Wild Dogs/Dingoes

One of the issues we deal every week with is wild dogs/dingoes.

Whether it be stock losses on pastoral properties, or negative interactions with personnel on mine sites, APMS deal with them on a weekly basis.

We understand that just one problem dog can cause a huge amount of damage and loss of production on an agricultural enterprise.  Trapping dogs is just part of the solution. But getting the numbers by trapping doesn’t mean you are achieving efficient and effective wild dog control.  We don’t focus on numbers trapped, but look at numbers remaining and a reduction in your stock losses is used as our measure of success.  In other words, we will work at reducing your wild dog issue the most efficient means possible, rather than chasing the number of dogs we trap.

Trapping should be undertaken after baiting has occurred.  Baiting will reduce the numbers of dogs that need to be trapped.  Sure, if you just trap, you will get plenty of young dogs (and others) and up your trapping tally.  But it is inefficient compared to baiting. We can bait a hundred dogs in a day and what is left is the ones we need to trap.  Or we can trap a heap of dogs in a month that would have been taken by baits.  The problem is that even after 30 years, we still cannot convince people that having a dead dog in a trap is not a measure of success, having no wild dog issues with the minimum of time (and cost) is.  Trap the dogs you cannot bait.

When it comes to mine sites, we have a number of special issues.  One of the first to help is the  environmental specialist, who may have read a bit about dingoes/wild dogs on the internet and know enough to be able to know they have a problem that needs dealing with.  We deal with (on average) wild dogs who have attacked or threatened people at least 3-5 times per year.  Issues regarding mine safety are even more common, especially around April- June.  One of the issues often encountered is wild dogs chewing on detonator cords. This, along with attacks or threats of attack, should be treated urgently. With 15 years experience on dozens of sites we know what the issues are and how to best deal with them. Deciding to “bait’ rather than undertake our recommended control program of bait and trap is a decision often undertaken by those with little understanding of the need for “integrated control” for wild dogs.