Wolfalike/Wolfdog - whats your breed and why? Discussions

The clue is in the thread title : Wolfalike/Wolfdog!

Hence, my attempts at a tactful description

Wise words. They see "Snow Dogs" and they want one, or a derivative of same! With little thought about how they are going to leave their "snow dog" home alone all day whilst they go out to work, they cannot see further than the cute husky or malamute puppy, the bundle of irresistable fluff that will grow into a hundred pounds plus of muscle and energy that will demand miles of exercise per day, and will not tolerate being separated from his/her "pack" whilst crusts are earned!

That last post of mine was a bit harsh. Not every wannabe Mal or Husky owner is like that ... many are, but there must be just as many who are not, so I apologise to those who have done their research, and have made the adjustments.

Unfortunately too many are just like that and their naivity is compounded by the fact that the commercial puppy breeders - whether puppy farmers, backyard breeders or naive/greedy "pet" breeders - are quite happy to sell to anyone who has the money to spare, whether they have a clue about the breed or not.

A good example recently was the poor woman who bought a cute puppy from a backyard breeder at 6 weeks with no questions asked (except for, "Have you got my £600?). She lives in a second floor flat with no access to a garden and is at work all day. Within two weeks, her flat was trashed, the puppy was peeing and poohing everywhere and screaming all day long causing serious complaints from neighbours and attention from the council and the RSPCA. The breeder offered no support or advice whatever and eventually refused to take her calls. After two weeks of what she described as "hell", she gave the puppy to our welfare for adoption rather than take it back to the breeder (not that there had been any kind of contract or paperwork at all!). Unbelievable, but all too common.

Mick

That's a very sad story.:-( It must be very difficult to see this happening.

Lovely pics everyone...

Just thinking the same...

Any more?

Take care.

Seoniad.

Why do Northern breeds such as Mals and huskies have such high prey drives when they were bred to work and be companions ?...
Are they, were they used to hunt ?
How come say a pointer or a terrier for example doesn't come with the same not allowed off lead warning, whilst being taught to be hunters obviously will have a high prey drive ?

With the Chukchi dogs (sibes) the dogs were worked all winter as the Chukchi followed whatever food source was available - seal, fish, reindeer etc over hundreds of miles. In the summer, the Chukchi stayed put in their summer settlements and often wouldn't bother to feed their dogs. They were simply let loose round the village to scavenge for themselves. This is why they are such effective hunters (and thieves ). They are different from pointers etc as they were hunting for food for themselves, not as an assistant to their human master.

Mick

Hi Inki

I can only speak for sibes, but it has always been my understanding that The Siberian Husky 'had' to hunt, as a matter of survival.

The Chukchi used the dogs to gain access to hunting grounds that would otherwise be unavailable to them Life was harsh and food scarce. They would often let the dogs go to fend for themselves. The siberian husky developed it's predatoral skill to stay alive.

I see it in my own guys. They are hunters in it's most primative form. They are all trained to recall (nearly all sibe owners I know do this). Trained the same way any other breed would be, long lines etc. But the are an idependant ancient breed. My guys would survive no problem the Chukichi way.

Hope this helped a bit

Take good care.

Seoniad.

Still looking forward to more pics of the dogs

It's now hardwired into them and instinctive. As an example, we were doing a SHWA fundraiser last weekend and the dogs were staked out on a grassy area while we were setting up the stand. There was a sudden kerfuffle and Summer's head emerged from a hole she had dug with a mole in her mouth. One quick snap and the mole was dead, a quick swallow and the mole was gone (to the disappointment of the others).
She must have heard the mole's movements underground and dug at lightning speed to catch it. She had been fed not 10 minutes before - it wasn't about hunger it was about prey drive.

Mick

Very much so Mick. Summer in her element, crowds going ewwwwwww

Take care

Seoniad.

Not a Husky....but my BCx did this once...much to my dismay there was a rather large hole in the campsite lawn....I apologised profusly to the campsite manager - who laughed and asked me if he could employ her!!
I was amazed that she was able to catch it and dig it up that quick - she scented it and followwed it along for about 6 foot - then went up in the air came down digging and had got it so quick it was dead in an instant....(I did not let her eat it....although some rabbits have provied her dinner)

scavange is hardly hunting, did the chukchi use the dogs as transport ? were they split between Transport and hunters ?

Thanks for the info guys x

The primary purpose of the dogs were as transport during the winter. The Chukchi dogs were not used as hunters by the Chukchi at all. The hunting was done by the dogs for themselves during the summer when they had to find their own food - small mammals and birds would have been their primary prey, but they would also have stolen whatever else was left accessible by the humans - hence the reference to scavenging.

One of mine hunts and eats moles, mice etc. I have never seen anything like it before, well except on those wildlife programmes. I had to get my head around the fact that it is his natural born instinct, (I am a lover of all animals big or small and respect their lives). The others do not do anything like that.

Me too Werewolf. Wolves in sheeps clothing so to speak. Don't think I'll ever get used to it, although Jacub and Sabaka will drop anything if I get to them quick enough.

My friends sibe cleared a 7ft fence last week and killed the neighbours ferret. Upsetting for all as you can imagine. The police were called and things were eventually sorted out. And in the middle of it all sat 'Lupo' wondering what all the fuss was about.

Take care WW.

Seoniad

How very, very sad. Poor poor dog. I heard the other day about a Utonagan bitch who had 6 litters, one after the other, starting when she was only 6 or 7 months old. Some scrote keeping her almost permanently in whelp, just to make money. This happens with all breeds of course, but the "northern" breeds seem to be particularly targeted by puppy farmers and irresponsible and disreputable breeders.

O Lord! Sorry, but I'm going to have to say the dreaded W word ! It is because they are fairly recent wolf crosses, mals and huskies have a lot of wolf in their make-up. This gives them a very strong prey drive.

Lovely story Tassle! One of Hal's forte's was to "hear" moles moving underground, and then dig them up and eat them!