," Koler-Matznick said. One would think such a little known breed would not have the need for a rescue organization. Unfortunately that is very much not the case. The NGSD Conservation Society rescues many singers that exotic breeders have obtained and are breeding as wild animals for sale to other exotic breeders, zoos or even pet owners. Unscrupulous breeders do not screen buyers or give them the proper education about singers, and as a result, those people are often overwhelmed with their unique characteristics and abandon them.

"With rare exceptions, the private parties who get these undocumented singers cannot cope with them," Koler-Matznick said. "They do not put up adequate fencing and they let them run free - and get killed. Or they turn them over to animal control or humane societies. Because of their strong predatory instincts, most animal control agencies do not even try to place them. They just euthanize them."

All Landreth's singers came from rescue situations, including her two house pets, Blossom, 7 months, and Sausa, 6 months. The puppies and their mothers were removed from the home of a man who planned to put them in a mini-zoo. 

"Obtaining endangered species status for singers is of the utmost importance to protect them from abusive situations," Koler-Matznick said.

"Unfortunately, until singers are declared an endangered species and permits are required to keep them, there is nothing we can do about the irresponsible breeders, except try to find them, educate them and get them to cooperate."

Whom To Contact

New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society
Steve Robinson
5160 Hyde Way
Cumming, GA 30047
Gadingo@bellsouth.net
Web site: http://www.canineworld.com/NGSDCS/