Wolfdog Predictability: the Facts, the Myths, and the Propaganda
Any time you google wolfdogs, or you talk about wolfdogs with someone who knows very little about them, a common statement mentioned is “they’re unpredictable” and this is simply a myth, that has come from decades of misinformation, ignorance of canine behavior, and false labels from irresponsible dog owners and back yard breeders that claimed their poorly bred wolfy-looking dogs were pure wolves or part wolf. Buckle up because this is a wild ride of facts and information you likely didn’t know about wolfdogs!
The promotion of the idea of wolfdogs being unpredictable specifically can be quoted from the millions of regurgitated and clearly propagandized statements of “wolves are wild animals, dogs are tame animals, so wolfdogs do not know what they are, therefore, you cannot trust that they will behave like a dog or a wolf from one minute to the other.”
While these types of statements vary in eloquence and deliverance, they are overall trying to convey the same thing: A wolfdog doesn’t know if it’s a wolf or a dog, causing confusion of the animal, and unpredictable temperaments and behaviors. You, yourself, may be reading this thinking the exact same thing, but stick with me here, and I promise you will walk away with a whole host of information about dogs, wolves, and wolfdogs that will change your mind.
These types of statements I have personally encountered on anti-wolfdog social media posts, have seen as the top results on internet search engines, and conversations in person from people seeing me out with my animals in public, but why is it all the exact same rhetoric?
Genetic facts of wolves and dogs:
From a genetic standpoint, a wolfdog not knowing if they are a wolf or a dog makes absolutely no sense. We KNOW that biologically dogs and wolves are the same species classification. A simple google search will tell you that domestic dogs are a subspecies of the gray wolf known as Canis Lupus Familiaris.
Dogs and wolves grossly share 99.9% of their DNA, with some studies showing some heavily inbred obscure dog breeds shared no less than 98.8% of their DNA. Wolves and dogs also have the same number of chromosomes making breeding and carrying to term a non-issue. The changes to the genome from wolf to dog grossly do not involve canine behavior; they involve physical characteristics, size, shape, texture, and color, with reproductive changes being the most distinct and consistent difference.
From wolf to dog, we see a loss and/or permanent depletion or epigenetic mutation of genetic information. What this means is, you can take 2 wolves, let them hang out with humans for a couple of generations, and you’ll start to make a dog even without adding dog DNA into the mix. You could never go in reverse and make a dog into a wolf. Therefore, adding wolf into a dog doesn’t get rid of or overpower the homozygous dog genetics established in the dog. It will forever be part dog and exist outside of the natural wolf population; no matter the admixture of wolf DNA the domestication process has already taken place and cannot be removed.
Giant guardian breeds are the only dog breeds in circuit with no RECENT gray wolf ancestry. These dog breeds are the St. Bernard, Bullmastiff, and the Neapolitan Mastiff. While these certainly aren’t breeds for novice dog owners, these are your only available non-wolf influenced dog breeds. This means that in the development of these breeds over the last several thousand years, there was likely very little to no admixture of wolves in the dogs used to make these breeds.
Studies on the bottlenecking of dogs and wolves show us that wolves and domestic dogs came together and separated into different dog and wolf populations repeatedly. This impacted dogs and wolves in varying ways. This is how we now have black wolves, as the deep black pigment comes from the domestication of dogs, and why some of our dog breeds don’t do as well with starches in their diet as others.
There are 4 genes that really influenced the change from wolf to dog:
• Gene for Amylase Production
• Genes Specific for Overly Friendly Behaviors Towards Humans
Amylase production gene AMY2B is necessary for the ability to break down starches. While some of our dog breeds vary in the number of copies of this gene they produce, wolves have very minimal copies of this gene resulting in inflammation of the gut and pancreatic problems if the diet becomes too rich in starches. The multiple copies of this gene in dogs is a direct result of domestication, and a huge part of the bottlenecking of wolf and dog populations because food sources are a big part of epigenetics.
Genes geared away from human avoidance and towards human friendliness like GTF2I, GTF2IRD1, and WBSCR17 on chromosome 6 are specific in dogs that geneticists state are akin to Williams-Bueren Syndrome in humans, which is linked to extreme friendliness and lack of “stranger danger” instincts.
There us one gene that is specific ONLY to dogs:
• Merle Coat Gene
The merle gene, SINE insertion PMEL17, is a genetic mutation caused by a virus that affected an ancient dog breed that did not intermix with the wolf populations at that time.
