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Upbringing & character How to care for a puppy, how to socialize it, the most common problems with CzW, how to solve them....

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Old 26-08-2005, 21:57   #21
Christopher
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Originally Posted by chiefraven
DO they howl though? i can't seem to find information on it on the board anywhere and wouldn't want to get a dog that howls all night because most likely I will probably be living in the city.

Also, if the czw wolfdog is a cross between wolf and GSD, how come they seem to be smaller than the regular GSD?
I don't have a csw but i ead just about the howling today in the italian forum. They do howl, but usually only when the owner is away. The reason why they are smaller is beacause wolfs are not really big as most people belive, and have diffrent sizes dipending on the wolfs race (czw and artic wolfs are not the same just like a beagle and a husky are not the same).
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Old 27-08-2005, 01:52   #22
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You need to do a lot of research and reading, most of your posts here have already been addressed many times (in the forum and in articles), and your hastily thrown out information about Hybrids is inaccurate. I know because I have owned a high content (95%+ Wolf Blood) Eastern Timberwolf x German Sheperd.

Hybrids have no more of a biting problem than any dog. In fact they are beautiful creatures, but act almost nothing like a domestic dog does. They are far smarter than any dog I have ever been around, which presents very interesting challenges for training (since they only like to do things on their own terms). Also, a Hybrid (particularly with greater than 50% Wolf Blood) will never be fully socialized. My experience is that they become extremely comfortable around you and your family (who they see as their pack), but will always be on edge when visitors are on your property.

In the wild Wolves are agressive only when hunting, they're defense mechanism is flight over fight (this is evident if you ever handle a Hybrid, try taking him/her to a dog park and it is almost a certainty it will be cautious of other animals and run if approached). In other words they will only bite for one of two reasons: either if they are put in an extremely uncomfortable situation with no escape route, or if they view their target as prey. The latter would never happen to a Hybrid who is raised properly and is around children and other animals from a young age. And the former would only happen if the owner/handler doesn't know what he's doing (I've seen this, where people introduce animals on leash and won't allow the animal to run if they want to).

Most wolf bites probably come from people who say what you're saying (which is a dangerous attitude): I like the appearance of a wolf, so I want to own one. In reality a Hybrid can make an excellent pet for a very rare person, but most would hate owning one.
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Old 27-08-2005, 21:41   #23
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There seem to be a number of misconceptions which have been introduced into this conversation, and which it would be better to clarify quickly.

First, concerning wolves, there is only one reason why a wolf has ever attacked a man, and that is rabies. There has never been a documented attack of a non-rabid wolf on man. Not a single one. (ref: The Wolf, The Ecology and Behaviour of an Endangered Species, by L. David Mech). Wolves are not innately aggressive (if they were they could not maintain their intricate pack structure) and hunting certainly does not make them more aggressive, if anything it shows how cautious they are. (they in fact go to great pains to ensure that they only attack weak animals, for instance wolves only attack roughly 10-12% of the elk which are actually within striking distance during the hunt)

Now about the CSW…

First the CSW is to a wolf-dog cross (which you refer to as hybrids) approximately the same as what a wolf is to a mongrel. In both cases we are talking about the same species (Canis lupus) While the character and physiology of the wolf and his behaviour are set within certain known boundaries those of the mongrel are not – as the effect of the crossed genes cannot be accurately predicted. It is the same for the CSW and the wolf-dog cross, the only difference seems to be that everyone can intuitively grasp that a wolf is not a mongrel, for some reason the fact that the CSW is not a wolf-cross (or hybrid) seems to escape the understanding of many, even some who should really know better.

A final note about why breeding in the US is not happening and will probably not happen for some time. First there is the fact that breeding dogs need to meet certain particular requirements. Not every dog is suitable for breeding. For instance in the countries of origin (Slovakia, Czech Republic) where the criteria for breeding are probably a bit on the strict side (again for a good reason – to maintain the race as a viable race of working dogs) only 10-20% of dogs are actually apt for breeding. Add to that the fact that in order to have a viable population of any animal it is required that you have some 30 breeding couples, (this number varies from animal to animal, but it is roughly the number below which the genetic diversity of large mammals is considered to drop below the level from which they may not be able to recover). The end result of that is that if you wanted to seriously breed wolfdogs in the US you would need to have some 30 breeding couples, and assuming that you carefully selected your dogs, lets say that 50% would be viable for breeding… so you would need to import a sum total of 120 dogs, not 2. (there are ways around this, which include breeding with dogs outside the US, either by travelling there or by the wonders of artificial insemination, though I do not know of a single breeder who has even considered this very costly procedure).

Finally about the CSW: One things which no one has mentioned so far is the fact that you really need to know what you are doing before you can take care of one of these animals, while they do have some admirable traits they are difficult to handle, to say the least. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they are independent, they require an awful amount of attention, or else they will not respect you and you will lose control of your CSW, which can have some unpredictable consequences (though aggressive behaviour towards humans, while possible is relatively rare, aggressive behaviour towards other animals, dogs in particular, is a different story). Because of their particular character many of the techniques which work to educate and socialise most breeds give at best only mixed results with CSW.

Since the only dogs I have ever been into prolonged contact are our CSW (please note: I married into the CSW world, my wife is the one who knows about them and taught me how to live and handle them, for which incidentally I am eternally grateful) I have had never been really able to compare the characters of CSWs to those of other dogs. However, this summer our whole family seemed to be adopted by a friendly German Shepherd. The difference in behaviour between him and our dogs was evident. While at first it was difficult to win the trust and confidence of the German Shepherd, once he gave it to us it was never again put in doubt, the German shepherd followed us whenever we called and was always friendly and welcoming. The CSW on the other hand put you to the test every day, often many times a day, to make sure that you are worthy of leading their pack. Should you fail to pass those tests even once, it can take weeks if not months of hard work to rebuild their confidence in you.

I trust that all this has given you some useful insight into the CSW.
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Old 30-08-2005, 09:07   #24
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Hi Dharkwolf, I must put into detail one of your good remarks and make a slihgt adjustment to the other.

First - the attack of wolf on man - maybe not all would understand why a wolf would not attack a man as a prey. It is very simple. It is widely known thet wolves prey on diverse group of species. What is mostly not appreciated (and what is stated in the book cited by you), is that only whole species is this general, in fact single subpopulations only prey on one or two bigger species, which they specialize on. For example it can be moose and/or deer in US, it is wild boar predominantly in central europe, with red deer in second and roe deer which is plenty is almost not preyed on by wolf. To prey on species requires knowlidge of that species, therefore wolves would change their favourite prey only in need. Therefore wolf sees man as not its prey and indeed a very dangerous oponent and try to avoid him. Even this winter there was a man in Slovakia who got lost in mountains in winter, met a pack of wolves and though he was afraid and very week the wolves did not attack him, to his utmost surprise.

Second - the percentage of animals suitable for breeding in Slovakia and Czech Republic is biased by the fact, that not all animals which are born are tested. Only animals which pass the bonitation, 40 km run (in Slovakia) and 2 dog shows may be used in breeding. Most of animals which are tried pass the tests, but some of them are never used for breeding, and a large grup of animals is never shown or tested not because they would not pass, but because their owners are not interested. So probability of your dog passing the test is higher that would seem from the numbers of whole population / dogs approved for breeding.
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