Wolf Hybrids

[StryderPup]

I was watching an older episode of Dog Whisperer last night that featured two Wolf/ Husky hybrids. One was people/dog aggressive and he other was food aggressive. I was thinking to myself, why would someone want to breed a wolf and a domesticated dog? (I also wondered how one would get a true wolf to breed with). Any wolf hybrid owners out there? What are the traits that you would want from a wolf vs. a domesticated canine? I must admit the results were gorgeous dogs. Any thoughts??

[RacerX]

I watched last night too, and did some research on them as well. They seemed very out of place in a domestic setting.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-dog_hybrid

[Raziel]

I had a thread is this too.
Some GREAT answers, but I cant find it.
The arent "hybrids" as they are both from the same family.
Some people are stupid & have NO bussiness breeding dogs, let alone breeding a wild dangerous animal with a domesticated dog.
Could have a bad outcome.

[Powell]

Originally Posted By: StryderPupI was watching an older episode of Dog Whisperer last night that featured two Wolf/ Husky hybrids. One was people/dog aggressive and he other was food aggressive. I was thinking to myself, why would someone want to breed a wolf and a domesticated dog? (I also wondered how one would get a true wolf to breed with). Any wolf hybrid owners out there? What are the traits that you would want from a wolf vs. a domesticated canine? I must admit the results were gorgeous dogs. Any thoughts??

OK, I volunteer at Full Moon Farm a Wolfdog rescue. First of all there is NO SUCH THING AS A WOLF HYBRID as wolf and dog are same species. Well, lets put it this way, the agressive behaviour comes from the same reason you see in the DOG, as that's where it comes from. But Ceasar is THE LAST person I would consult for this problem. There are LOTS of good Wolfdog folks that could help. Also NO ONE breeds a dog to a wild wolf.... no one is robbing wolf pups from the den. If that is the claim then the breeder is lying, and there are lots of unscrupulous (BYB) breeders. The worst thing is they lie about content. It's a real surprise when someone has had a VERY low content MIS represented as a high content or "wolf" and they do get a high content. High contents as a general rule can't live inside. Mid contents maybe, and low contents sure.

The common breeding is wolfdog to wolfdog with good breeders and they know the temperment, and help the people that got their animals. I don't have one. My dog Jolene does have Wolfdog boyfriends at Full Moon Farm.

The temperment is close to what a Husky is. A dog is always a juvenile. A high content is like a graduate student, and can think for himself and figure things out. German Shepherds do this, don't they?

Properly socialized they are sweet as a ton of sugar. Non socialized they can be fearful and skittish ( like a Husky).

Delaware at Full Moon Farm, was a high content who died earlier this year. He would lick you just about wear your skin off and cover you with wolf spit.


Mani, (who has 2 dog hairs) was raised in a house. He had never been left alone, and when the lady had to go to work when the husbands hours got cut back, he ate the inside of the condo. He will sleep in bed, but he can't be left alone. Separation anxiety on steroids. I have groomed him ( and he helped)
Now Autumn, she is mostly all wolf and has heritage that King from Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary came from. She was badly abused by a man who kicked her and beat her with a shovel. If you are liked by her, you can do ANYthing. She does not like me. She will show me teeth and hiss like a snake. I tell ner NO TEETH and NO TREAT. She has back injury damage that make her cranky.

Belle is another high content that is food agressive. I TOSS her the treats. I went to pet her and she thought my hand was a treat. The VERY moment her teeth touched my hand she realized it was a human hand, and the teeth just touched, her ears went flat back on her head, her tail tucked under and she started whining, as she was properly taught that WOLF teeth don't touch humans. Her pen mate Mac, is MOSTLY GSD, he is skitty, but I can corner him and then I can pet him.

Another one is Red Stripe. Low content, and when he was along I would go in his pen and clean up poop. He'd cower in the corner and shiver like a scared Chihuahua! Now, that he's in the pen with Selena, he will come up and take treats and actually let me pet him.


The new outreach animal is River. He's mainly Malamute / Husky and pinch of wolf. Meg and I walked him in the Black Mountain Christmas parade. 10 months old and never been in a large parade... he did good. And he did not scarf up any candy that had been thrown in the street. He will gently take treats from my mouth. Zodiak would do that also. There are a lot of dogs I would never try that with.

Any questions to me do it by private EMAIL rather than a PM please!


Zodiak, who died a few months ago, was the outreach animal, and he was just bomb proof. Low content with mostly LARGE Malamute, a pinch of GSD (where his black and tan coloring came from ) and a bit of wolf. 130 pounds. He made 10 years, but when rescued he weighed 43 pounds.


