Wolf hybrids do not make good pets.
Wolves instinctively fear and avoid humans, while dogs have been selectivity bred for 10,000 years to share our company. Mix those competing impulses into an animal with the reasoning ability of a toddler and you get an unpredictable and dangerous combination. Young kids especially may trigger defensive behaviors that can result in a crushing bite, or worse.
I used to have a neighbor who was one of those massive truck, baseball cap, toxic macho men. He would often talk loudly in his driveway and keep me up at night.
He claimed his dog was a wolf hybrid. This dog was extremely aggressive and would attack children if given the chance. I NEVER saw that dog outside of the house. Being taken to walks, nothing. I only ever saw the dog through the door a couple times and every time it was the super aggressive barking. Not the normal bark, the one combined with bearing teeth, growling. Stuff from nightmares.
I don’t know it that dog was a wolf dog, apparently they are legal to keep in Canada but may be banned on a municipal level. I wouldn’t put it past a toxic macho man to own a dangerous animal, not train it to scare children away and make himself look like a “tough guy”.
No one that I know of got hurt by this dog. And the dog was isolated enough that it being a “wolf dog” was the only rumor. The guy claimed that he walked the dog super early in the morning -before anyone was out and about to avoid conflict with people and other dogs, but I never saw it.
But I never seen him interact with his dog, never let it out. Never play with it. It’s not a pet at that point. It’s a dangerous doorbell.
Does sound like good passive home defense though if it’s just constantly making its presence felt to any visitors
Dogs like that, that are aggressive and either can’t or won’t be trained should be destroyed, their owners fined heavily, and banned from owning dogs.
Dogs are classified as property and a dog that hurts someone causes the owner to be liable. A threat of violence from a dog, said property, is not much different than an owner with a gun negligently pointing it.
I’ve been to some pretty remote farm locations and they always have three types of dogs.
- The pet - small jack Russell type that lives in the house.
- The worker - sheep dog type that accompanies the farmer in his day to day life. Often sleeps close to the house or inside when cold.
- The beast - doberman etc always caged in the day. No interaction from guests. Ferocious human haters. They will roam the yards at night and generally patrol.
Each is part of the farm and has their place, to call them property is wrong because they are an essential part of the living.
The problem to me is when one of the 3rd type lives in close proximity to strangers. That’s the last place they should be.
