[Diredog]

So me and my wife do have a wolfdog and I will tell you he has been the hardest animal ever to train. He does not like company at the house and when walking him people stop to ask if they can pet him because he is soo beautiful and we have to say no. I would love for people to be able to pet him but its just not a good idea. We didn’t go looking for a wolfdog but our sons friend got him as a pup and then had nowhere to live so he would leave the animal in our house all the time. We finally told him we would care for the animal until he could find a suitable living arrangement but that never happened for 2 years and then we became too attached to chief to let go. I actually hated the poor thing for quite some time as he was not friendly and would bark viciously at me every time i walked in the door from work and he bit me at least 100 times. He was just a pup though. After working with a guy who specialized in wolfdogs did we finally realize what we had gotten ourselves into. Anyhow 4 years later chief has become a huge part of our family. We have 6 kids from 24 years old to 8 years old and chief knows and loves us all. And that is about all he loves. We cant have friends over as he may attack someone. It just doesn’t seem right to lock him in a room either so we just live with it. Watching him run through the woods is just beautiful. Never seen anything in life so graceful. He has brought several fawns to us with such pride in his face and eyes and mine and my wife’s sunken hearts but that is just nature and something we’ve learned to accept. I would never recommend that anyone ever get one as a pet. It’s not designed for that and it takes a whole lot of sacrafice. We never would have gotten ourselves into this had we known. My wife just has a heart too big for her own good. We do however love our chiefy and wouldn’t trade him away for anything. I felt like killing him several times over when he was young and we were learning but he is just so beautiful to look at that staring in his eyes I immediately felt guilty for thinking it. He rarely shows affection and is not a snuggler or cuddler and most often can care less what we are doing unless it’s going outside and hes a part of it. He sheds nonstop and our house is a mess with dog hair even though we dust mop 3x’s a day. The work and care is constant and he tries to attack any living creature including people so keeping him outside is impossible. We cannot risk him getting loose and harming someone. I couldn’t live with that. Getting rid of him is out of the question because he has done nothing wrong. He didn’t ask to be born or sold or penned up and only does what is natural for him. He deserves to live a life and be as happy as we can possibly make him. He doesn’t deserve to be put down or euthanized or whatever you want to call it. He cant be released into the wild as he would not know how to live in the wild. He can definitely hunt but there is more to it than that. So we just love him and try to make his life good. He often looks to me to be sad or depressed wishing maybe he could be free to run in the mountains but things just aren’t that simple. I sure dont think it’s cool to say I have a wolfdog and actually dont. We tell our younger kids that he is a gsd x husky mix for fear that they may tell others what he really is. We needed veterinary care and when we walked into 4 different vet offices we were turned away. I finally had to call a friend from school that I hadn’t spoken to for almost 10 years to come to my home to care for him. One look in his face though and I hope you can see what I see and can see why we do all we can for him so he can be as happy as possible given all the circumstances.

DD101

[Author]

Posts