WoW Petopia Community

The main issue I have with keeping wolves as pets is that wolves are just too damn smart to be contained like that. You're doing a disservice to them to think that they can happily live in even a large backyard(Most dogs arn't even happy with a yard). It's like expecting a human to live confined like that. If the average dog is as smart as a three year old human, I imagine a wolf probably at least reaches the level of a seven or eight year old(if not more) in terms of problem solving and reason, with the added level of maturity that young humans don't have. I've noticed in my own dogs that un-fixed individuals do develop an edge of maturity on top of their base intelligence as they age. They gain several drives on top of their basic comprehension skills, including fight, defense, and sexual drives. Some dogs are smarter than others too, and have different levels of drives.

A wolf has all of this, but with added intelligence to boot. They are very strong-willed compared to most dogs. I think that if a person can't handle a chow or other aloof breed like Akitas, they definitely won't be able to handle a wolf. I understand people admiring their beauty and power, but part of that allure is that they are wild. Trying to keep them caged takes that away from them in my opinion. It's something akin to slavery. Dogs on the other hand have been carefully selected to work with us. They enjoy being with us and working by our side. The dog is both man's best friend and worst victim of our cruelty. I like to say that there is a dog in this world for nearly everyone. Some are big, some are small, dog are furry, some are hairless. Some will guard you, some will cower behind the couch. Some act more like cats than dogs. There are so many different types of dog on this earth, that it astounds me that anyone would rather take the freedom away from a wolf, then accept the devotion that the dog so freely offers us, by our own design.

" He is your friend, your partner,
your defender, your dog.
You are his life, his love, his leader. He will
be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat
of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of
such devotion."

i can tell you owning a wolf is a big responsibility and takes much patience. but not because of temperament or aggressiveness at all, in fact wolves are social family animals to the extreme, very sweet and gentle, they bond very close so close its like loosing a part of your mind and who you were not just your heart when you loose them. they are very sweet and gentle with babies and children as they would be with pups in the wild, they know they are babies. they are VERY smart almost as smart as people, no joke. dogs that have been domesticated for thousands of years have smaller brains due to not needing to use them as much for survival as wolves do.
the things people say and believe about them are just stereotypes and from not knowing better. an animal is how you raise it to be period. if you have a mutt and you do not train it or socialize it then it will be unsocial and misbehave period. with any animal / canine that is how it is. the only reason you might have heard something about a hybrid is well because that's the media for you they want you to read there garbage and make money, and its always way dramatized and not the whole story ect. ect. what you don't hear about is the thousands of dog bites and attacks that happen every day even deaths caused by any old dog... but that's not a great story, they use the stereotypes that they know most people have to get headlines. the fact is that a wolf or a wolf hybrid is much much much less likely to hurt anyone or anything because they are very shy. but as i said an animal is as you raise it to be that's all.
now the thing that makes them harder and more responsibility is actually that they are high energy high activity and as with any work dog you MUST take them out a few hours a day to run and play, other wise they will destroy your house when they are younger and its just plain mean to make them sit inside with nothing to do anyway. if you want an animal then spend time with it otherwise why have one. also they love to explore and are wonderful escape artists as in they will jump out a second story window to go explore which of course in an urban setting is dangerous. so you must make sure they cant go run off and get hit by a car. as i hope you would with any dog or train them not to run off and to stay by you...
and second they are a little harder to train and take a bit more patience because of there intelligence as with any more intelligent animal...
so over all if you wanted to get one MAKE SURE you find a good breeder that breeds for gentleness and temperament and not someone who says they breed for size and other superficial stupid things that just say hey look at me i am cool i have a 150 pound wolf which is retarded and ridiculous. they are not that big in the wild if they were they would have to eat so much they would starve. and if you want to advertise hey look at me i have a wolf then you are to immature to own one or any pet. my Yela was about 55 pounds as a female. also i looked for a breeder that screened people on purpose because that says hey i care for my animals and were they go which lets me know they took care in breeding and health for there animals. also as i hope people would with any animal read on them study them find out every thing you can for the health and care and happiness of the animals. be prepared to have them tear up stuff A LOT when younger, which means you will be very busy training and taking them out a lot to get out energy and for there happiness. id suggest taking up jogging so you can run with them having a big high fenced yard cause they can and will jump a 6 foot tall fence and also have the fence extended out around 4 feet on the ground out from the bottom of the fence because they do also burrow so i hope you don't like your yard looking pretty. and make sure you take them out A LOT. we took her jogging, out to the woods to the dog park for walks and more all the time every day. my girl even at 11 years old was taken out AT LEAST 2 hours a day to play and run and she still had lots of energy at that age to which really is not very old for them as they live to be 15 to 20 years old, again not having thousands of years of DNA degrading from over breeding and inbreeding they live longer. last but not least diet, normal off the store self dog food will not do its full of to much garbage anyhow and i wont feed it to any dog if you know anything about animal nutrition you would not either. but they can not digest soy which is fake meat and disgusting for any meat eating animal it will give them diarrhea and make them sick and unhealthy also high protein is needed and no dyes and to much or no gluten is also good. this kind of dog food you will need to go to a feed store for.
i used diamond brand dog food but there are also other good choices like blue buffalo.
so please if anyone wants to get a wolf or wolf hybrid make sure you know how much energy and responsibility they are first and study up on them i hate seeing animals taken to shelters because the owners decided it was to much work animals as sensitive as wolves can die from heart break and have issues from something traumatic like that as i said they do bond VERY close and it will mess them up if you abandon them. many people abandon high energy work dogs everyday because they failed to do the research needed before hand to realize hey this is to much work for me i do not want to deal with it... if you are not able to do these things then do not get a wolf or wolf / hybrid or any work dog please. in fact i do not think it is for most people. i was able to spend all the time with mine due to being a house wife and not working or being self employed most of my adult life and she was very happy, spoiled and loved to play and be silly.
so please take great care in choosing a pet.
i hope this helps. feel free to ask me anything if you want.

