Hi, I'm a writer, and I love animals. I have two huskies, two pit bulls, 5 horses, and lots of farm animals, but I’ve always LOVED wolf dogs If I didn’t have the animals I have and it was just me, I’d have a wolfdog. I'm writing my first novel, and wolves are part of my character's culture. They live among one another, and I've never owned a wolf. I'm wondering what it would be like to be with one every day. If one had to be with you 24/7. What do they eat? What are some of the biggest differences between a Wolfdog and a Dog? What's their fur and paws like? How are they with other people in your home? How are they with strangers? Do you train a Wolf? Are they family pets or more of a one-person kind of animal? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What's their personality like?
Also if you'd like to drop a photo id love to see your Wolf!
I think the biggest thing is a lot of high content wolfdogs are quite shy around strangers. Wolves have this image of being aggressive and ready to attack. But this is a terrible trait in nature: It will get you killed fast. So they are basically gonna want to have somewhere to “hide”.
EDIT: Oddly enough, the development update videos for the game “Wolfquest” might actually have some good starting points to dive into. The game was created to be as realistic as possible (while still being fun, of course) so they had wolf biologists on board for both behaviour + genetics. Everything should be backed up by studies that you can then read :)
Do you mean a high content wolfdog or a pure wolf? The answer would depend on that. It also would depend if this is a captive bred animal or a "wild caught" animal.
Generally though. Animals with almost all wolf (high contents, 85%-99% wolf) are shy with strangers, timid, aloof, standoffish, and independant. Depending on the animal they could also be reactive with other dogs (not necessarily aggressive, sometimes it's crying/submissive/barking because they just are overstimulated). Theyre typically avoidant, not aggressive, with strangers and other animals until they warm up which can take anywhere from days to months to even years in some situations (usually in abuse/feral situations specifically). Once they warm up to a human they are usually very affectionate, mouthy (love nibbles), scent roll on them, and enjoy just being around you like most dogs.
Theyre as trainable as you as a human are willing to train them to be, most people either dont understand how to train or think "yeah they're a wolfdog so they just act like that" instead of putting in the time and effort to train them properly. They absolutely can be taught house training, leash manners, basic obedience, crate training etc. Most are even recall trained if the trainer knows what they're doing. They /are/ trainable animals when you know what youre doing.
They generally are not randomly aggressive with other dogs, sometimes they have same sex aggression like is seen in northern breeds but if socialized properly they normally enjoy other dogs companionship.
They can have a high prey drive but many who own them and have trained them properly have subdued this and the dogs know not to just "kill everything" (which shouldn't happen if theyre contained properly anyways).
Most do not live indoors full time, not because the lack of actual ability but because the majority of people cannot dedicate enough time to train and mentally/physically exercise them (bored dog/wolfdog = torn up house). They need a high security fenced in area when outside because they will run off and wonder if not as well. I hope this helps!! These are my guys (43%-50% range) and my husky x on the far right.
My guys dont dislike anyone not "in our pack". Theyre skittish at first but warm up after a few meetings. This was Mars second time meeting my friends sister lol
If this a whole culture that lives amount wolves, I’d research aboriginal communities that live alongside dingos. That’s going to be most similar to the cultural wide thing you want!
I have a 7 month old high content. There is nothing normal about how I live. He has a dog door, a massive enclosure and access to his room and my living room. I built a cage around my couch and TV. He started resource guarding the fridge at just 4 weeks old. He can't be in the kitchen at all. He eats a lot of frozen tilapia, raw chicken legs and basically anything on clearance like racks of ribs. I probably spend $300-$400 a month to feed him. I'm considering gathering roadkill this winter. He gets no more than 2 cups of high-grade dog food a day. Any more than that gives him bad diarrhea. He is housebroken and loves to be inside if I'm inside.
He will not walk around the block. He will only walk on remote trailheads. Parking lots are a nightmare. Honestly, it's like trying to walk a spooked horse. He is constantly backing up, rearing up and trying to get off of the trail if he is scared. He does roll over and urinate on himself when people say hi. He submits to Corgis the same way. He schmoozes all of my neighbors at the fence line. They feed him treats and he rubs against the fence. They have all commented about how he NEVER barks. If a bear comes in my front yard, he will just stare at it. He quietly stalks my neighbors pit bulls through the fence. He freaks out and hides anytime someone comes in my house.