The myth of a true “Wolf-Hybrid”:
Wolves and dogs do not “hybridize” in the same way that other hybrid animals do that you may be familiar with like ligers, mules, and zonkeys, because they have fertile offspring past the 3rd generation. Specifically, wolf to dog hybridization is referred to as intraspecific hybridization or the crossing between breeds, races, or varieties within the same species.
So essentially no different than crossing a Great Dane with a Pomeranian. Questionable, but it happens even if humans aren’t there making it happen. There have been 4 cases since 2020 of unattended female dogs being impregnated by wild male wolves, and each time, the male wolf paid the price with their life for “getting too close for comfort.”
The notion that a wolfdog is confused as to what they are based off this information alone should shut down these false statements, but it’s not; it’s rapidly spreading. Wolfdogs aren’t the product of two different species being forced to mate with mismatched chromosomes for novelty in zoo’s, but due to this propaganda spreading like wildfire, it is being used to change legislation, which is causing unnecessary, unconstitutional search and seizure, inhumane confinement, and euthanasia of dogs across the USA.
Even with this information readily available, it’s tucked away to the corners of social media while the top AI results from internet search engines state that wolfdogs are half wild half domestic sharing wild and tame traits, and that is simply not true for a few reasons.
One being that not a single wolfdog in the USA is coming from a wild captured wolf parent; it is 100% illegal to take wolves from the wild, let alone cross state lines with one, as well as import them from other countries. If someone is caught doing either, it is a federal offense and comes with a significant punishment via the Lacey Act of 1900.
Second, wolves and dogs share the same core behaviors.
Third, not every wolfdog is 50% wolf and 50% dog. Even when one parent is a captive bred “pure” or 95+ gray wolf, you still are not guaranteed to get a neat 50/50 wolfdog because of the trace genetics from the dogs used early in the lines developed by the fur farms that mixed dog in some of the smaller subspecies of the gray wolf with larger dogs like the Great Pyrenees to make larger pelts for more profit.
In short, you can never fully pull dog genetics and traits out of an established wolfdog once they are there. In this case, it does not all come out in the wash. There are high contents with German Shepherd ears, and blocky Malamute heads, that test at 98% gray wolf.
My personal experience and contribution to the false narrative of unpredictable behavior:
I remember early in my wolfdog ownership I was so eager for my micro-content that was sold to me as a mid-content wolfdog to express “wolfy behaviors” so much so that I blamed every poor behavior he had exhibited on his 7% wolf content instead of taking accountability for my lack of training and desensitization. I kept posting in wolfdog specific Facebook groups about these “unpredictable wolfy behaviors” I was experiencing until someone firmly explained to me that ALL CANINES express these same core behavioral traits, they just vary in intensity and frequency, and that my wolfdog was almost completely dog and his behaviors are likely contributed to the working-line German Shepherd used in his line.
Initially, I was offended by what she said, and I responded very ignorantly, “Yeah right you just don’t want to agree that my dog is just as wolfy as yours.” and I completely dismissed her experience with these animals thinking she was just hell-bent on me not actually having a real wolfdog.
Then, the time came for me to pick my courses for my first semester of my BS degree, and I saw the course option for canine behavior and communication thinking it’d be an easy “A” after all I had learned with my first wolfdog. On day one of this course, I quickly realized, I had egg on my face, because she was right. Core Canine Behavior and Communication is the same across all of the Canidae Family which includes, wolves, coyotes, jackals, foxes, dingos, and dogs.
Examples of modern dogs exhibiting “wolfy” behavior:
A Chihuahua the smallest of our canine companions, one always targeted for being so vastly different looking yet superior in their valorous attitude, is going to exhibit the same denning behaviors as a wolf to get a comfortable spot to lay in. They will pull bedding to a desired and secure circular spot and spend time meticulously moving the bedding around to make it perfect. Sometimes even digging ferociously into mattresses, in turn pushing owners towards lunacy in the middle of the night as the dog tries to get comfortable at the foot of their bed.
This is an instinctual behavior that isn’t necessary in a domestic setting where everything is provided for them, but we see it anyways. Chihuahuas also get their small stature genetics from an extinct gray wolf, as well as 0.2% of their genetic code directly being traceable to this specific wolf.
The first wolfdog breed:
Our first documented wolfdog breed is the Alsatian Wolfdog, otherwise known as the German Shepherd Dog. Although this information will likely ruffle some feathers, it’s a true part of history. We know via the writings of Captain Max Emile Frederich von Stephanitz the creator of the GSD, that a Eurasian wolf from the Alsace region between Germany and France was used in the original making of this breed but von Stephanitz told other breeders to not use the wolf any longer because it made the puppies too timid. Much of this information has been scrubbed from the internet and redacted in the online PDF English translated version of his book Der deutsche Schäferhund in Wort und Bild published in 1921, but it remains in forums revolving around GSD’s on the internet.
