Discussion split from NI and Utonagan owners thread Discussions

Partly - but mainly because the whole wolf thing blew up in her face, and she had to quickly back-track. Eddy repeatedly warned and warned her not to go on television with her dogs, but she didn't listen, and thus caused her to have to do a complete volte face, and Eddy to be virtually bankrupted because an idiotic judge at her trial stated that if any dog had any more than 1% wolf in it, it was illegal! (Which of course made every single dog on the planet illegal, stupid man.) I saw the programme on tv, and it was then that I became intrigued and wanted to learn more, eventually many months or even years later meeting up with Eddy.

Having let the wolf out of the bag, it was impossible to get him back in again. The only thing to do was to deny as there is no test that can prove wolf content, or no wolf content, in any dog.

How interesting - I saw the programme all those years ago, and fell in love with JK's dogs. And you are right, it was after this programme and the subsequent hoo haa that she coined the name Northern Inuit, so that her puppy owners didn't have to use the W word. The dogs who appeared on tv were wolf crosses - and as I have said in my previous post, Eddy begged her not to appear on tv and declare them such - and the rest, as they say, is history.

goes both ways... couldnt prove their wasnt either...as said clever marketing..i still dont believe the hype.

From the States, via Northern Ireland, where they were and still are I believe legal.

Nothing supposed about them - if they were not pure wolves, they were certainly very high %, but having met both and interacted with them in the flesh, I would put my money more on the pure, but looks can of course be deceiving.

hmmmmm... no such thing as bad publicity

Yup! I personally thought it was extremely stupid of JK - and others - to do a volte face on the wolf thing. My personal furrow was to say nothing - to neither admit, nor deny. I never told people that Hal was a wc., when asked I would say something along the lines he is a mal cross sibe, a good old mix of northern breeds. Quite often people would say he looks like a wolf, and we would just laugh and say well, he is probably the closest thing you will ever get to a wolf in Northamptonshire and don't worry, he has eaten today. By opening their mouths and flatly denying the wolf content, to me was stupid for one reason and one reason only - it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that one day the ban would have to be lifted. It was just totally ridiculous to say that any dog with more than 1% wolf in it had to be kept in a secure enclosure with a licence. And exactly what i predicted has happened - the ban has now been lifted, we can now legally and openly keep F3's and lower - which leaves those dogs based on recent wolf content floundering in the deep end without a float! They burned their bridges, and there is no going back and reconstructing them.

I cannot make up my mind whether this is a good thing for the dogs, or a bad thing.

I totally agree - Eddy was a wily old fox, stupid she wasn't - but you have to remember that at this time the RSPCA were starting to rattle their sabres, and Eddy, being smart, could see that it was no longer a good idea to advertise pups for sale as wolf hybrids, and advised not to appear on national tv with those beautiful dogs, but her advice was ignored, and as I say, it was Eddy who suffered the most, and more importantly, her dogs.

..even in the us where hybrids are even more available..people are still duped thinking they have bought a wolf cross when indeed they havnt.

doesn't make any difference what you believe Tupacs - it doesn't change the fact that the ni and the utonagan are descended from a mix of mals, sibes and wolf ;-)

Possibly - but there are as many that are, as aren't. In some States, it is legal to have a pure wolf, or an F1. We are in regular email correspondence with a lovely guy who has a pure wolf bitch who must be about 2 now, maybe a bit older. She is an absolute character apparently, and a delight.

It wasn't a documentary as such, well, not at all actually. It was a programme called "Friday Night Live" on itv. I always used to watch it whilst OH went to the pub in the village with the boys. I just could not believe my eyes when there before my eyes were two of the most beautiful "dogs" I had ever seen in all my life, it was truly a Road to Damascus moment for me. One I have never regretted, although sometimes I wonder what would have happened had I not watched that programme! For starters, I would have a lovely clean home with no tumbleweed, and no oak and mahogany doors ruined by deep dogs' claw marks!!

she suffered did she? i think dogs being kept in barns are the ones that suffered.

if it was to be believed that they had wolf content..why the sympathy for her lieing? if she wanted to work openly with wolves or wolfdogs she could have elsewhere but to lie and to breed and let other people?
again boils down to money and not the love of the wolf or wolfdog..
the people that got dogs from her wanted to have something 'unusual' and illegal dont think the dogs themselves were ever top priority.
and i still do not believe the hype! people will always throw in the term 'wolf' to get interest from people that want a wild gracious endangered animal as a pet.!

:? so your other dogs(the ones youve had for 40 years) dont count?

No, of course I didn't. I am a totally IRResponsible dog owner - I thought you would have known that by now! I never revealed Hal's identity to the owners of both bitches, and I let them both sell them totally irresponsibly to all and sundry without any warnings at all. I just took the money for the stud fee and ran!!

I thought not!! I knew Eddy for many years, and as I have said before she was not perfect. she became over-dogged, and the dogs suffered, but she did her best. I have already told the story of how the whole wolf thing blew up in her face through no fault of her own, and as a consequence she was virtually bankrupt. Her health suffered terribly, she lost stones in weight and eventually died a premature death as a consequence.

You should not listen to rumours Luke - without ever having met Eddy, you cannot make such comments. You can form conclusions, but you can never possibly know unless you actually met her for yourself. Anybody who knew Eddy will say the same as me - she was not perfect, she was a wily old fox, yes she wanted to make money, she was a business woman, aren't we all interested in making a living? She adored her dogs, they adored her, but yes, they suffered as a consequence of her business going down the pan. I could tell you endless stories about her and her menagerie but you have obviously made up your mind, based on tittle tattle, and therefore you don't want to listen.

lmao no fault of her own..oh dear!
...you believe it because you want to

Of course they did, especially Lizzie, the german shorthaired pointer I had, a real character. But I am an honest enough person to admit that they all pale in stature beside my beloved wolfy boys! I adore dogs, all dogs, and they usually adore me, I have always been attracted to them since I was 0 years old, but I'm sorry, I feel no shame in admitting that the last 13 years of Hal, Woody, Ben, Tai and 1 or 2 others have been fantastic. I have learned more through these guys in 13 years than I learned in the previous 40 odd years of "ordinary" dogs!

And that's a truly honest answer!

No, I believe it because I know the truth. In your own words, you never met her, I do not believe in judging people unless I personally met them and know the facts. I have heard all the ridiculous stories of her throwing live puppies down wells and God knows what - if you knew Eddy, you would have known that she would throw herself down a well before she ever did that to one of her dogs.

I quite agree! It was an awful thing to do IMO. They were exercised at night, but that's not the point. I said she wasn't perfect, when things started to go wrong, the farm fell into a pretty dire state.

She did want to work openly with wolfdogs. To start with, she did, everything in the garden was lovely. If you google Edwina Harrison wolf crosses or wolf hybrids, you may still be able to find an article that was written by a reporter and it will tell you all about it. It was when her friend insisted on going on national tv with her wolf crosses, thus opening Pandora's box, that everything fell apart for Eddy. It wasn't illegal to have wolf crosses when she started, she used to advertise her puppies in the local press and national magazines. This is what was so unfair - all was tickety boo when she started her work, but thanks to the greed and selfishness of others, everything went belly up.

The equivalent would be for a Czech Wolf Dog or Saarloos breeder to be now told "o sorry, we have decided that any dogs with recent wolf content, however low, are no longer legal unless kept in an enclosure". These breeders businesses would go straight down the pan.

Hmm thought so.