We do live on base housing but when we go home to Tennessee next year we will be out of the army so we won't have any breed restrictions or anything to worry about. But as I said before I definitely have decided against the wolf-husky hybrids and am just sticking with huskies, malamutes, and the Tamaksan looks like one that I definitely want to research and think about adding to the family someday.

jalepeno wrote:

A review of a new book about a woman's experience raising a wolf hybrid appeared in this morning's paper. It's quite germane to this discussion:

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2011/11/bookmarks_ceiridwen_terrill_ta.html

I'm a newbie, jalepeno, so I'm browsing threads.

Wanted to say I'm incredibly sorry to hear about what happened to your dog.

I've been around wolf hybrids almost my whole life (we used to have one). None were agressive, but they also were not raised conventionally. I hate to say it, because it sounds so cliche, but the dogs I was always around were raised by Native Americans. They just seem to have a way with them. The dogs lived in predominantly remote areas, and were not kept in yards/city life housing.

I saw that book the other day at Books-A-Million and I read a good majority of it so far. That lady, Ceiridwen went through a lot with that dog!

I work with a guy that has had several wolf hybrids. He claims that the higher the percentage of wolf the better. He definately does not deal with them the same way most would deal with domestic dogs. I think there are some people out there that are able to have hybrids and raise them properly, but I would not want one for myself.

I remember reading a long time ago about a woman who lived in PA had like 10 of the wolf dogs and they killed her.I think they were all puppies when she got them.

iceblulady wrote:

I remember reading a long time ago about a woman who lived in PA had like 10 of the wolf dogs and they killed her.I think they were all puppies when she got them.

Yea I heard that too. And she was supposedly experienced. They are too unpredictable to "average" owners. IMHO wolves should not be bred to domesticated dogs at all.

There's a wolfdog rescue near me and OMG one of them is soooooo pretty! I think she looks like she's just a beautiful sable sibe, but they say she's a sibe/wolf mix, and she probably is. From the pics I think she'd tower over my two. But man she's sooo pretty! She still needs a home, but I can't have another one right now, expecially one that would most likely want to eat my cats!

Isn't she so pretty?

Oh she is very pretty

She is pretty, but if I really wanted that wolf look I'd go with the Tamaskans. I'd never heard of them before this discussion, but they are very pretty and sound like they have a milder personality than a husky even! Wow! Too bad they are so expensive.

She is a beautiful wolfdog!

Keimo&Izzi wrote:

She is pretty, but if I really wanted that wolf look I'd go with the Tamaskans. I'd never heard of them before this discussion, but they are very pretty and sound like they have a milder personality than a husky even! Wow! Too bad they are so expensive.

Please see my disclaimer on Tamaskans. Be careful if you or anyone else decides to go with them.

hypers987 wrote:

iceblulady wrote:

I remember reading a long time ago about a woman who lived in PA had like 10 of the wolf dogs and they killed her.I think they were all puppies when she got them.

Yea I heard that too. And she was supposedly experienced. They are too unpredictable to "average" owners. IMHO wolves should not be bred to domesticated dogs at all.

Indeed. I wouldn't entertain the idea of keeping a wolf hybrid in captivity so to speak, like other domesticated dogs. That lady didn't sound experienced to me, but just a keeper of them. Wolf hybrids ranked #9 in dog fatality attacks...8 down from "pit bull types". Interesting...this is one newspaper article I read:

http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/3877

It reminds me of that one episode I saw on Animal Planet about feral dogs. It was shot in Detroit, MI. It was sad!

This wolf sanctuary is north of us:
http://www.seacrestwolfpreserve.org/

I think anyone getting ANY kind of dog, even a sweet Golden Retriever, should always research it first.

That dog does look very wolf-like...the tail doesn't look as "spitzy"!

Well sibe tails don't look spitzy either (at least they aren't supposed to). The only thing that looks wolfy to me is her height, she looks pretty tall, and her head shape. A little longer than a typical sibe, but I've seen a lot of different shaped faces on sibes. Just compare Siku and Elara! Siku's head is skinnier than Elara's. Elara has a massive head like her dad, but a short cute muzzle (though I wish for showing sake it was just a tad longer!).

The Tamaskans are really beautiful! The website has some shady elements to it though.

I said up-thread that there isn't a genetic test available for wolfdogs, except in specialist labs. Well there is one available to the public now so I just thought I'd correct that. UCDavis Department of Veterinary Medicine will do a DNA test for $150, details here. It tests for alleles that are only found in wolves and not dogs; a negative result doesn't guarantee that it isn't a wolf-dog, but a positive result means it does indeed have wolf in its heritage.

Both of my dogs are hybrids. They are the best dogs I have ever owned. They are great with kids and other dogs. I wouldn't trade them for the world!
I've had many threats to them (poisoning, shooting, etc) and have had to file police reports on some.
People are scared of them.
It's sad. I take mine everywhere. I have a one year old son and they adore him.
I would never recommend them to a few people I know, they have asked for puppies from mine and I've been like, "Oh, they're all spoken for already." They're not for everyone, that's definitely true.
And.. in all honesty.. Had we known what we were getting into when we first bought Zephyr, we may not have jumped on the opportunity. But after going through everything, I wouldn't change it for the world.

I also want to add about dog attacks, one of the worst ever reported was by a Pomeranian. And my neighbor has a Golden Retriever that I am positively terrified of.

Please be aware that we don't support the breeding of ANY dog outside of a reputable breeder (see "How to Find a Reputable Breeder" thread). The breeding of hybrids would not be considered a reputable practice by our terms. While we welcome your knowledge and experience, I want to caution you against speaking about breeding here. You are new, and welcome, so please don't take offense, but breeding is a VERY hot button topic on ANY internet forum. Not just ours.

Oh, thanks! >_<
Sorry about that.
We had actually planned on keeping them anyway

In my hunt for a husky, I came across what was identified as an "Alaskan Husky Mix". Beautiful, all white 3y/o girl who was a ball of energy. At one point she let out a howl so big, that it sounded like a wolf howling at the moon. It was beautiful Leads me to my question, can the way a dog howls indicate whether or not they are some sort of wolf/husky hybrid. Here are some pics of the lady in question.

Alaskan huskies are sometimes crossed with wolves but it would be really low content. I don't know that you can judge the howl by the wolf content. I think that since the howl is passed down from the mom teaching the pup it is probably more of a nurture thing. As for the white dog above, I would say she would be very low wolf content if any at all. She is gorgeous and looks wolf like but she appears pretty small and her paws don't look big enough. A good way to judge wolf content is to look at the toe nails, there will be black ones if there is a lot of wolf in the dog and also they will have black spots on their tongues.

She's a husky. Don't worry about that. She looks much too small to be a wolf, not to mention she looks pretty much pure husky to me. Alaskan husky and Siberian husky get tossed around in some shelters. If you ask me, shes a Siberian

Don't be conned by the wolf howl, God sent Siberians to the wolves to teach them how to sing.

Once again, there is no such breed as an Alaskan Husky. They are simply a mutt used in sledding. Shelters are horrible at identifying breeds.

Shelters are really bad about listing Huskies as Alaskan Huskies mix I think is covers alot and they don't have to be correct on the breed then.

My second Siberian was listed as Alaskan Husky mix. She is Siberian Husky.

chreiber wrote:

A good way to judge wolf content is to look at the toe nails, there will be black ones if there is a lot of wolf in the dog and also they will have black spots on their tongues.

Do you have any source information on that? That's news to me and I'd like to read more about it if that's true.

To the OP-- she looks full husky to me. Shelters rarely label dogs properly. They don't have any real way to tell other than guessing.