[Magwart]

@Magwart
ETA: for anyone with any interest in wolves, if you can put up with the cold, the winter wolf-watching Field Seminars offered by the Yellowstone Institute are wonderful -- and very reasonable, considering you are out in a tiny group with a field biologist who knows the packs there well.

Do you have any info on this? who would i contact?

The Yellowstone Association Institute publishes a summer and winter catalog of field seminars and "lodge and learn" programs. Winter is the best time to view the park's wolves, as they come down to Lamar Valley where the elk and buffalo congregate and all the critters are concentrated on the valley floor.

https://www.yellowstoneassociation.org/experience

 

[Wolfgeist]

Studied wolves in northern Ontario for close to 10 years as a hobby, and I will be the first to step up and say wolves belong in the wild hunting elk over hundreds of miles, separate from the human world. Wolves and wolf dogs do NOT belong in homes and people's back yards. I do not support owning wolves, or any wild animal as pets, and this coming from a lifelong wolf enthusiast.

 

[Wolfgeist]

As for wolf dogs, they are give or take whether or not they can be successful as a "pet".

Wolfdogs cannot be measured in percentage unless you do genetic testing for wolf vs dog DNA... wolfdogs as classified as low, medium or high content. Lower content wolf dogs are often successful in special homes, the higher the content the more difficult they become to manage (always exceptions, but this is the norm).

Phenotyping the animal consists of assessing physical and behavioural traits and characteristics that are "wolf". A high content wolf looks very much like a wolf, and acts more wolf than dog.

A litter of wolfdogs out of a pure wolf and a pure dog mating DOES NOT produce 50% content wolf dogs... depending on what genetics they express, the will be either low, medium or high. There can be low to high offspring in one litter.

I helped place a high content wolfdog in a Sanctuary in the U.S from here in Canada where the wolfdog tried to dominate the family's pre-teen son... luckily the parents were able to intervene and no damage was done to the kid. The kid's experience still gives me goosebumps when I remember how he told what happened...

 

[Zookeep]

I read a great book, Part Wild, which is a true story of a woman who owned a wolf/dog mix. She described her experiences and all the problems she had. It was a great story, but it did not end well for her.

 

[Wetdog]

-------" What would one expect from a wolf from puppy-hood to adult-hood? "--------

A lot of huffing and puffing and BLOWING your house down.

 

[Draugr]

Dogs have been living alongside humans for fifteen thousand years, and likely more, given that that is a conservative estimate derived from the most reasonably reliable data. And for much of that time, they've also been selectively bred for traits we desire.

Our best theory is that the predecessors to domestic dogs were wolves, or an ancestor of both modern wolves and dogs, had a mutated gene that impaired their "flight response" to humans. Since having a steady supply of easy food (human refuse) favors long-term survival, this mutation survived...

Said gene would not exist in modern wolves, at least not to any great degree. And that's without taking the biggest difference - fifteen thousand years worth of domestication.

It should be criminal to sell wolves or wolf mixes as pets. Keep the wolves in the wild where they belong, and admire their natural beauty from afar.

 

[JackandMattie]

The cons to owning a wolf is that a wolf is a wild animal, and should never be "owned." Pretty simple


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[JackandMattie]

My mother is a retired GSD owner. She is in her senior years now, knows she can no longer keep GSDs, and has made the switch to toy dogs. But she still loves the strong canines, so she keeps her days filled and motivated with her wolf advocacy efforts. I read, on average, twenty wolf advocacy posts per day. The history of wolves, the state of wolves, murdered wolves, unprotected by law wolves, world wide. They are seriously, a world apart from GSDs. They are So wild, and such victims. Whether it be from hunters or potential "owners," either way it has become sickening to watch their victimization. We just need to let them be.


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[HarleyTheGSD]

Thank you all for the very informative replies.
Now I know what to tell someone if they say they want a pet wolf.

 

[JackandMattie]

Thank you all for the very informative replies.
Now I know what to tell someone if they say they want a pet wolf.

Yep. Tell them if they want to own a wild animal, catch a flight to Africa and catch themselves an Ostrich. That might set them straight, lol.


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[HarleyTheGSD]

Yep. Tell them if they want to own a wild animal, catch a flight to Africa and catch themselves an Ostrich. That might set them straight, lol.


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Lol! Good idea!

 

[JackandMattie]

Lol! Good idea!

Yep. I lived in Africa for a while. And I can tell you, if you want Wild and Untamed, those Ostriches are seriously Vicious We had both in our back forty, but it wasn't the lions who scared us. Of all the animals, it was the big birds, lol.

Kinda like keeping a parakeet, Not!! Same as thinking I can keep GSDs and Wolves...Makes No common sense


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[selzer]

Wild things ought to stay in the wild:

snopes.com: Roped Deer

They can't say whether or not it is a true account. I doubt it. No one who works with horses or cows would wrap a rope around their waist -- that's a good way to get killed, when working with a large flight animal.