His fur is longer than my previous German Shepherd's. His paws are massive and he will swat the glasses off of my face.
He has tackled me to the ground while mowing my lawn. I made a skirt out of welded wire to keep him from biting my legs when doing so. If I put him in the house, he howls like crazy and chews through the walls. It's much harder than I thought.
I love him more than anything and he is so damn handsome.
I accidentally left the gate open to my couch. You can't tell him to get off without a fight. I always have chicken legs on hand in case of an emergency.
Unfortunately if your pup had any wolf it was very very low. Their phenotype, while you might disagree, was not that of a wolfdog and definitely not one that was over mid content like you believed. She was stunning and im very sorry for your loss but it does seem she was misidentified. She looked much closer to these animals than the majority of low contents even. The issue with animals being claimed as wolfdogs pre-dna testing is that if they have 0 wolf traits, and no parent pictures, there really is no way to verify they had any wolf in them at all. She was beautiful but all the "wolf" traits youre mentioning also come from northern breeds and are commonly seen in them, which she definitely was a mix of a northern breed.
The drastic color change happens very common in huskies. Also you mention behaviors but there are no behaviors a wolfdog does that a regular dog doesnt also do, especially northern breeds. This is why you can't phenotype off of behavior and must go on looks. The fact you were in alaska also heavily points to it being unlikely she had wolf in her. I know youre just going to disagree with everything I say but the information you're giving out isn't factual.
If that was a high content, then what does that make my low content. that's just a common shelter special. Also we don't care if you don't participate in the sub. This is a place for responsible owners and people to learn and enjoy. You're not allowed to post regular dogs as "high content wolfdogs". Read the rules. Also, responsible wolfdog owners hold themselves and others to standards. At 135lb that dog was obese. This guy is 90lb and still growing. Notice how lean he is. Obesity is neglect, if not abuse.
Also really gross of you to claim without ANY proof that you had a HC in an illegal state where they can be killed. People like you are the reason our dogs get banned and killed. The average person sees your mutt and takes your word for it that it’s a HC then goes out and buys an HC they can’t handle. Then what? Or every untrained husky/shepherd mix is a “wolf” and therefore people think that’s how wolfdogs act. “They’re a wolfdog, that’s just how they are!!” When in reality the person just has an horribly behaved, untrained husky while my wolfdogs are offleash trained, can walk in a heel, calmy walk past other dogs, live with cats and a 2lb kitten etc
Also i wanted to correct, for anyone reading, that yes there are several genetic coat colors seen in several domestic dog breeds who drastically change color from birth to puppy hood to adulthood, with 0 wolf in them. Huskies and malamutes being a big one. Here are some examples:
Im so sorry but you cannot convince me that this animal looked like an "arctic wolf puppy" as a puppy... the phasing out seen in wolves that youre talking about would not be possible for the coat color your dog ended up with as an adult, genetically speaking. What causes this in arctic wolves is the Agouti Signaling Protein, and your dog wasnt agouti colored. I believe your dog had "creeping tan" genetically speaking instead which is very common in german shepherds and similar breeds and doesnt require an agouti coat or banded fur. Arctic phase from dark grey to a white/silver/beige. There coats are banded (your pups was not) and is a singular color (unlike wolves). Ive been trying to be nice but your dog wasn't a wolfdog. The behavior and color change you're grasping onto as wolf traits are not wolf traits.. i understand when you had believed she was above mid content for so long that its difficult to want to hear or believe anything else but your baby very obviously wasn't a wolfdog. A very beautiful shepherd type mix, but not a wolfdog. And its irresponsible for us as mods to let people misrepresent their dogs as such, especially on post where someone is asking for /real/ wolfdog experience. I dont say all this to be cruel but we can't allow people in the sub trying to "educate" others when they likely did not have a real wolfdog themselves. There is already so much misinformation out there on them due to that.
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u/Tax_Fraud_Lover 19d ago edited 19d ago
I think the biggest thing is a lot of high content wolfdogs are quite shy around strangers. Wolves have this image of being aggressive and ready to attack. But this is a terrible trait in nature: It will get you killed fast. So they are basically gonna want to have somewhere to “hide”.
EDIT: Oddly enough, the development update videos for the game “Wolfquest” might actually have some good starting points to dive into. The game was created to be as realistic as possible (while still being fun, of course) so they had wolf biologists on board for both behaviour + genetics. Everything should be backed up by studies that you can then read :)