Wolf Dog Education

[draggar]

Originally Posted by Rona

Sorry, but if a vlcak behaves like a wolf it only means that the breeder made bad selection/breeding decisions and/or neglected early socialisation of the pup. Alternatively it could mean that the owner did not socialize/train the pup correctly. A vlcak should be a vlcak not a wolf or a wolf-hybrid.

Unfortunately, some breeders select towards appearance only, ignoring character, early socialisation, owner selection, etc. and some naive buyers buy such animals without proper kennel research, knowledge about the breed, experience etc. Later such people write naive articles or claim that

Last time I checked the vlcak breed was made by crossing Czech working line German shepherds with Carpathian wolves. Not only that we're dealing with what, generations 9-12 now (roughly, depending on lines)? This means that they are still very close to their wolf ancestors and considering that there hasn't been any breeding with other breeds we can assume that the genetics in the first "official" generations are still present in today's generations.

Yes, a vlcak should be a vlcak but they will have wolfy characteristics. With mutts (no, I am not saying vlcaks are mutts) typically the breed it looks more like it will act more like. So with a vlcak that looks very wolfy (like a Slovak show line) chances are it's genetic temperament will be more wolfy than one that looks more like a silver and black GSD (like Czech working lines).

Also, thank you for the slap in the face. We socialized Pollux as much as we could. We even had him in our service dog training program and he got FAR more exposure than the average dog (South Florida Fair, short trips, etc.). When we had him he was out being socialized and even now when I walk him around the community I make a point to stop and talk to my neighbors for a while so he gets used to other people. He's still very skittish (that's the wolf side, not the GSD side). He enjoys schutzhund but I think that's mainly because he got to know the helper.

Even Luna has some characteristics that we assume are wolf characteristics. If she gets corrected and she thinks it's unfair you need to rebuild her trust, not like our GSDs or malinois who think "Stupid human, we forgive you" and aren't hurt by it.

Both vlcaks are always trying to reaffirm their place in our pack. They are far more affectionate (but not constant) than the other dogs (and any dog we've had in the past) and try more to interact with us.

Draggar, how many vlcaks have you raised until their full maturity to make such claims! How many vlcaks have you seen working, participating in shows, camps and trainings to have the right to state that
Why do you extrapolate your limited personal experience to the whole breed? CSV is not a 30% wolf! It's a dog.

Dogs are a subspecies of the wolf - that's why they were reclassified from canis familiaris to canis lupus familiaris (yes, canis lupus dingo also but we don't get into that now).

They have wolf recently in their history so they'll have wolf genetics and wolf temperaments (not 100% but a lot more than most breeds of dogs). Also at the FLA meeting the wolf hybrids there acted a lot more like our vlcaks than most dogs.

You also seemed to reiterate a lot that a vlcak is not a wolf or a wolf hybrid. Where did I make the claim that they are? All I said is that there is wolf in the breed's ancestry (I say my ancestry is in part Irish but I am not Irish). We appreciate that here. We think it is important to observe the characteristics of animals (domestic and wild) and learn from it. Many breeds of dogs have wolf characteristics and in our experience it seems that vlcaks have a lot more than the average dog. If we didn't appreciate "the wollfness" of the breed we would have stuck with German shepherds.