Wait my roommate's mom breeds wolfhounds... What's the problem? I'm not well informed on the issue but are they bad pets or something?
Hi, I wouldn’t say I’m the most well informed person, but I understand quite a bit. Short answer: yes, they’re bad pets. They may not even be considered ‘pets’ they’re in a tough place between wild animal and a pet.
Why is breeding Wolf-dogs bad?
Okay first of all, what is the purpose of breeding a wolf-dog? What benefit’s do you get from breeding a wolf-dog that you cannot get from any other breed of domesticated dog that already exist? Most dog breed’s developed today are bred for a purpose, and responsible breeder’s often breed to improve there breed and increase the amount of healthy dogs developed for this purpose. We know what trait’s these breed’s are supposed to have, and we breed more of the ones that best meet the breed standard and are best made to fulfil their purpose. Most people want a wolf-dog for aesthetic reasons, they like the look of having a big ‘wolfy’ animal, and think it makes them look more powerful for having own one.
Second of all, wolf-dog’s aren’t domesticated. It took thousands of year’s to domesticate the dog, we’ve been shaping them to our wants and need’s for millennia’s, possibly even before the ancient Egyptians. They want to be with people, they enjoy our company, and for the most part, as long as they are handled correctly they are completely safe around humans.
When you breed a wolf with a dog, your not going to get the perfect mixture of wolf appearance and dog personality, because that’s just not how genetics work. Some of the wild, undomesticated trait’s of the wolf will come through, and they just don’t fit well into human society. Some common wolf behaviour’s that can be seen in wolf-dogs which can be problematic in humans society include:
- Territorial needs. In the wild, wolves can have large territories ranging from up to 20 acres of land. They like to mark this territory, hunt on this territory and protect it against any invaders. A wolf-dog is not going to be satisfied with living in a house, and most back-garden’s won’t be safe enough. If the wolf-dog does end up living in your garden, how are you going to ensure that it can’t escape? Wolves can jump up to 12 feet high, most garden’s don’t have a 13 foot fence last time I checked. Why don’t you just take it for a walk? A walk is not the same as surveying 20 acre’s of territory, but also wolves will want to protect themselves, their territory and their owner from any perceived threats, which could include other dogs and possibly even other people. Also, wolves like to hunt, any small animal, which could be a rabbit, or even a cat or a small dog, could be perceived as possible prey to them, and if they’re available to them on a walk, they could try to hunt and kill it. Most people cannot contain their wolf-dog’s need for their own territory and any attempt to limit this could result in a threat to the general public, their pet’s or the wolf-dog’s household.
- rough-housing. It is not uncommon for a wolf-dog to want to rough-house or play with their owner and other member’s of their household. It’s well-known that dog’s love to play at all ages, and for wolves rough-housing can be good practice for the hunting and fighting they will need to practice when they grow up. Wolves and wolf-dog’s have tough skin and thick fur to protect themselves during rough-housing, but they are often unable to understand that their human companion’s have thin, hairless skin that can be easily broken by their bite or their claws. A bite or scratch that would be harmless to another wolf, could lead their human owner needing hospitalisation.
Say a person ends up with a wolf-dog that display’s these behaviours, and realises that a wolf-dog is too much for them, where are the wolf-dogs to go? They can’t exactly stay in a dog shelter, where dog’s are often limited to kennel-sized spaces, the small space would drive the wolf-dog insane and lead to more frustrated and destructive behaviours. As well as this, it would be a threat to the other dog’s in the dog shelter and to staff who are not qualified in handling wolf-dogs. You can’t exactly release them into the wild either, they still have some domesticated feature’s which could mean that they would not survive long in the wild, and wolves may not even be native to the owner’s area, meaning they would become a threat to the local ecosystem. They would need to go to specialised centre’s that know how to handle wolf-dog’s or wolves, perhaps they could find a suitable home in a zoo, but the truth is that there just aren’t enough of these places for the amount of unwanted wolf-dogs. So the only option left is euthanasia.
Another significant problem that comes with the existence of wolf-dogs, is that many people will claim that their domesticated dog which looks like a wolf, is a wolf-dog. This is problematic for many reasons, say a person buy’s a ‘wolf-dog’ that is really just a wolf-looking domesticated dog, they think it’s great, it makes a wonderful pet and they enjoy it company. Their friends meet it and think it’s pretty cool and well-behaved too, so their friends decide they want to get a wolf-dog too. Except they end up with an actual wolf-dog, they end up with an animal that has all the problematic behaviours that I’ve discussed above, and they realise they can’t handle it and end up with the difficult problem of trying to rehome it. Another problem that comes with this is some animal shelter’s will also claim that there ‘dog which looks like a wolf’ is a wolf-dog, because it can sometimes be difficult to know the genetic heritage of a dog, and DNA tests are expensive. This can make the dog extremely hard to rehome, and could end up with it being euthanised. Also, ownership of a wolf-dog without a licence is illegal in 11 states in the USA, as well as in many other countries, most people enforcing these rules do not have the time or the money to DNA test every suspected wolf-dog, which can lead to the euthanasia of more ‘dogs that look like wolf-dogs’ which could be nothing but loved pets.
This is all that I can think of right now, but I hoped this helped you understand a bit more. If you want to do some further reading, I’ll link some sites below:
https://blog.dogsbite.org/2018/04/fatal-wolf-hybrid-attacks-archival.html
https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/the-tragedy-of-wolf-dogs
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/17224974.pdf
https://www.hcn.org/issues/99/3063
