Wolf Dog Education

[Silvester]

Originally posted by hanninadina :
"Uli it is completely nonsens when you write that there is not a selection done in american wolfdog breeders. Do you think only europaen dog breeders are able to select?"

Ok, then would you please tell and explain to me what breeders are doing a selection ? And for what do they "select"??? It´s a little difficult if there is no standart or anything like this, right ?

And how many breeders do you know personally ?( Beside yourself of course !)

Please do not talk about things you know nothing from.

Originally posted by hanninadina :
"Unpredictable, Sylvester, what is unpredictable?"

Well, I want to explain to you - obviously it´s neccessary: You know - or should know ! - that genetics is all time a kind of lottery. So if you don´t know about the genetical background of parents and you have already not made a selection for what you want and what you don´t want , you can not tell anything about the results you will get, it´s just - as I said already above- by chance and a lottery.

Means that you will have very different offspring, both in exterieur and in behaviour - please read about this in the books of (for example )Erik Zimen and his experiences with crossings of wolf and poodle, if you don´t know.

[Silvester]

In addition to my posting i want to do another correction:

Originally posted by hanninadina :
"As we all should know the most important time of socialization are the first 4-5 month in the life of a pup."

As we all should know - this is not correct !

It´s not the first 4-5 months but indeed only the first 3 months ... this can also been read in a lot of books, for example these of Eberhard Trumler.

[saschia]

I meet with this again and again - operating with numbers such as wolfcontent of % of wolfblood to characterize such complex things as behavior of a wolfdog. This is complete bullshit!

The percents might work on first generations (if you thought that behavior is a continuous variable which mixes perfectly), but as soon as you start mixing F generations together the things complicate, and once you select for a certain trait, you'll get completely different results! Look at the exterior! Common 23%-wolf CSW will look 90% like wolf and the rest is not GSD-like, but more dog-like, even the worst-looking wolfdogs can be easily distinguished from GSD, better than best-looking wolfdogs from wolfs. Selection was done on the character too, and in the beginning of the breed it was much harsher than the selection on looks. The result is a wolfdog - not wolf at all, and not GSD. I would sooner compare wolfdog to cat than to either wolf or GSD.

What is wolfish in the behavior of CSW, is the constant awareness of their surroundings (except in deep sleep), the ability to think for themselves and learn quickly, becoming bored by repetitive tasks, and their ability to communicate so intensively. But this is not an opposite to GSD, it is just normal behavior that is not atrophied by domestication.

[Rona]

Originally Posted by saschia

I would sooner compare wolfdog to cat than to either wolf or GSD.

How true

Originally Posted by saschia

What is wolfish in the behavior of CSW, is the constant awareness of their surroundings (except in deep sleep), the ability to think for themselves and learn quickly, becoming bored by repetitive tasks, and their ability to communicate so intensively. But this is not an opposite to GSD, it is just normal behavior that is not atrophied by domestication.

Agree 100% with the whole post

[Silvester]

Originally posted by saschia:
"Common 23%-wolf CSW will look 90% like wolf and the rest is not GSD-like, but more dog-like, even the worst-looking wolfdogs can be easily distinguished from GSD, better than best-looking wolfdogs from wolfs.

Selection was done on the character too, and in the beginning of the breed it was much harsher than the selection on looks."

Yeah, that´s both true ! - I agree completely.

[yukidomari]

Originally Posted by saschia

What is wolfish in the behavior of CSW, is the constant awareness of their surroundings (except in deep sleep), the ability to think for themselves and learn quickly, becoming bored by repetitive tasks, and their ability to communicate so intensively. But this is not an opposite to GSD, it is just normal behavior that is not atrophied by domestication.

I agree with this! And, I think it's been shown by several experiments (like the previously mentioned Poodle x experiment) that crosses can be domesticated in a relatively short amount of time - far shorter than the 50 plus years that CsV has been being bred. Having said that, I think any trait that might be construed as "wolfy" is simply a breed character, not an accidental vestige of 'wolfiness'. There are MANY breeds of dogs, and many individual dogs, that are much further removed from wolves that may have traits of being shy, flighty, independent, vocal, etc, and I don't find it meaningful to relate that to so-called 'wolfiness' or not.

