University of NSW researchers have collated the results of over 5000 DNA samples of wild canines across the country.

They found 99 per cent of wild canines tested were pure dingoes or dingo-dominant hybrids, where the animal has more than 50 cent dingo genes.

Of the remaining one per cent, roughly half were dog-dominant hybrids and the other half feral dogs.

Lead author, conservation biologist Dr Kylie Cairns, said the term "wild dog" was incorrect and dingoes were instead being targeted.

"We don't have a feral dog problem in Australia," she said.

"They just aren't established in the wild.

"There are rare times when a dog might go bush, but it isn't contributing significantly to the dingo population."

But farmers have questioned the findings.

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Farmer and Towong Shire mayor David Wortmann said the attacks he had seen weren't from dingoes.

"I totally disagree with that research," he said.

"They're from domestic stock, they're a very large dog, they're a crossbreed."

During his worst year in the early 2000s, he lost 200 lambs to a dog.

When it was shot, the attacks stopped.

Dr Cairns said dingoes are native, "and many people don't like the idea of using lethal control on native animals".

Mr Wortmann said aerial baiting in recent years had had an impact.

"The older dogs are cunning as far as the baits go," he said.

"But I think the aerial baiting has definitely helped."

Trappers are also used in a bid to control the population.

Many North East farmers have significantly reduced their sheep stocks in recent years and decades as a result of dog attacks.

Burrowye farmer Neil Mitchell once ran 4500 sheep and now has only 450.

"I've been chasing dogs since 1983," he said.

"That was really a dingo back then, since then they've mostly been crossbred.

"They've got it the wrong way around."

Research has previously shown the animals aren't dingoes.

The new research suggests North East canines have more than 75 per cent dingo ancestry with some areas of pure dingoes.

Dr Cairns said "wild dog" wasn't a scientific term, but a euphemism.

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