I got a wolf puppy
This is a beautiful animal, but it’s not a wolf. And for that matter, probably isn’t a wolfdog (though young animals are difficult to phenotype). It’s incredibly dangerous to call this precious pup a “wolf” or wolfdog, though, as wolfdogs are not legal in all states and counties, and are not approved for protections from rabies vaccines. It also gives people the wrong impression about how real wolfdogs look and act. Misrepresentation is a very real and dangerous thing for wolfdogs and domestic breeds alike. Misrepresented animals are often sold by unwitting or unscrupulous breeders, given the wrong labels by all-too-eager owners, or are concluded to be “part wolf” due to falsely-applied information about the breed. It’s an easy mistake to make; there is more misinformation about wolfdogs available to the general public than there is logical fact-based info.
If you’d like to read more on the topic, feel free to check out this article or browse through my wolfdog tag.
Oh, obviously you know more about my dog than I do just by looking at one picture. Fucking tumblr sjw bullshit. I got him from family friends who specifically breed high content wolf hybrids. His dad is literally a Eurasian wolf and his mom is half grey wolf half husky, so yes, he actually is a wolf.
It’s actually quite easy to tell from a single photo that this particular animal is not a wolf, nor a high-content wolfdog. For starters, he’s still very young. Wolves are only born once a year in the springtime - never any other time of year, despite breeder’s ridiculous claims. All high-content wolfdogs are about 8 - 10 months in age right now, and this pup is significantly younger. Remember - breeders lie; genetics and thousands of years of evolution do not. It’s also a blatant lie that one parent was a Eurasian wolf. Owning pure wolves in the USA for private breeding purposes is highly regulated; and no one (I repeat: NO ONE) has Eurasian wolves. The export permits to obtain live wolves from this subspecies’ home range would never be granted to anyone short of an accredited zoo with an established Species Survival Plan breeding program already in place. It doesn’t matter what your friend told you, or what strings they tell you they pulled; a Eurasian wolf cannot be found in private ownership. The claim that the mother is half gray wolf and half husky is likely bogus, as well. Outside of the fact that anyone who own pure wolves will NOT be breeding them to dogs (instead, they breed them to wolfdogs that already have legitimate and significant content), dogs and wolves have very different social ques and breeding seasons; meaning that, more often than not, they will either want nothing to do with one-another, or the wolf will kill the significantly smaller husky dog. During breeding season, wolves and high-content wolfdogs will exhibit a behavior known as Winter Wolf Syndrome, which makes them incredibly aggressive toward any intruders in their turf; for this reason, F1 (first-generation) wolf/dog hybrids are incredibly hard to produce. Lastly, your pup’s appearance is a dead giveaway that it’s absolutely NOT a high-content animal. By their very definition, high-content wolfdogs are almost entirely indistinguishable from pure wolves. And yet, your pup shows an exceptional number of what are quite clearly dog traits, even as a puppy: It has dark eyes, defined facial markings, exceptionally large ears with defined pointed tips and sparse fur in their interiors, has one white claw on the front paw, and has heavy white streaking on the chest and belly.
Here are what high-content wolfdog pups looks like:
Notice how they are much more uniform in color (no stark markings or color contrasts), have noticeably extended snouts, and how their ears are more rounded at the tips with fuller fur inside. These animals will phase into their adult coloration with age, like so:
Meanwhile, here are some husky/shepherd mix pups for comparison:
If your dog looks more like a shepherd/husky mix, then it’s clearly impossible for it to be a high-content wolfdog. Again: Breeders lie - genetics do not. So clearly, it is possible to tell from a single photo that your pup is not what those family friends of yours claimed it to be, and that you, by extension, are giving people false information about he breed be continuing to call it a wolfdog - especially a high-content one. Calling your pup a high-content animal is dangerous, because aside from the fact that high-content wolfdogs are very highly regulated (certainly more-so than other contents), it’s also giving folks the wrong impression about how real wolfdogs look and act; people will now assume that all high-content animals appear and behave like yours does, when this is clearly not the case. High-content animals are almost identical to pure wolves in looks AND behavior, meaning that someone who is used to domestic dogs and who has no experience with REAL wolves or wolfdogs is going to get themselves - and very likely the animal they care for - hurt. Please stop perpetuating the notion that your shepherd/husky dog-dog is a wolf. Aside from making yourself look incredibly uneducated, it’s also a real and disastrous danger to the animals. I am telling you this as a wolfdog owner, rescuer, and breed fancier; I have seen first-hand what harm misrepresentation can do. My current foster, in fact, came from a breeder who claimed that she was a high-content animal, as well, when she is clearly just a German shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix. There is no shame in admitting that your dog is just that - a dog. You still love and care for it the same, and can use the opportunity to explain to the largely uneducated public that a wolfy look does not automatically make a dog “part wolf”.
get wrekt.
Actually I thoroughly enjoy how detailed, informative and educationally @naturepunk responded - all the while I’m sure it gets completely exhausting reiterating this same information over and over every time some moron pops up and insists their poor dog is a wolf. People are stupid.
YEEESSSSSSSS
This is great, I am sick of people wanting to be “different” or “unique” or whatever by saying they own wolfdogs. A perfect explanation to a massive big problem !