Powell

[StryderPup]

Ok, this is a dumb question so I apologize in advance, but would a Wolf in nature breed with a domesticated canine??

[StryderPup]

Thanks everyone, this bothered me so much that I woke up about 4am and could not go back to sleep, LOL. I just could not wrap my mind around the whole idea.

I work for a newspaper and I release ads for pets. I released one yesterday for wolf Hybrid pups. Then after I watched Caesar I was cheesed off. I see so many ads from BYB and people that I know have puppy mills who submit ads for designer dogs and mix every breed imaginable.

[rjvamp]

What I NEVER told folks when Lobo and Cotton (my first cotton) was alive is they did have some wolf in them. The were called Low Content - so not a lot in them. However, their personalities were completely different. Cotton was very people friendly and Lobo didn't care for strangers at all. It took him a lot of introductions to get him used to anyone new and when someone did come in he would sit right next to me or in between me and them.

This did present a challenge. Lobo HATED going to the vet. So we ended up having a mobile vet for him - he ALWAYS had to be muzzled, except for his last day he was very calm - not enough energy. He also hated kennels. I know regular dogs that are like this too.

They did go to petsmart only a few times. I think when the little kid said, "Mom - look at the wolves!" We were like - time to go! I didn't know a lot about dog training at the time or who to go to and I really think with training that Lobo could have been less distrusting of people. And I didn't want too much attention to be brought towards them due to local laws that had changed in GA prior to us moving back to our house there from CA.

Cotton bonded with me as soon as he saw me and Lobo with my partner. When I walked out onto the porch to greet them Cotton came up to me and put my arm in his mouth and drew me closer to him and he sat in front of me to be hugged and then play. Lobo came up to my partner and put his jaw around his head like your are now my toy. He let him pet him. It was a very cool moment. We took Cotton first to get him used to the apartment. And after someone tried to break in (Cotton ran them off), we went back and got Lobo faster than we had planned.

They were a lot of work. Lobo could never go to a kennel for us to go to vacation because he would NOT behave. Again, I think training could have helped with this - we didn't know about training at the time and no one advised that training would help either.

At the end of the day they turned out to be great dogs. To me they were like mixed breed dogs. They did howl - but that could have just as well been the malamute in them as well. There are plenty of local laws that outlaw them because just having "wolf" in them means you now have a wild animal in the community.

I don't think that having wolf in them made them any more or less dangerous. Lobo, like many any dog breed had issues that with proper training could have helped. Around us he was completely fine - we were his pack.

With wolf-hybrids I think, just like any breed, takes the right owner. We lived in a 4 apartment unit in Vallejo CA - they went on LOTS of walks. And we did learn about crates after that one night we left them out when we were gone to a Halloween party. Of course - any breed can destroy sofas! I think I saw some GSD pics of beds destroyed on here We also lived in a subdivision in GA where they had a backyard with a normal fence and again they were taken on walks.

They were not required to eat raw meats like so many of the wolf-hybrid folks say they must eat. They ate Pedigree most of their life. We were told NOT to feed them raw meat because it could make them go wild. We KNOW NOW that is so stupid. It is what is natural for them to eat so they may have just done better on raw meat...but I think 14 years, 45 days for Lobo is pretty darn good. Cotton died of Cancer in 2005.

I do believe they can be a part of society just like any breed of dog. Understanding the importance of training and how to get rid of bad behaviors if they show up would be very helpful! I can't speak for higher content wolf hybrids. I would think with proper training at the start could be helpful but I can't be for sure. I had a great experience with both Lobo and Cotton and wouldn't have given it up for the world.


moving day 1996 (lobo, me, cotton)

[ebrannan]

Hey Powell. Neat, neat, neat.
Lots of great info and thank you for volunteering at Full Moon.
Sometimes, I love to just go to the Web site and look at the animals.
They are where they belong ... with you guys in a proper environment.
Happy New Year!

[Raziel]

Wolves belong in the wild.
No offence.
Im sure some dog/wolves do good in homes & with their people.
But alot of them are kept outside in kennels. What kind of a life is that?

[rjvamp]

as an FYI - ours were rescues - the guy that had them was trying to teach them to hunt small animals and was going to let them into the "wild" of Sonoma county!!!! OMG. Craziness!!!! Ours lived with cats so I guess the "instinct" to hunt small animals wasn't there! Or they just failed to learn what the guy was showing them to do. Thankfully the lady we got them from had taken them from this guy - she was like "no - you are not going to be that irresponsible!"