Although GSD’s have their own distinct DNA profiles like all established dog breeds, certain working lines share more wolf genetic markers than your average dog breeds. Regardless of their controversial background, the GSD is still in millions of homes with their documented worldwide numbers estimating around 10 million dogs as of 2024.
Behavior that is the same in dogs and wolves:
Over and over again we observe all canines sharing the same behaviors and while these behaviors are vast and complicated, they can be condensed into the following categories:
• Body Language
• Vocal Communication
• Scent Communication
• Self-Preservation Behaviors
• Reproductive Behaviors
Body language you will see your dog using that wolves use for the same reasons are:
• Posturing
• Tail Position & Movement
• Facial Expressions
Your dog may stiffen up or raise the fur just above their shoulders known as hackles if uncomfortable in a new environment or if they see an animal, person, or thing that they are unsure of. Your dog may tuck their tail when they’re scared or anxious. Your dog may wag their tail out of excitement or activated prey drive. Your dog may lick their lips, yawn, or divert their eyes when stressed or uncomfortable with another person or dog. You may not even pick up on some of these repetitive cues in your dog or know what they mean, but every canine fully understands this communication, and this means of communication comes straight from their wild ancestors.
Sometimes we may unintentionally push our dogs past these more subtle cues and end up with a more obvious facial expression like showing teeth, or maybe even a vocal cue like a growl which leaves us startled. Many owners punish their dogs for these types of communication instead of trying to figure out what triggered the dog to express themselves in this way. This type of punishment trains the dog to hide how they are feeling in the future, often times resulting in owners making claims of a “sudden bite” or “an attack out of nowhere.”
Wolves and wolfdogs are much better at communicating clearly. Their communication is immediate and straight forward, ensuring you’ll never have to guess if they’re scared, threatened, upset, or uncomfortable. The reason being is they have not been bred to hide how they are feeling or to appease like some of our established dog breeds.
Communication within a wolf pack is necessary to make sure that things run smoothly for pack survival and without it, wolves will die. A wolf will growl and snarl to make sure they get their share of a meal, but in the human-dog relationship this had to be minimalized. Even though this resource guarding behavior is undesirable, we still see it pop up as a common “problematic” behavior in dogs as well as wolfdogs.
We as humans view this as a dominion problem, with our natural instincts to dominate the animals under us in the food chain, many of us viewing having dominion over a dog and other animals as a God-given right.
Vocal communication you will see your dog's using for the same reasons wolves use them are:
• Barking
• Whining
• Howling
• Growling
Vocal communication is the one us humans respond to the most because we’re very vocal by nature. We speak twice as fast as canines and convey much more information verbally than them in our open means of dialect, much like this long, drawn-out detailed article. We even speak on a different wavelength than canines. We have all heard a dog bark, howl, whine, or growl. This also comes directly from their wild ancestors and is a needed form of communication with humans.
A bark from a dog and a wolf (yes wolves indeed do bark) is caused by excitement and calling attention to something or someone.
Every canine whines for the same reasons, to communicate a want, need, or feeling. Whether your dog is begging for a piece of your steak by whining under the table, or a wolf-pup is pestering an adult wolf to regurgitate food for them, it’s the exact same form of communication.
Howling in dogs and wolves is used as a form of echolocation and to express emotion. You may never hear your own dogs howling until you put in surveillance of your home and watch it after being away. A sad realization is that most dogs howl or whine when their owners are away, and they’re waiting to hear the familiar sound of their owner's car pulling into the neighborhood. Yes, you read that right, I said neighborhood. Wolves do this for the same reason.
While hunting and traveling, wolves get separated and they communicate over long distances with one another. Some studies show wolves doing this for days staying in the local area calling out for lost pack members that died or were killed and using their scent communication to find where those wolves last were.
Dogs and wolves growl to express boundaries, frustration, protest or during the excitement of play. I’m sure we’ve all played fetch with a dog that growled at us while we tried to pick the ball up and throw it again, and initially it startled us until the dog once again dropped the ball at our feet. The dog wasn’t frustrated or setting a boundary; they were just audibly expressing the excitement of play. Sometimes dog and wolf play can sound like a full-fledged doggy brawl only to find all the dogs or wolves involved barley making contact with one another if at all.
