Explains those dog breeds that are advertised as half-wolf but said to be as hazardous as a full blooded wolf.
Interesting discussion on this thread. Thanks!
“Explains those dog breeds that are advertised as half-wolf but said to be as hazardous as a full blooded wolf.”
My wife and I are German Shepherds Dog breeders, and my wife has had some experience with wolf hybrids from before we were married.
She has told me that they can be dangerous, as (if I am remembering this correctly) they tend to have the same levels of instincts as wolves (i.e. hunting and predatory behaviors), but do not have the same level of fear of man as wolves, so the danger is compounded. Hybrids won’t be as powerful as wolves, but will still be much stronger than any dogs (especially in bite power), hence a bite from a hybrid will be much more damaging. And, to top it off, most hybrids are very nervous and fearful, and very difficult to train. They don’t make pets, and are really only suitable for someone that lives way out of town, as they are essentially wild animals...
When I was growing up in northern New Mexico, there was a “coyote pack” running around our small town, killing cats and dogs left in yards overnight, and harassing sheep herds, etc. Turns out, when they were finally hunted down, it was a pack of dogs from town that people let run loose, led by a large German Shepherd mix. There were only 1 or 2 coyotes ever found running with the pack. We had many, many coyotes back home, but they really never interacted with people at all, and never actively hunted anything remotely associated with people. It took dogs to get them over their innate fear of man, and then only a few actually ran with the dogs.
Interestingly, no one in town ever claimed any of the dogs killed...