They look so friendly

Hot take (I'll accept my downward facing arrows, thank you), but people regularly vastly overestimate the safety and docility of "regular" dogs too
- You're absolutely correct. Any dog over about 10kg has the power to cause serious injury, especially to a child or other dog/pet. Greyhounds have a horrendous prey drive and will eat your cat in 2 seconds flat
  
  I tried to rehabilitate a dangerous dog and failed and now find myself with another one (thankfully MUCH less prone to biting). "regular" dogs are one abusive/neglectful adolescence away from being unsafe
- Humans too
- That has more to do with owners than breeding.
  
  Both, for sure.
  
  With the notable exception of pitbulls.

If they don't kill you, they may steal your baby.
- And the media and courts will ruin the next 20 years of your life as we harass you over your dead baby.
  Meanwhile dipshits on the Internet laugh about your dead baby 30 years later.
  
  Have you ever considered people make the joke because of Seinfeld and no inherent knowledge of the actual situation that took place in Australia?
  
  40 years :( sorry
  
  Alright then, let's extrapolate, 40 years?
  
  I see it as the same as the saying "If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, goodnight" when referring to what to do when around bears. Yes it is comedic and yes it is referring to being mauled to death by a polar bear. Sure there's an argument to be made about being insensitive to the victims of polar bear maulings but that's not the purpose of the statement. "dingo ate my baby" is pretty clear cut on the meaning. Don't leave your baby alone where it can be eaten by a dingo, some people will find that funny because it kind of is ridiculous and horrific that this actually happened.
- And then you’re vilified only to be proven right. What a horrific thing that poor family went through
- You know that's a true story, right?
  Lady lost a kid.
  Tropic Thunder may have taught me that, but I'll never not picture RDJ disguised as a dude playing another dude when I hear it.
  
  What do you mean you people?

This is actually something being debated in Australia. Until a few years ago, Dingoes were considered the same species as the regular dog Canis familiaris. Recent DNA studies have shown them to be distinct, however. So now there's Canis dingo. Only, Dingoes can interbreed with the regular dog, which normally is the test for them being the same species. Maybe that makes them a subspecies?
So, yeah - even we don't know what they are. If they were raised by humans, they are happy friendly doggos. If in the wild, then they're dingoes.
- It depends if their progeny can reproduce. A male donkey and a female horse can make a mule but mules are sterile.
  
  Not that simple. Brown bears and polar bears produce fertile offspring, as do bison and cattle, and the false killer whale with a bottlenose dolphin. (Far from an exhaustive list)
  It's generally a useful definition but it isn't a "rule".
  
  Blue heelers are half dingo I believe.
- Canis Lupus and Canis Latrans also can and do breed with Canis Familiaris. The ability to interbreed is one test for being the same species but not the only test. Libraries worth of books are out there on the subject and there are lively debate as to where animals fit in the taxonomy.
  
  Canis familiaris is a subspecies of C. lupus as of 2005. There is a push to distinguish it as a distinct species but that is not the current consensus.
  "Testing" for speciation is pretty silly, tbh, because it's an arbitrary distinction no matter what. Our placement of rigid definitions onto the constant gradual process of evolution is always going to have edge cases and outliers. So we give things useful labels and move on until we have better tools (DNA analysis has been great) or have need of better definitions.
  Does dogs being wolves do anything for the general public? No, but that's what common names are for. Does the distinction of Canis lupus familiaris help scientists right now? Probably. If not there'd be a stronger push to change it.
- I didn't know 1957 was only a few years ago
  
  In the scale of human lives, no. In the scale of human history, yeah. In the scale of planetary or universal history... it was a few seconds ago.
- So Australia just had evil stray dogs that adapted to the extreme Australian environment like every other evil thing in Australia, meanwhile in Russia you got stray dogs riding public transportation and learning to scavenge and beg. It's all the environment.
  
  You're a dumb cunt.
- Wolves are also nice doggos when raised by humans.

B...but...if not friends why friendshaped??????

Don't go to Tasmania either.
Look at this cute guy!
I want to hold him and pet him and love him and- OH FUCK!
- That thing looks like a devil.
  
  And indeed that's what it is. Of the Tasmanian variety.
- Aww, he's yawning 😍
- incomprehensible noises and spitting intensify
- Would pet.
  
  And it would be the last time you would pet anything with that arm again.
- Yeah ngl that thing looks ugly as hell
- 🤣 Nothing about either picture of that looks cute. It looks like a monster rat.
  