[bogdan]

BVORTEC welcome on board!You do a great work and your site its very interesting.
But it has nothing to do with the CSW.First of all this breed has been formed using the european wolf.The european wolfs are very different from the actual north american wolfs in terms of fenotip and behaviour.
The CSW breed is the result of a scientific work of selection during many years and I can call it a masterpiece in this field.
Yes,my dog is very wolfish.but this is what I like much on it.The breed creators have created a wolf which can be handle like a dog by its owner.First of all I like his wolfish apearance(european wolf) and after that I like all its wolf "features" like sociability,speed of reaction,higher senses,pride,higher inteligence.endurance and many other mentioned here by the other members.
It is true that the CSW needs special atention and an experimented owner.But take a look at the fotos and read the forums and you will see how good the "revue" for this breed is.I agree with you that the mixing of wild wolfs with dogs should not be alouded to anyone.

[GalomyOak]

Some of the foundation GSD blood, as I have read several times, came from a wolf in Karlsruhe...does this mean the GSDs of the early 1900's might have behaved...wolfy?

Sara and dragger own a CW puppy, and also a puppy from my first litter, Luna. At least in Luna's case, I can assure that she was heavily socialized, and spent her first 8 weeks sleeping about 4 meters from my bed. She was picked up at 8.5 weeks, and I feel very confident that she was socialized nicely from then on. She may have been the youngest/only CSV pup to spend some time in Manhatten. I have not had the opportunity to see Luna as an adult, but she sounds in description very much like her mother - suspicious, but open -and a talker. Anthea is a very vocal dog. Luna's brother lives in Chicago, and is very social, another brother lives in North Carolina, he is submissive, but open, and the third brother lives with me, he has a temperament very much like his dad - i compare it to that of a snobby child - only wanting to ignore people that aren't "his friends", but not shy.

I have seen puppies from the same litter with very different personalities, puppies raised outdoors with very bold and open personalities. And, puppies raised indoors with heavy socialization who are quite shy and submissve...one of my own actually, Jovice, who was very open as a puppy. She was raised no differently than my other dogs - and her brothers, that I have met (and own 1), are 2 of the most open, dominant and bold CSVs that I know. They were a product of Baron, and Sleeping Storm Wolfsirius, a dog with an "unofficial" Of/Oc.

All of my dogs have really different personalities, but I'd hardly call them skittish (besides Jovice) - alert maybe, but no more so than the GSDs I work with. There are 2 GSDs in particular that remind me a lot of my CSVs...one is from CZ with heavy lines on Fero/Troll, and z Pohricini Straze, the other is heavy on Lord vom Gleisderick, one does schutzhund, the other, drug detection.

I really believe it's a combination of selected, but still, random genetics (especially with outcrosses) AND proper socialization...and I think it is very important that socialization is a carefully planned process throughout the first 2 years for our breed, as much as carefully researching genetics and seeing relatives before breeding.

I think an interesting piece of data to look at in Pollux's pedigree are the bonitations for several generations back. Sure, a character evaluation in bonitation isn't "everything"...but it is something, I guess. It's not my intention to point any harm at any breeder, but only to review data.

Pollux's mom, Yolka Crying Wolf = Oc
Yolka is the only dog with bonitation from this litter

Yolka's mom, Flash Crying Wolf = no bonitation
3 F Crying Wolf littermates with bonitation = Oc, Ob, Ob
On a sidenote, I had the opportunity to meet Frida CW at 7 years of age, she was only a little shy of new siuations and people and very aggressive towards strange dogs. She had been through lots of socialization, including schutzhund classes.

Flash came from Alfi Vuk and Moòa z Krotkovského dvora = Of, Og

Mooa's other litters with different males produced puppies = Of, Og, Of
Her parents were Of, Og

Alfi produced only one litter
His parents were Ob, Ob

It seems possible that a particularly dominant gene/s might have been expressed/preserved through the lines and combinations?

[yukidomari]

Originally Posted by GalomyOak

Some of the foundation GSD blood, as I have read several times, came from a wolf in Karlsruhe...does this mean the GSDs of the early 1900's might have behaved...wolfy?

OT, but for a long time I did research on GSDs and wolfblood with a friend into GSDs who is very interested in this myth, and have not found anything to substantially support it at all. I have looked at the older versions of vS's book and found nothing, though I have yet to find access to the stud books. What sources are you drawing your information from, besides the one oft quoted yet unsubstantiated article by Dresselhus (which is also posted on your kennel site), who is a breeder of wolf and dog mixes?

Some people have said that Cita z Ps appears in both CsV (as F2) and GSD pedigrees, but I've yet to see proof it's the same bitch as well.

Personally, as long as I can't substantiate it, I would not repeat it because it seems to me to be a sort of 'justification' of the breed which may or may not be real, which I don't think is needed in either case. As long as it's as unprovable as a rumor, I'd let rumors alone.

[GalomyOak]

Jing,

A trip down memory lane, post #13 (maybe it's hearsay, but I trust Margo! ):

http://www.wolfdog.org/forum/showthread.php?t=334