Scent communication that you will see your dog's take part in that wolves also do:
• Tracking
• Marking With Scent Glands
• Scent Rolling
• Marking With Urine
• Marking With Feces
We have all seen viral videos or news reports of dogs traveling long distances to be reunited with their owners. They do this by following invisible scent trails. While it’s common knowledge dogs can track our scent for miles, our dogs also mark us and our things. Every time your dog has rolled on the carpet, your bedding, or up against your clothing, the oils from their scent glands that produce a specific scent to that dog rub off on all of those things. When we walk across them or brush against them, we carry those oils on us. Our dogs and other canines recognize this scent and get a profile which tells them loads of information about the other canine.
You may see your dog sniff spots for a long while on a walk and pee or poop over them even if they are spayed/neutered. This is your dog marking their “territory” and a dog can be very protective and defensive of said territory which can result in your dog being hostile against another dog on a walk, or worse, an off-leash dog that also thinks that the area they’re in is their territory resulting in an attack on your leashed dog.
Once again, these behaviors are the same in the wolf. They mark their territory by urinating, defecating, and rolling on/brushing up against items like bushes, rocks, trees, and grass. Unlike our dogs and wolfdogs that are forced within the boundaries we set for them; wolves keep to established territories of 50-1000 square miles, careful not to overlap one another to prevent unnecessary confrontation that can result in both packs losing vital members.
Since this information shows that all established dog breeds share the same core behavioral traits we relate to wolves, we cannot accurately say that a wolfdog is unpredictable because each established dog breed and their mixes have been observed expressing the exact same behaviors as wolves, with varying degrees of intensity and frequency depending on breed influence.
The limbic system changes to wolfdogs:
I think this is one of the most important genetic influences on wolfdogs, because we see overwhelmingly that the limbic system, which is the involuntary fight or flight system, responsible for emotional regulation, response to external stimuli, drive, and memory development, is impacted by wolf DNA even in small amounts, and traces of these impacts are seen well into subsequent generations.
There are 4 self-preservation behaviors that both dogs and wolves express known as the four F’s:
• Flight
• Fight
• Freeze
• Fawn
Contrary to popular belief, the initial instinct of the wolf in nearly every new scenario and when faced with danger is flight. They don’t want to stick around to find out if things were going to work out or not. Unless it is absolutely life or death and necessary for pack survival, the wolf will always take the opportunity to run. A low F-Gen wolfdog (Filial Generation-generations removed from the wolf) or a wolfdog in the 30%+ range is going to let Jack the Ripper get you every single time, while they run the opposite direction defecating and urinating on themselves while you’re being attacked.
The more dog DNA influencing a wolfdogs genetic makeup, the less likely they are to let you get murdered or robbed. Truth be told, wolfdogs make better visual deterrence from those types of people than actual guard dogs. This is the timidness that von Stephanitz seen, and this is why he no longer wanted to use wolves in the GSD’s development. Von Stephanitz needed the GSD to be fearless and self-assured, not constantly calculating risk and reward like the wolf does.
Dogs were bred to stand and fight, even if it is a human they are fighting. Wolves and wolfdogs always calculate the risk over the reward, and with the instincts to avoid humans, you just don’t see the genuine confidence necessary to go after a human if not cornered. This is due to wolves that were less fearful of humans being killed by humans over thousands of years, lowering the fearlessness of wolves in the gene pool and doubling up on fear and avoidance of humans making fearfulness both a learned behavior for survival and a genetic trait through natural selection This makes wolfdogs extremely unlikely to go out of their way to maul or attack someone unlike many of our established dog breeds. In the event of a wolfdog going out of their way to attack someone, there would have to be significant dog genetics influencing such behavior likely exceeding 80% dog.
Freezing is something we see a lot of rescued wolfdogs doing when cornered or captured. While some may show teeth and snap at leashes or capture poles, as a last stich effort to preserve themselves, most freeze and just play opossum. Some of these dogs stay in this frozen or disassociated state for days to months, making rehabilitation or rehoming exceedingly difficult. We see dogs with much more fight in them, but even they can freeze and disassociate in these types of situations depending on their specific temperament and personality.
Fawning is something dogs and wolves do when scared or unsure of a specific person or other animal, and if you’ve ever been tinkled on by a little puppy when you met it, congrats, you’ve been fawned over. This self-preservation behavior is seen when a dog or wolf exposes their underside to you, shrinks themselves to look smaller, tinkles, licks your mouth, whines/whimpers, or all the above. This is super common in young dogs, wolves, and wolfdogs for the first 2 years of their lives when meeting older dogs or humans that they want to show they are not a threat.
