GERMAN SHEPHERD/ WOLF HYBRIDS - Page 5

In some states it is legal to own wolf hybrids.Me personally am afraid of them. My neighbor has one .It has never bothered any thing or any one .I once found it tangled up around a street sign by it's long and heavy chain.since the owner was not home i untangled it and held on to it for dear life to get it home safely.It draged me all the way and she let me know she would get me if she wanted to .well she did not bite me but she did not thank me either.I hope she never gets loose again.. 

I have a german shepherd mix with wolf for almost 10 years. She has been behaving well, tame and extremely friendly, except a bit shy to new environment temporary. She grown up in midwest, and now living in Malaysia and definately missing the winter back there. When i first brought her to the vet, they advise me to think twice to keep this breed as she would be huge and today she is 110lbs. I think most of the time that people didn't spend enough time with their pet to train them up and to build their character and that's when the negative sides of this breed brought to people attention. If you seen how well DC is doing today, i bet you will wish to have one as all my neighbours who don't like dogs before and love her as much as i do.

If you are a real German Shepherd enthusiast why don't you get Dr. Max's ideas and thoughts and experiments from his book.  He has a number of references to this type of breeding.  One story was of the countrymen wanting to breed their shepherds to wolves.  He said the people would take their bitches into the forrest and tie them to the tree for the wolf to come along and breed her.  He said the bitch turned out to be a meal instead.  However, he thought in many cases the wolf would breed her and then have her for supper.  ecs

lmao!

I never thought about reading a book on the combination of gsd/ wolf hybrid. I was just curious to know from others experiences, what it would be like. I thought if they were combine their would be less health issues but temperment wise might be asking for trouble.

 Rik.  

As many people have stated already.. in MOST states, it is illegal to own anything any part wolf un;ess you are a licensed state approved wildlife person AND since vaccinations are approved for DOMESTICATED animals, they would not be considered valid if given to anything considered non domesticated... 

So, imagine this..... your wolf dog bites someone and they decide to take you to court... it will come out and you will be SCREWED!!!

I worked for a vet who wouldn't see them at all and another who would just because she thought what she gave them would be better than nothing

All this aside, they are wild animals and just like trying to keep a tiger... very dangerous.. beautiful and should be respected and admired for what they are

The  first link is to my male Indy of his pedigree the second link is of a dog 6 generations back just thought some might find it interesting that were commenting on this thread.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/473842.html

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/user_comments/25729.html

Nathan

www.HeimatKennels.com

Original poster:

I grew up with 2 shepherd-wolf hybrids for almost my entire childhood - both dogs were from the same parents.  They are fine dogs to have if you train them from puppies, I think a lot of people here are getting carried away with their fear of wolves.  I believe they were only 1/4 wolf:

Father - 1/2 shepherd, 1/2 wolf.  Was shot and killed going after chickens on a farm (farmer thought he was a coyote).  The father supposedly often went off hunting various wildlife, and seemed immune to skunk spray - definitely a bit more wild than his children.

Mother - Shepherd-Lab mix, possibly with some Husky. 

The dogs I grew up with (their children) were raised by my family from the time they were puppies.  I think that starting with them as puppies can make a huge difference in training them to interact with humans.  Our dogs were raised around small children (ie me) and they were always gentle with children because they were trained to be this way - I usually had large birthday parties with many kids, and had friends over all the time, and there was never a problem. 

The wolf instinct was not entirely gone, however - for example, one of our dogs would always hide whenever we had adult male human guests over to the house.  Only adult men would cause this behavior, and only when it was obvious that they were guests.  We had a couple of unfortunate burglars who were in bad shape when they realized we had these dogs.  Also, the male of the pair was very domineering toward other male dogs - I'm not sure whether this is a wolf instinct or not.  He sent a rottweiler running for its life once.

They both lived to be about 14, one died of the condition where the stomach twists around itself (can't remember the name of this disorder), the other died indirectly of hip dysplasia.  But for most of their life, they were quite healthy.  I've been told 14 is considered to be pretty good for a large dog.

I hope this helps - one final thing to consider: my family owned the parents of these dogs, so we really were able to start with our puppies from square one.  If you get your dog from a breeder/3rd party, there is always the risk of mistreatment, which can have a huge influence on temperment later in life.

Hi Mrgrey,

thanks for your input. I agree..with alot of socialization at an early age the animal should be fine to own. I can't own that type of hybrid in my state. Just wanted peoples opinion on them because I happen to meet one at my local petsmart.