Must be the common ancestry! As for the movies; 'wolfdogs' have often be played by GSDs as well (even less convincing). Kavik the wolfdog in the 1980s and 'The Wolfdog' in 1958 (where the part seemed to be played by at least 2 different dogs!) spring to mind.
Then their are the Belgian Shepherds that were used in the company of wolves (in addition to an actual 'wolf'): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c5O8hOco6Q
There are a huge number of subspecies that scientists like to argue about. The maned wolf isn't a wolf and the Ethiopian wolf isn't either (strictly speaking). The Honshu wolf looks a bit sick in the photo... As many believe that the Red wolf is nothing more than a wolf/coyote hybrid then the resemblance is not too surprising Interesting to note the larger and more triangular ears of the European wolf and its subspecies (signatus, italicus etc). The Saarloos and Czech wolfdogs haven't a chance in the ear department to resemble their North American cousins.
I know someone who had their wolfdog painted black for a tv commercial in italy (channel perfume or something)... No one noticed it wasn't a real wolf!
Ref fluffy wolves etc, I watched a couple of programmes last week which also suggested that those are not the wolves that dogs have come from due to both their location and the fact that those wolves are very hard to 'tame' unless you have aquired them very, very young which the researcher said is highly unlikely considering the habbits of early 'man'. Apparently much reseach has been conducted and some are pretty convinced that our dogs today date back to East Asia.
Siberia Eurasian Wolves Video: http://www.natgeochannel.co.uk/Video/Default.aspx?ProgrammeId=1193&VideoId=811&channel=NatGeo
I agree Rachel. If I really wanted just to "capture the spirit of the wolf" I could have easily gone and found wolf-dog breeders, or wolf hybrid breeders, or even the NAID or a Tamaskan that seems to have found its way out to the states...but I didn't. None of them have what I was looking for... a DOG that could be easily trained. When researching them, they seemed like "super" huskies...now I have Lupa, and she's far more perfect then I could ever have imagined. And my favorite animal is humpback whale Wolves are interesting, but not where my wild heart is
Not quite sure why people who want a wolfie looking dog that is a dog (NI or NIx Tamaskan etc) are being looked down upon to be honest or why they are being referred to as new age hippies. Most people are attracted to dogs that they like the look of. There may well be a balance that includes temperament as well. There's quite a few on here that dream about the spirit of the wolf and doubtless have dream catchers and all that stuff but so what?
Just to give the flip side of the coin Shadow (on the right) is a wolf hybrid, she was imported at 2 weeks from the us, attempted to be sold for an extortionate amount of money and then finally rescued at 5 weeks old by me. She actually is 50% arctic wolf and yet nearly every single person that stops us says "oh my, what a lovely Alsatian" meh.. to me shes my baby girl and that's all that matters
I didnt think that kind of cross was allowed in the UK? How do you know she is a wolf cross and not just sold as one?
2 weeks? You can't import pups to the UK until they are well over 6 months because of the rabies titres .... or are you not in the UK???