Where dogs and wolves drastically differ are in their reproductive cycles. We have bred domestic dogs so far away from the wolf breeding cycles and behaviors that some dog breeds and mixed breeds cycle up to 3x a year. Male dogs have evolved to have steady testosterone levels whereas male wolves have drastic loss of testosterone every Spring until late Autumn.
Reproductive behaviors in wolves that differ dogs in the following ways:
• Monogamous Pairing
• Cooperative Breeding
• Annual Seasonal Breeding
• Lack of Inbreeding
• Courtship Rituals
Even though you can never change a dog into a wolf, there are certain behaviors that a dog will revert to like pairing off with a mate and starting a pack when left alone to fend for themselves. Typically, explicit monogamy is a wolf specific behavior, because we have bred true pair bonding out of dogs, causing male and female dogs to be receptive to multiple partners, however, we have still seen dogs take part in monogamous pairing especially if those dogs bonded young causing co-dependency from Litter Mate Syndrome.
Observation in captive bred wolves suggests that those wolves also are receptive to multiple partners, but it can be more difficult to achieve with those pairs needing to go through appropriate courtship beforehand. Regardless, true monogamous breeding results in a dominant “mom and dad” type breeding pair. The role of a monogamous relationship in wolves results in paternal involvement. Removing paternal involvement during whelping was the cornerstone to ensuring humans and dogs could safely co-exist.
This excluded male dogs from the whelping process over time because at the time of domestication, a 140lb male wolf protecting his mate and pups wasn’t safe nor ideal. Because of this behavioral trait brought back in from the wolf, wolfdog males with significant wolf content are overall considered safer to have around their very young offspring than regular dogs. Although dog sires tend to do great with puppies 4+ weeks old and help establish necessary canine behavioral boundaries.
Wolves take part in cooperative breeding, this means that only the dominant pair in a wolf pack will breed, and even though all sexually mature males and females in the pack can breed, they do not. These lower ranking wolves will separate themselves from each other preventing inbreeding, fighting, producing more puppies than can be cared for, and interference with the breeding pairs breeding rituals. When puppies arrive, the goal of the entire pack is to make sure those puppies survive, and the lowest ranking wolves typically are the designated babysitters.
There is no evidence to suggest dogs or stray dog packs are doing this at all. However, we do see residual effects of cooperative breeding in our domestic female dogs, which we commonly refer to as “false pregnancy.” These dogs go through the whole whelping process, produce milk and everything, and are not pregnant. This is directly from their wolf ancestors that produce milk to take part in feeding puppies to prevent the breeding female from getting run down and too weak from nursing.
Wolves and high content wolfdogs have what is known as Annual Seasonal Breeding. Male wolves and mid-high content wolfdogs are fertile from late December/Early January to March depending on region and really don’t have quality sperm until their third winter.
Male wolves and high contents have a physiological change to their testicles starting in April that causes them to shrink and sometimes even recede back into the abdomen until late October.
Female wolves and mid-high content wolfdogs are only fertile from late December/Early January to March and are only receptive to mate for 5-7 days. Which is far shorter than the dog which lasts 3-4 weeks. However, it has been reported, although exceedingly rare, that if a female does not become pregnant during that initial 5-7 day window, they may be able to have a split heat before the seasons ending requiring intact male and female wolves and wolfdogs to be kept separate the entire 3 month span of the breeding season.
A wolfs breeding season is established through a physiological process known as photoperiodism. Basically, based on the region, when daily sunlight significantly decreases, male and female wolves become fertile. Coyotes too!
Just like in dogs, female wolves and wolfdogs of varying content are more likely to have same sex aggression due to surges of estrogen pending heat cycles. Canine reproductive cycles are influenced by several genes across several chromosomes, but overall, it is reported that most female wolfdogs go into heat from November-March and typically once a year to every 8 months.
High content males get an annual surge of testosterone that makes them grumpy, more territorial, and grumbly/aggressive with other males. Even still, they really aren’t likely to be aggressive with humans although there have been some documented cases of male wolves and high contents getting pushy with established boundaries.
This seasonal behavior is commonly known as Winter Wolf Syndrome which has variations of intensified behaviors regardless of the wolf or high content wolfdogs being spayed or neutered due to the intense instincts to breed passed down from the wolf.