A half-wolf of a good personality, paired with a responsible owner, can work. Unfortunately, the majority of people can't handle it (no fault against them, it's a challenge and can be dangerous) and the overall toll isn't worth the damage to the people or wolf-dogs. The easiest thing is to love and observe wolves at a respectful distance/in your imagination -- there is no harm done to man or beast.

I agree. There are myriads of wolf-looking dogs who are healthy and more easily trained. Wolves and half wolves are difficult to work with - even for experienced and/or professional trainers. They don't have the same mentality a dog does. On top of that, many hybrids have vaccination issues and some states may not allow pets who are fuzzy, go outside and can't get a rabies vaccine for public health reasons (And not that I blame them - who wants a rabies hazard around?).

Also, people forget that wolves' behavior changes from season to season too.

Novikova wrote: Also, people forget that wolves' behavior changes from season to season too.

Indeed... I seriously didn't believe "winter wolf syndrome" the first time I heard of it; for those who don't know, the testicle size of male (intact) wolves (and subsequently their testosterone levels and aggression levels) completely skyrocket through breeding season.

Also, to the comment "they are very sweet and gentle with babies and children as they would be with pups in the wild, they know they are babies"--some might seem to be, but in general, they have an extremely sensitive prey drive.

Even if they're great with family kids, they might trigger on someone else's child who falls and cries, or who is running or screaming. The best example of this was one of the ambassador wolves in one of the main wolf conservation centers in the US. For six years I think it was, this particular wolf was the "greeter" wolf who loved kids, and pictures of him licking babies' faces were great publicity for the species. Then, in a matter of a day or two, he encountered two incidents--a child throwing a tantrum and something else, I forget what--that made his behavior entirely change. Apparently his handlers said that he went from greeting children submissively to pacing, predatory, and acting as if he were about to be fed--with enough prey focus that they immediately retired him from the "ambassador" job. There's myriad tales of pet wolves and wolfdogs who "turn on" their owners' children--not because they're suddenly vicious, but because the prey drive that was always there was finally triggered by something.

