Photos by Bill Woodall, West Branch of the Ausable River, 01/28/07
Cree at 9 months, and about 100 lbs.
And the Lowdown on raising a wolf hybrid!
| Bill and Cindy were up for
the weekend, and after several days of light snow and sub-zero
temperatures, Sunday "soared" up to about 15 degrees. With the sun
finally burning through the clouds at mid-morning, we strapped on snow
shoes, and headed up the frozen river from Ausable Loj with Sammy and
Cree. These
are some of the photos Bill took on our hike. The last four, with
Wendy and the dogs, were taken a couple of days later by Steve, early
in the morning. |
Click on Photos to Enlarge
 Hybrids, like wolves, express their curiosity and exercise their jaws, by gnawing on things, for example, your dining room table. The minute you stop stroking them, they're off to explore and wreak rascally havoc. If you think the family pooch likes to chew on things, prepare yourself for a whole other level of canine destructiveness, from a dog who doesn't distinguish between throw-toys and valuable antiques. They also mark their territories methodically and continuously, whether they are outside or in your living room, which means they are harder to house-train than your average dog. Incidentally, the higher "percentage" wolf your hybrid is, the more do these "wolfie" traits predominate. At the same time, to my knowledge, there is no "wolf-percentage-detector" test yet, so when you obtain a wolf-hybrid, what you see (or have been told), is not necessarily what you get, and therefore an unreliable indicator of what you have. There is a world of difference between a huskie who is 25% wolf, and a wolf who is 25% huskie. This means that while your home may survive supervised visits by the hybrid indoors, they must live outside, and they're going to require a spacious, escape-proof enclosure, and a companion to hang out with. Cree used to live with a couple of pound-hound brothers named Sammie and Roscoe. Now, he lives with a wolf pup named Zeebie, and the manner in which Zeebie's presence has altered Cree's behaviour is both amusing and instructive. See http://www.adirondackwildlife.org/Predators_in_Popular_Culture.html. By the way, escape-proof means high enough so that they can't leap over the fence, deep enough so they can't dig under it, and sturdy enough so that they can't chew through it, because they will definitely try all three. If you're thinking a six foot high anchor chain fence, think again. Cree's large enclosure has an 8 foot high fence, a broad, dig-proof inside perimeter, but also has room for him to break into a full sprint, while playing with his pals. In addition there are legal issues in many states. New York, for example, requires special licenses from the DEC, and from the USDA, to keep a canine that is any percentage wolf. Many states treat wolf hybrids legally as dogs, but others do not. Even assuming that you are set up to safely and humanely keep hybrids, better check local and state requirements. Just a word on timing, dominance, etc.: Cree was slightly larger than Rosie, the family pug, when we got him, and while he arrived with the patience-trying traits of a wolf pup, nipping fingers around food, etc., he clearly saw himself as the "pack" puppy. Wendy and I were Mom and Dad, while Sammie, Cree and Rosie were big brothers and sisters. Cree was very deferential to us, and submissive to the other dogs (except during rough-housing), even though he was much larger than the others within six months. To this day, when his invitations to rough-house are rejected by Roscoe, a scrawny 60 pound mutt who now resents being at the bottom of the pile, Cree grovels on the ground before him, while Roscoe stands stiffly above, growling and threatening, a comic scene if ever I've seen one. By the way, we sometimes call Roscoe the porcupine dog or Ahab, because he just doesn't get it. He probably owns the world record for being quilled, and has never read Moby Dick.... the whale always wins! In any case, the arrival of the 6 week old Zeebie turned Cree into a doting, long-suffering older brother over night. Hybrids, like wolves and corvids, are incorrigible thieves. When I was constructing an insulated, heated dog house for Cree in his pen during that first Autumn, he was keeping me company, and I noticed that my tools were never where I had last put them down. I spent as much time searching for my tools, as I did using them to build the dog house. Cree disdained the completed dog house, preferring to sleep either on top of it, or in a den he had excavated underneath, thus turning the completed dog house into a fine roof for the den! Continued below..... |
| Hybrids
make terrible watch dogs, because wolves don't bark, are wary
of strangers, and their survival instincts tell them to flee unfamiliar
people. Our "watchdog" is one of Cree's buddies, an old pug, named
Rosie. She's the only dog we
have who barks to announce a visitor's arrival. Wolves survive by
staying hidden. We learned during a Summer in Alaska that you can live
surrounded by
wolves, hear their howling every night, and never see more than an