Female wolves and wolfdogs go through less drastic changes than male wolfdogs because, honestly, and I think I am speaking on behalf of all canine owners here, the females are bitches year-round. Male wolves and high contents go through more obvious behavioral changes because the remaining 9 months out of the year they just spend most of their days gleefully riding the wave of life.
While dogs do some flirting and courtship, it’s nothing like the several months long courtship rituals of wolves. There is a lot of nuzzling, scent rolling, scent marking, and prancing that goes on for several months before mating takes place.
The facts about the history of wolfdogs:
The statement that wolfdogs are part wild and part domesticated is also easily debunked/dismissed. In May of 1900, it became illegal to kill and/or transport wolves across state lines via the Lacey Act. All wolfdogs in the USA are multigenerational, and their genetics can be traced back to the fur farms that were shut down following the (ESA) Endangered Species Act of 1973. This put pure wolves that had been bred and raised in captivity for at least 73 years to produce fur, pelts, and trinkets, in the hands of private citizens, zoos, and conservation programs. The USDA Code 9CFR 1.1 following the ESA was updated to reflect private ownership of wolves and wolfdogs which states that any animal consisting of 98% or less wolf DNA is a domestic dog and not governed by the ESA, but instead, the (AWA) Animal Welfare Act of 1966 regarding legalities on breeding and exhibition, but not private ownership. This means that legally, multigenerational wolfdogs and wolf-dog hybrids are considered fully domestic dogs, thus leaving the states to set up their own laws and regulations regarding ownership.
As it stands, we have had very little refreshment of new wolf DNA in the established wolfdog lines. Recently there have been some successful imports of British Colombian, Arctic type, and Eurasian wolfdogs to refresh these lines, but the red tape is extensive, and for good reason. The permit and import process is time consuming and very expensive, and it is not accessible to the majority of wolfdog owners or breeders. Although export of American wolfdogs happens annually.
Most wolfdogs share common ancestry, with most high contents having a COI (coefficient of inbreeding-the genetic measurement of how closely related two dogs are) exceeding 15% and it isn’t uncommon for some high contents to have a COI of 30-35% which is up there with some well-established dog breeds. So how could wolfdogs be half wild and half domesticated if the multigenerational captive bred wolves in circuit AT MINIMUM have been selectively bred by humans for 125 years?
With what we know from the Russian Farm-Fox Experiment from 1959, it took 6-10 years for behavioral signs of domestication to appear. Meanwhile, captive pure wolves have had 12.5 times longer to begin to domesticate. Some breeders have even openly discussed issues with size variation with many 95% wolfdogs shrinking with each subsequent generation. There are multigenerational USDA licensed and registered male wolves in the USA that are 80lbs and 28” at the shoulder (the size of a large German Shepherd), with some of their siblings varying significantly in size, suggesting some wolfdog lines are at the end of their rope for true wolf size and physical characteristics.
The propaganda:
Any time you Google dog bite fatalities, wolf-hybrids are mentioned as one of the top contributors, but there are never any supplied statistics to support this. Truth be told, since 1980, only 24 alleged wolf-hybrid fatalities have been reported with the majority taking place before wolf genetics tests were available. In the last 7 years, there have been two verified deaths of infants from gross parental negligence regarding 2 wolfdogs of significant content, with 12 years between the previous wolfdog fatality also involving a young child with gross parental negligence and poor canine husbandry. Many of the people making claims about wolf content in these fatal cases will be discussed in a future article in great detail, so stay on the lookout for a history and case by case breakdown of alleged wolf-hybrid/wolfdog attacks and fatalities.
Bottom line, wolves, dogs, wolfdogs and hybrids are all canines; they’re going to do canine things. It is the people who do not understand canine behavior and communication that perceive the more frequently intensified canine behaviors as being unpredictable. It is the lack of accountability, lack of appropriate canine husbandry, inflation of misinformation, and algorithms promoting anti-wolfdog propaganda that are the cause of the confusion.
If we as a collective have learned anything from this article, it should be that if anything would cause an undesirable dangerous behavior, it would be what we deliberately made established dog breeds into based on the available dog bite statistics. This information begs the question, by what basis is this claim of wolfdogs being unpredictable being made outside of deliberate ignorance and bias against wolves and wolfdogs?
In conclusion, with all of these core behavioral traits being the same in wolves and dogs regardless of recent wolf ancestry, captive bred wolves, wolf-hybrids, and wolfdogs being with humans for 125 years, and no observed incidences of unpredictability reported by experienced owners, how could one explicitly arrive at the conclusion that wolfdogs are unpredictable?