They came to Australia with people on boats and some ran wild.

They are thus representative of dogs that coexisted with people thousands of years ago.

We live with a dingo. We didn't know she was a dingo when we adopted her from the shelter, we only knew that she was living feral and it had taken Animal Control a long time to capture her.

It turns out we had a breeder of exotic dogs living in our county and our dingo is probably one who escaped from him. (He has since moved to another state... many of his dogs were trouble.) These dogs are escape artists.

Our dingo is a one person dog. She's attached to my wife and merely tolerates me. She hates coyotes and the sound of air guns. I'm guessing people shot at her when she was feral.

We have a husky as well, another "ancestral" species, and the two dogs entertain themselves by wrestling, digging giant craters in our backyard, and howling at police car sirens.

Both dogs are very cat-like. They know all the commands we typically teach our dogs but they frequently refuse to cooperate. They are not motivated by treats. Our dingo will look annoyed like a cat if she doesn't want to do something we ask of her, or she'll slink away. The husky sometimes complains loudly, just like the huskies you see on YouTube videos. He'll literally say "NO!" at first, and then "NOooooooOOOOOooooo!" as he flops over and make himself immovable.

I don't want to romanticize these ancestral dogs in any way. The animal shelters are full of dogs like huskies who can be difficult. Our husky had been kept on a chain 24/7 by people who hadn't known what they were getting into when they brought him home as a puppy. When we adopted him some of his teeth were broken from chewing on his chain and he had marks around his neck. He didn't know how to live in a house. He's not the worst dog we've ever had, but he has been the most expensive. Dental work, reinforcing our fences, replacing damaged furniture and household items... it wasn't cheap. And we just have to accept the great clouds of hair he sheds and the craters in the backyard.