occasional fleeting glimpse of one. You'd better have understanding neighbors, or better still no neighbors, because your hybrid will want to howl, when the mood strikes him, and your neighbors may not find the experience as haunting and melodic, not to mention convenient, at 2:00 AM, as you might. Our nearest neighbors are a 1/3 of a mile away, are themselves nature lovers who don't mind the occasional choir, and we're landlocked on our property in such a manner that we'll never have closer neighbors. In fact, the Adirondack Mountains is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the United States. In addition, we run our business out of our home, so we are basically always around to investigate whatever gets Cree's attention, whether it's the howling of the local coyote pack, the raucous squawk of a raven, or the piercing scream of a bobcat. Our bedroom and our office is bounded on two sides by the wolf enclosure, such that we are almost never out of visual and/ or audible range of Cree and Zeebie. You'll need time to exercise your hybrid. Cree and Zeebie hike with us at least three miles every day, rain, shine, warm weather or sub-zero. This is not only healthy and fun for all involved, but it helps build both trust and dependency in your pet. Our first hybrid, "Chino" hiked all over these Adirondack High Peaks, and was an ongoing good-will ambassador for properly-raised wolf-dogs, because people saw how calm and good-natured he was. Continued below.... |
| It
may seem absurdly obvious, but it's important that you (or someone
in your "pack") be stronger than your hybrid. Cree, for example, was
100
pounds at 9 months old, and like all wolf pups, he was willfull and
uncompromising, particularly around food. There are occasions when you
must simultaneously demonstrate gentleness and superiority in physical
strength, so that you have an understanding with your pet. Refusing to
be pulled, for example, when Cree is on a leader, reminds him who is
stronger, and therefore who has control. At the same time, requiring
him to sit when he receives a
reward, not only teaches him to practice dexterity, consideration and
restraint while taking food from your fingers, but it reminds him who
takes care of him. The irony is that wolves, being on the whole
probably smarter than dogs, are capable of learning these lessons well.
Cree is much easier to feed by hand than our mutts, who are more
over-anxious, and more likely to snap at your fingers when you are
offering food. We've all read horror stories about wolf-hybrids who turn on their masters, or injure a neighbor, but here as in all other topics, we find the news media selling the news, rather than reporting it. Dogs (and wolf hybrids) are like people in this respect: who they turn out to be depends on how they are raised, and how much guidance and consideration they've been shown. With the two hybrids we have kept, we have never seen the slightest aggressive gesture towards people, their general reactions ranging from friendliness to indifference to wariness and departure. Actually, over 30 years, we've had many large dogs from malamutes to mutts, and have yet to have an aggressive dog, so we have to conclude that unwarranted aggressiveness is taught to dogs by masters, circumstances or both. Consider the wildlife lover who loves the idea of having a "wolf", procures a wolf hybrid from a breeder, then discovers they can't keep him in the house, and they don't have room outside for a large escape-proof pen, never mind a suitable environment in which to exercise the animal. What you won't read in the sensationalized stories about hybrids, which occasionally run in the media, is that the hybrid ends up in the backyard on a chain (which they will almost certainly escape from), or a small enclosure, which frustrates the hybrid and teaches him to be defensive. The owner has a typically busy life, with tons of responsibility, which doesn't permit much time for the hybrid, who grows lonely, despondent, bored and finally, like any chained or constantly restrained dog, aggressive. Then one day, the chain breaks, or a stranger wanders into the yard. While this doesn't happen often, and while attacks by wolf-hybrids represent an insignificant percentage of attacks by domestic dogs generally, the media never fails to pick up on these instances, since an attack by a dog which is part wolf is much more sensational than an attack by, say, a german shepherd or a lab. What happens much more frequently, and which you will never read about, is that many owners realize too late their mistake in procuring and failing to control a hybrid, and the animal ends up being quietly euthenized, or adopted by an overburdened hybrid rescue center. It has to be added that there are unfortunately, some folks who want to have a hybrid, not because of romanticized notions about owning a piece of nature, but because they want a dangerous and intimidating dog. The mixing of wolf and canine genes will indeed result in a dog with, literally, a more powerful and dangerous bite potential, the fact remains that the higher the percentage of wolf in the hybrid, the more likely the hybrid will be wary and fearful of strangers, and therefore not as likely to be effective as a weapon for intimidation. Keep in mind that the alleged instances of verified attacks by wild wolves on people are so sketchy and infrequent, its pretty clear that wolves uniformly fear people, and leave the area when people are detected. Every wolf I've seen in the wild, whether in Canada or Alaska, was fleeing at high speed. If owning a wolf hybrid sounds like a situation for which you won't have enough free time, get a husky or a malamute. They're a lot like wolves, and they can live inside! |
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