Does that mean I buy into the horror stories of "all wolfdogs will try to eat children?" Of course not. The individual matters. Dogs will do it too. The kids' behavior makes a huge difference. But popping out a blanket statement that wolfdogs are good with kids is bad misinformation at best--they're sharp animals, quick to act on very light stimuli (compared to most dogs), kids CAN prompt the prey drive, and owners or potential owners need to be aware of that.

Obviously I'm disregarding dominance issues here--of dogs/wolfdogs as pets taking hugs or kisses from children as aggressive-dominant gestures (a hug from the above/front = extreme dominance in dog body language) and reacting violently. Dogs do this too, and pretty often (something like 90% of dog bites are on children, and most are inflicted on the face to kids hugging or kissing dogs).

But yeah, while I personally love them and think they're fantastic--intelligent, beautiful, healthy and fascinating, with that sort of wild spirit you just don't get in say a Labrador--they certainly aren't for everyone, and people can't be misled into thinking that they're good, or reliable, pets.

My brother has a wolf hybrid. It's 3/4 Wolf and 1/4 Husky (I believe it's Husky. I'm not a fan of animals, myself, so I never really though to verify), her name is Kona.

She's HUGE, but playful, she's never once been aggressive. And in fact she's kind of timid. But she is very dependent on other people being around. She despises being left by herself.

She's a gorgeous creature though. A black coat with a white strip down the underside and icy blue eyes. Very pretty indeed.

I'm sorry to say this but wolves aren't meant to be pets, the same way tigers and bears are not meant to be pets. Making a wolf-dog hybrid a pet isn't a good idea either. Dogs have been bred to become sociable with humans, adding wolf into the mixture will just make the resulting hybrid more wolf-like because dogs are a subspecies of wolf.

I think if you really want a wolf-like dog, you might as well get a border collie or a shepherd breed. Getting a wolf or wolf-dog is asking for trouble.

Sadly, probably nine out of ten people who are sure they have wolfdogs don't--that's not to say your brother's animal definitely isn't, Ikutai, but unless he's somehow 100% sure (i.e. saw a breeding with a wolf or something), I wouldn't be certain of it--and I wouldn't judge the 'breed' on individual pets with uncertain ancestry. I know you were just talking about yours, mind, and it sounds like a very sweet animal, but it's a warning to others out there!

Wolves and wolfdogs, like dogs, have differeing personalities, and generalized statements just aren't healthy around them

I met an arctic wolf who was dangerous as hell--very sweet on the surface, but having been abused, if you got at face-level with her she would try to remove a face, normally yours. Penned with her was a one hundred and forty pound timber wolf who was absolutely the sweetest animal I've ever met--neutered, though. He would submissively greet dogs a third his size. In the back of their pen was a wolf-malamute cross who wouldn't even come close to people--he had the true shyness of a wild wolf that the timber wolf didn't even have. So yeah, individual personalities are REALLY strong in them!

I grew up on a farm...with lots of critters......and one thing I learned.....is that NO ANIMAL is ever completely tamed. Even a dog can turn. My family is too important to me to risk bringing a wild animal into our house.

I did have a pet raccoon as a kid.

I know a girl who worked with me in an animal hospital who believes she knows everything about dogs and dog behavior. She said something about getting a wolf-hybrid because "they're so beautiful!" and it took everything I had not to snap on her. I mean, you would think she'd realize that, after being bitten by DOGS in the animal hospital, a wolf-hybrid prooobably wouldn't be the best idea... -__-;;

We had an accidental coyote hybrid in the clinic once. It had somehow been adopted out by a human society and this thing was terrifying. We ended up having to euthanize because it was so dangerous. I realize that coyote=/=wolf but I like to think of it as a good example to NOT have a domesticated breed mixed with a wild animal.

