Although quite short, this book has a lot of practical information on acquiring, caring for and raising wolf-dog hybrids. The book describes how difficult it can be to handle for these animals, which have a lot of wolf traits (of course) and different behavior patterns from domestic dogs. This can be a plus or a terribly negative impact depending on what sort of wolfish companion you want, how able you are to care for it, meet its unique needs and keep it from being too destructive (high energy and intelligence attribute to that mostly, I gather). Curiously, if I remember rightly, the book points out that some hybrids seem to inherit the desirable personality traits of the wolf- sociability, high intelligence, intensity etc while others seem to have more of the undesirable aggressiveness, desire for dominance, general wildness. You might never know what you're getting into.... For me who read the book as a mere curiosity, it was a great caution about these animals. They must be properly trained and conditioned to living alongside humans or can be very dangerous, as the large numbers of rescued hybrids attest to- having been abandoned or got rid of when their behavior becomes a problem.
To make it brief- the book was interesting and I learned quite a bit about wolf-dog hybrids, especially how much the author cautions against owning one unless you know how to treat the animal and handle its behavior.
Rating: 3/5 ......... 151 pages, 1989
When I was a kid my nextdoor neighbor had a wolf/German shepherd. He was huge and very smart and sounded mean when he barked but was ever so gentle and sweet and loved to come over to my house and play with me and my sister. On weekends he'd come look in our backdoor like he was a kid asking if we could come out and play. I loved that dog. In spite of such a good experience though, I don;t think it is right to breed dog/wolf hybrids. Too many variables that can go wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere were some folks around the block from us that had wolfish-looking dogs, when I was a teen. I always just assumed they were wolf-dogs; I do remember they howled a lot (especially at firetrucks) but maybe huskies do that too? I think a lot of them can be sweet and gentle-natured but so many others can be misunderstood, mistreated and thus dangerous.
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