Rare dog a tuneful howler

By Naoibh O'Connor-Staff writer

At first glance, Yoko Collier-Sanuki's pet "Keowee" blends in well with the dogs out for an evening walk at Kits beach. He scurries about, stopping every so often to sniff his surroundings and he's eager to meet humans and their canine companions.

It's only under the street lights that it's clear Keowee isn't quite like the other animals. His distinctive face is more fox-like than dog-like. He's small at 12 kilograms, his eyes glow bright green in low light and, according to Collier-Sanuki, he's impressively agile, able to clear a six-foot fence and climb a tree. She's even watched him catch a bird mid-air. Rather than bark, she adds, he howls. The sound has been compared to a wolf howl with overtones of whale song or a birdcall. When one dog starts up, the rest of its kind are known to join in on different pitches, each with its own unique voice.

Keowee is a New Guinea singing dog, a wild dog closely related to the Australian dingo, but so rare as a pet that there are only two in Canada and 200 domesticated worldwide, Collier-Sanuki said. The domesticated ones have been bred from four founders, yet have no known medical problems.

The breed was only discovered in 1957 when the first pair was brought from the New Guinea Highlands to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society calls the breed a "living fossil" on its web site. "It's estimated that the Singers have been isolated from all other canids in the Highlands for about 4,000 to 5,000 years, which would make them the oldest pure strain of dog," it says.

"It's described as a monkey and a cat in a dog's skin," says Collier-Sanuki, who had to apply through the society in North Carolina and go through a stringent screening process to adopt the animal. She also had to agree to neuter it. But the UBC professor, who teaches Japanese linguistics, wanted a challenge-the singing dogs are known to be difficult to train.

"You have to spend time with them-they won't listen unless they're really attached to you," Collier-Sanuki. "It was easier to train my cat than this dog."

Yet in the year since she and her husband Scott adopted Keowee, he was able to pass the Pets and Friends screening process, which allows him to visit seniors in hospitals.

Collier-Sanuki says few passersby guess her pet's origin.

"We have never met anyone who asked: 'Is this a New Guinea singing dog?'" she said.

Keowee eats regular dog food, supplemented by raw chicken-he likes the crunchy bones. And, Collier-Sanuki points out, the animal has a particular characteristic that other dogs owners would appreciate-no odour. "Because of their wild nature, they don't smell. In the wild, they needed to hide themselves."

The society wants to promote the dogs' conservation in both the wild and in captivity. Although in 1969, New Guinea singing dogs were grouped with the Australian dingo as a feral wild sub species of the domestic dog, the organization is working to have them declared a separate or sub species.