Why on Earth would you want. Half wolf as a pet?

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

I've been reading the dog threads tonight, and got thinking about dogs I've met, and was reminded of a 'Dog Day' I worked at last year. I love watching the different dogs go past, and often talk to their owners about them. At the one show, I met two dogs that were half timber wolf! 1 was GSD/wolf, the other was Malamute/wolf. The Malamute/wolf was HUGE! and the most amazing blue colour WTAF is this all about. Is it really a good idea to bring a half wolf crossbreed into the house with your kids?

I've changed my mind I'd love a Shetland zebra cross!

I would be very dubious of anyone in the UK claiming that their dog has any wolf content - truth is that the vast majority are GSD/husky/malamute etc. crosses, with a dash of Czech wolfdog if they're very lucky, which don't usually have a high content anyway. Wolves and near crosses have to be registered in the UK; the last DEFRA studies had something like 8 registered and estimated less than 10 unregistered. Pretty much every dog claimed as a wolfdog that they investigated was deemed to have no wolf content.

Why anyone would want a dog with such potentially uncertain temperament is beyond me, huskies and the other northern breeds are challenging enough.

My brother and his girlfiend have 2 Northern Inuits. This breed is used in the Game of Thrones for the Direwolf pups.
Northern Inuits are bred from Husky/GSD/malamute to achieve a 'wolf' look.

They are huge but very soppy dogs and very placid, and easy to train.
went to visit the breeder when they picked their girls up and I was amazed at the temperment of this group of dogs that live like a pack on her small holding, knowing they have challenging husky genes in their genetic make up.

On the breeders homepage is a pic of my db girls father Shaman , he is beautiful and a great show dog.

www.julestar-northern-inuits.com/

Don't a lot of huskies have wolf in them? They do in North America.
Uncle had a half-wolf dog. This was in California. She rode in cars fine, was toilet trained, & regularly bit my cousins. We all knew to be careful of her, she was 5x more watchful than the most watchful sheepdog you ever met. Eventually had to be locked up for family events (heaps of children).

I'm with toboldlygo. I'd doubts there are any true wolf crosses in the UK although there are definitely people trying to pass off husky/mal/GSD crosses of a such. Even more so now that there is a small pool of Czech wolf dogs and Sarloos in the UK to add to the mix. Both are very wolfy looking but are very far removed from the wolf itself.

No wolf in the Siberian husky. Might be a dash in some working Alaskan husky lines (a type of purpose bred racing dog rather than a defined breed) in Canada, Alaska etc. but again probably not to the levels you might expect.

For every genuine wolfdog there's 500 idiots with a GSD x husky saying it's got wolf in it. Very, very unlikely in the UK and still reasonably improbable in the US.

Ah, yes, I am thinking Alaskan huskies. Call of the Wild, & all that.
No shortage of wuskies here. Think my uncle got his off a mate whose bitch became unexpectedly pregnant, hope he didn't pay that kind of money.

Our local Dog Warden had a young Northern Inuit in, they use the same vet as us, and he recommended that they contact us to ask us to have him, as she didn't want this one to go into kennels as he looked pure wolf and would could attract the wrong type of potential adopter. The only other interest was a film studio that needed several wolf looking dogs (hmmm wonder what that was for!) and she didn't want that life for him either.

It was the only time I regretted getting my GSD boy as he was not allowing this interloper into his domain under any circumstances, so we were unable to have the beautiful boy.

We humans on the other hand were smitten, he was the most beautiful dog I had seen and was so gentle and sweet.

Moonmother, Shaman is gorgeous.

There are more wolfdogs than you would think in the US, since they are only illegal in some places. (Of course many dogs claimed to be wolfdogs aren't, but even allowing for that...). There's a piece of research about the kind of person who owns wolfdogs or other dangerous dogs in the US, and it's not very flattering about the owners. Toboldlygo is absolutely right about wolfdogs in the UK not being what they are said to be.

I know a GSD/Malamut cross, she's beautiful but belongs to a girl who couldn't control a Bichon. She's had no training and gets 15 minute walks (if it's not raining)