Dingo puppy

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A dingo puppy, d, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. The dingo puppy is a small and carnivorous canine animal that can be seen via infravision. It is nearly identical to the little dog, but is not domestic.

A dingo puppy has a single bite attack.

Generation

Randomly-generated dingo puppies are always created hostile. They are not randomly generated in Gehennom. A dingo puppy can grow up into a dingo.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, dingo puppies appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Samurai and make up 24175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Samurai quest. They also appear among the random d that are part of the second quest monster class for Yeomen and make up 6175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, dingo puppies appear in the same capacity for Samurai and Yeomen as in SLASH'EM. They also appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Ninjas and make up 24175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Ninja quest.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, dingo puppies appear in the same capacity for Samurai and Yeomen as in SLASH'EM. They also appear among the random d that are part of the first quest monster class for Infidels and make up 24175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest.

Strategy

Dingo puppies are not as common as little dogs, but also cannot be pacified easily like their domestic kin and can still be a major problem for weak starting heroes. Ranged weapons are advisable if a hero is low on HP or otherwise not confident in their other combat abilities. A hero that establishes their base early game kit and/or works their way up a few experience levels should have no trouble with dingo puppies from that point forward.

Origin

The dingo is an ancient lineage of dog found in Australia, with the oldest remains of dingoes in Australia dated around 3,500 years old; genes show that the dingo reached Australia more than 8,300 years ago, and the lineage can be traced back through Maritime Southeast Asia to the mainland Asian continent. Its taxonomic classification is currently debated: it is variously considered a form of domestic dog not warranting recognition as a subspecies, a subspecies of dog or wolf, or a full species in its own right. It may either be included in the species Canis familiaris or considered one of the following independent taxa: Canis familiaris dingo, Canis dingo, or Canis lupus dingo.

The dingo is a medium-sized canine that possesses a lean, hardy body adapted for speed, agility, and stamina, and the skull is wedge-shaped and appears large in proportion to the body. Its three main coat colourations are light ginger or tan, black and tan, or creamy white. Dingoes are carnivores that often hunt in packs, and prey on kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, rabbits, rodents, lizards, sheep, calves, poultry and carrion; they are believed to have hunted several animal species to extinction including some species of bandicoots and rat kangaroos.

A dingo pack usually consists of a mated pair, their offspring (or "cubs") from the current year, and sometimes offspring from the previous year. Dingoes live in packs of between 3 and 12, but they can be seen alone as well; the leaders are the alpha male and the alpha female and are usually the only pair to breed. The adult females usually give birth to 4-5 cubs in a litter, and feed their young by regurgitating food. Dingo cubs become independent of their mother after four to eight months of age.

While some people keep dingoes as pets, they are regarded as a pest by farmers: some early European settlers of Australia looked on dingoes as domestic dogs, while others thought them to be more like wolves; as dingoes began to attack sheep over the years, they were soon regarded as devious and cowardly pests, and were associated with thieves, vagabonds and bushrangers. The informal use of "dingo" to refer to someone as cowardly, dishonest and treacherous originated as a form of political attack in the 1960s. For indigenous Australians, the dingo plays a prominent role in Dreamtime stories, but it is rarely depicted in their cave paintings.

Messages

Main article: Canine messages

Encyclopedia entry

The following encyclopedia entry is only present in Hack'EM:

A wolflike wild dog, Canis dingo, of Australia, having a
reddish- or yellowish-brown coat, believed to have been
introduced by the aborigines.

[ Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language ]