  And you haven’t even seen them in action https://youtu.be/H9IK-HEdaXg?t=761

Do you pet random dogs on the street? No? Then you won't have any problems with Dingoes. Drop Bears on the other hand...
- There are countries where all dogs have owners (mostly on the other side of the leash) and you are always supposed to ask the owners before you pet them.
  And then there are countries blessed with really cute street dogs that tend to turn tummy up when you're passing them. You're supposed to pet those randomly.
  
  And which do you think Australia is?
  
  Communal care of stray dogs. Everybody is supposed to feed and pet them, and usually they crash at any random place.
  
  My country was the type with packs of street dogs that you had to keep your distance from and that you saw on the news from time to time for mauling another passerby
- Fuck. A drop bear killed my uncle. Horrible creatures.
  
  That's sad, but it's kinda his fault if he wasn't carrying an umbrella 🤷
  
  This reminds me, I was once walking into a Melbourne Metro station, and the Aussie mate I was with had been spinning me some web of shit for a while, I finally lost it and loudly announced "LOOK, mate, I'm not gonna believe any of the SHIT that comes out of YOUR MOUTH ever since you tried to sell me on FUCKIN HOOP SNAKES" and a random commuter woman in earshot literally doubled over laughing.
  
  The drop bears are really getting out of hand. Fuck the Emu war, we need a drop bear war. Drop bears aren't a joke, millions of families suffer from drop bears every year.
  
  Even if they don't kill you, they give you chlamydia.
  
  Sorry for your loss.
- Yes? Mostly if they'll let me. You don't?
  
  One of my saddest days was waiting to cross a road and a car stopped Infront of me with it's passenger window open and a big Labrador hopped up and was face to face with me.
  I excitedly asked the owner if I could pet the dog, as it was literally delivered to my face and she said no like it was a weird request. Thats stuck with me for half a decade already.
- What? Of course I pet random dogs on the street. You don't?
  I mean, I ask first, if they're with a human.. if not, well...

Holy shit, that looks so much like my Shiba
- That's a content dog, right there.
  
  You might say that OP is a content creator

Any wild creature bigger than a rat is an animal you should be cautious of. I mean, I wouldn't pet a wild rat, either, but I'm also not afraid one will attack and kill me.
Wild dog packs roam lots of countries in south-east Asia. Don't fucking go near them. They will try to seperate you from other humans and take you down for a snack.
So weird though when you see, like, a golden retriever in their ranks. The urge to go pet them is too strong. I did a lot of catching myself walking towards them when I was in thailand.
- The first half of your comment was good and then it devolved into nonsense. Thai street dogs don't eat people, the amount of fucking rubbish strewn everywhere keeps them fed.
  Now will they bite you? Of course, it's a dog.
- Even a rat bite can have extremely nasty side effects
- Well there fleas give you plague so not petting them is not enough.
- I don't think I'd be too afraid of a raccoon either though

Everything in Australia can kill you

I had a dingo. RIP Lucy girl
- Is that the dogs name or your child's name?

CAN I PET THAT DAWG!?
- Can I pet that DAAAAWGH?!?!??

Why friend shape if not friend?

Maybe these are those skinwalkers my Australian friend talks about...
- Nah that's not them, you'll know a skinwalker when you see one.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a friendly dingo!
- On the internet nobody is friendly nor a dingo
  
  Many people are a dingus, tho
  
  Speak for yourself, homie. I'm a dingo IRL and it took 10 minutes for me to type this with my fat-ass plappers.
  Friendly, though, I'm inclined to agree.

My dog is actually descended from dingos. Part of their breed.
- What's their behavior like?
  
  Like a dog. It comes from their Australian Cattle Dog heritage. They were interbred with dingos.
  
  Ive got a pariah dog too but not dingo. Incredibly prey driven. Does not bark much unless she has a reason. Very bad with other dogs, tests their reflexes if given the chance. Used to be bad with people and food possessive but she's good now after years of training and socialization.
  Also is an escape artist. Climbed a nine foot chain link fence and chewed through stucco.

That shit's dingo.

I always wondered if Portuguese Podengos were brought back by explorers.
They aren't, but I like my story better
- Comes in three different sizes and two types of hair. There is a Podengo for everyone.
  
  Mine is a medium short hair. Good mini wolf, almost fourteen now

If it has round ears, why it not friend?

Come to think of it, they resemble quite a bit to the Japanese Akita.

Maybe the dingo took your baby.

Average pitbull owner mentality.
Thinking vicious animals will be friendly to everyone forever.
- Dumbest take I've ever seen on this site🤦‍♂️ and I just saw someone say people can only see 15 frames per second. Are you being ignorant on purpose or are you just stupid?
  
  I saw that one too about the 15 fps thing, I'm pretty sure that one was satire though.
  
  Nope, I just look at things realistically, and not with rose tinted glasses thinking that they are just such good family dogs.