Some people forget that it took YEARS and YEARS of selective breeding to end up with the dogs we have as pets today. Taking this new species and breeding it back with an ancestor WON'T give you a dog that looks like a wolf. The wolf part will STILL BE THERE. Granted, domesticated dogs have natural instincts too, but this animal will be large, powerful and, if not trained properly, dangerous.

If you're really serious about this, spend time with real wolves and wolf-hybrids. Also do some legitimate research. You can't keep a goldfish in a bowl and you can't keep a wolf-hybrid in your small, fenced in backyard.

That's just my views on it.

Ikutai wrote:My brother has a wolf hybrid. It's 3/4 Wolf and 1/4 Husky (I believe it's Husky. I'm not a fan of animals, myself, so I never really though to verify), her name is Kona.

She's HUGE, but playful, she's never once been aggressive. And in fact she's kind of timid. But she is very dependent on other people being around. She despises being left by herself.

She's a gorgeous creature though. A black coat with a white strip down the underside and icy blue eyes. Very pretty indeed.

Kind of repeating what Acherontia said, are you sure the dog isn't just a malamute/husky mix? Without seeing the picture, that's what it sounds to me.
And more on Ach's comment, that timber wolf sounds like a real character. xD

I chose wolves=no / halfbreeds=ok since breeds like malamutes are considered the latter by some.

The reason I voted against owning a full blooded wolf is because owning a wolf is a step down from owning a bear; with the proper expertise and facilities it can be done, but it's not really fair to your neighbors - innocent people have been mauled or killed because of this kind of thing.

In re: half breeds, a great deal of caution has to be taken - malamutes for example are stable, but that's not always the case. It generally takes a lot of cross breeding to make a wild animal non-feral.

Worba wrote: In re: half breeds, a great deal of caution has to be taken - malamutes for example are stable, but that's not always the case. It generally takes a lot of cross breeding to make a wild animal non-feral.

^- Considering that.. I know a few people who've claimed their husky to be a part wolf just to pump their ego, but how do people even get their hands on these crossbred "wolves" in the first place (Although, I've heard several stories of people having tigers and lions as pets in their basements...)?

My 82 year old great grandma has a wolf-husky hybrid that she raised from the moment he could be away from his mother, with the pedigree to prove it.

Ruffie is one of my favorite animals. He's very friendly as long as my grandma introduces you to him first and likes belly rubs. He's more of a guard dog, so he does get fierce at times. He's there to guard her chicken coop.

One of my favorite hobbies is just sitting there with him, howling back and forth to each other.

So my stance is this:

If you know how to handle them, get a hybrid. If you don't, go for a wolf-resembling dog if you're dead set on a dog that looks like a wolf. Leave wolves to the wild, to preserves, or the zoo.

Calmai wrote:My 82 year old great grandma has a wolf-husky hybrid that she raised from the moment he could be away from his mother, with the pedigree to prove it.

Ruffie is one of my favorite animals. He's very friendly as long as my grandma introduces you to him first and likes belly rubs. He's more of a guard dog, so he does get fierce at times. He's there to guard her chicken coop.

Bolding added for emphasis. Wolves don't have pedigrees Someone made up a piece of paper and called it a pedigree. This is what I mean by people falling for this sort of stuff : / It may be a TRUE piece of paper, but it's just a piece of paper--there is no organization that verifies randomly made-up pedigrees for mutts, which in the end, is what wolfdogs (bar the wolfdog breeds) really are.

On a sidenote, if you have a wolfdog that is a good guard dog, it's not a wolfdog, 99% of the time. They get aggressive if their prey drive is triggered or during social interaction--they almost *never* become territorial with humans. They make pretty terrible guard dogs, running rather than alerting, and although they howl socially so can't be called "quiet," they don't bark alarms, most of the time. (This is doubly true because of the similar behavior of the most crossed-to breeds, i.e. sled dogs--Malamutes & Huskies; a wolf/shepherd, for example, might be more likely to bark a warning).

This thread has been locked for excessive going around in circles.