But it's a fun read anyhow.

 

[HarleyTheGSD]

A wolf cannot be fully trusted around children and small animals because its prey drive is genetically encoded. That cannot be eliminated through socialization/training. At best it can be suppressed. A tame wolf will inevitably challenge its owner for dominance. Dogs do it too but in the end they know always know humans are the alpha in the family "pack." Wolves are not suitable as pets because a lot of work is required to produce in them the same degree of reliability seen in dogs. And they won't always obey human commands.

Dogs are the product of thousands of years of human breeding designed to produce animals completely dependent on us for their survival and who can actually tolerate the stresses of living in captivity. That will never happen with a wolf! It should be kept in the wild where it truly belongs. Trying to turn it into an imitation dog is a disservice to such a beautiful and powerful animal. A wolf may respect us but it will never love us unconditionally and show us the devotion of a dog.

A friend of mine wants a wolf, and I told them this. They didn't believe me.
They said that if they are harsh enough with the wolf, it would learn to listen. And if you raise it from a puppy, like a domestic dog, it would be just like a domestic dog.
I wish they could just talk to a wolf expert and get this information in person. Maybe they'd finally get it through their thick skulls.

 

[martemchik]

Tell them to check out "Nova: Dogs Decoded" on Netflix. Really simple and interesting show. Really covers the differences between wild canines and domesticated ones.

They ran an experiment where the same people raised puppies, then raised wolves, and compared the behavior. Wolves just didn't listen. No matter what. They just didn't care. Even at like 3-4 months, nothing mattered but what they wanted. Dogs on the other hand...well, we know how dogs act.

 

[havery]

A friend of mine wants a wolf, and I told them this. They didn't believe me.
They said that if they are harsh enough with the wolf, it would learn to listen. And if you raise it from a puppy, like a domestic dog, it would be just like a domestic dog.
I wish they could just talk to a wolf expert and get this information in person. Maybe they'd finally get it through their thick skulls.

Just like all those people that raised lion cubs from babies. "Oh, if I raise them tame they'll be good pets!" Years later, we see them in the headlines. "Local man in critical condition after lion attack." Wolves are no different.

Growing up, I had an uncle who had a wild animal permit. He took in rescues (native and exotic) from these idiots until they were rehabilitated enough to go to a wildlife reserve. I can't count how many coyote and bobcat babies people thought they could tame, until the bobcat ate their Pomeranian (true story!). He even raised a pair of Bengal tiger cubs from a bottle, and they were still very much wild animals, even at just 4 months old. As a kid, it was the single coolest thing to get to experience those animals, but it also gave me a healthy respect for the "wild" in wild animal.

I had someone give me a wolf/GSD hybrid as a week old puppy who's mother abandoned them, and he helped me raise him. That was the most challenging animal I've ever owned, I could not have done it without expert help. He was three when I went off to college and my uncle still has him, he's old now but still very wolf-y. You can just see it in his eyes. Anyone that thinks he'd make a good family pet is an idiot. No doubt he was a fun companion and I love him, but he had zero tolerance for small children, and the only other pet we could have was my female mastiff mix who he looked up to like his mother. He had to go in the barn if we had company and couldn't have packages delivered. I won't ever have another, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone without experience with wild animals.

 

[HarleyTheGSD]

Thank you both for the replies. I'll show them your posts. I want this friend to actually understand what a wolf is.

 

[Draugr]

A friend of mine wants a wolf, and I told them this. They didn't believe me.
They said that if they are harsh enough with the wolf, it would learn to listen. And if you raise it from a puppy, like a domestic dog, it would be just like a domestic dog.
I wish they could just talk to a wolf expert and get this information in person. Maybe they'd finally get it through their thick skulls.

Being "harsh" with a wolf is going to get your friend killed. What limited training CAN be done with wolves & wolf hybrids is most successful in completely the opposite direction.

Dogs have been selectively bred and domesticated for submission to humans. Wolves will give you a VERY nasty authority challenge that will land you in the hospital if you are lucky!

 

[Baleato]

Dominance in dogs- fact or fiction?

DOMINANCE IN DOGS - FACT OR FICTION? - Dog Training and Behavior - Dogwise.com

This book "Dominance in dogs- fact or fiction?" by Barry Eaton is a great, concise summary of the differences between dogs and wolves and how it affects our training methods. It covers how some of the training methods commonly used are based on misconceptions of wolf behavior caused by studying unnatural, captive wolf packs.

I highly recommend it.

 

[Baleato]

Books on wolves by David Mech are also great reading.
Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation: L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani: 9780226516974: Amazon.com: Books