NOTE:
You donât want a wolf as a pet.
No, no, no.
Wolf sanctuaries are full of wolves and wolf hybrids what romantic assholes tried to raise as pets and then had to give up when they realized what theyâd gotten into.
Most of that adorable stuff you see Lorne doing you can get out of a big shepherd dog, and unlike the wolf the big shepherd dog can be reliably housebroken, wonât maul stranger-dogs, and can be trained to do humiliating tricks:
Agreed. My favorite wolf house-training story gone bad: the wolf and the owner were locked in a battle of wills, and the wolf absolutely wouldnât take a shit on walks, seeing it as subservient. So heâd go through the whole walk, and every time when theyâd get back to the house heâd go shit on the same rug. Every single time. They eventually had to give him up.
Well youâre wrong about that first part.
⊠but absolutely right about the second.
Their immune system due to their varied gene pool and lack of interbreeding as seen in domesticated dogs, makes them lack the health problems they often do.
This is terrible English. Anyway, thereâs an interesting segment in the documentary Dogs Decoded about an attempt to raise a wolf in a home. It goes as well as one would expect. https://vimeo.com/19472436. Jump forward 31 minutes.
Youâd certainly be an idiot to skip the 5-odd millennia of work that has already been done for you on producing improved house-wolves; but it is easy to imagine that that sort of goofy charm helped push wolves from the âclub, eatâ list to the âattempt to raise, club, eat, if problematicâ list.
Most folks canât even handle raising a Jack Russell Terrier.
Dubiously topical; but I highly recommend a Jack Russell blend for this purpose. It preserves much of the verve and intelligence of the breed; but somewhat moderates their moreâŠchallengingâŠfeatures.
My former dog beast, Jack Russell/Bichon Frisé(precise resemblance varied with how recently she had been trimmed; but the Jack Russell also moderated the poofy fuzz factor considerably).
Our last canid pet was mostly wolf, and although I loved him with all my heart, and we gave him a great life of 16 years, I would never have one again. He was intelligent, beautiful, funny, and so, so difficult.
We were fortunate in that we work at home and lived out in the woods, and so were able to adapt our life for him, but it was a real trial at times. For example, that whole 16 years, we couldnât go anywhere without him, since he couldnât be left in the house, and no outdoor enclosure was secure enough. He would absolutely flip out if we left him alone- pack drive is no joke with these guys.
I always say that he was a terrible dog, but an excellent wolf- he played by a totally different rulebook. I miss him every day, and am grateful for everything he taught me, but I wouldnât recommend it to anyone, itâs just too hard to provide a good quality of life to a creature so wild.
I do recommend the book âThe Philosopher and the Wolfâ by Mark Rowlands as a good realistic picture of what living with one is like. I cried my way through that page by page after D passed on, it hit so close to home.
Good thing that sofa is low to the ground. He took a tumble.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
