Russian Army Wolfdog Projekt

[hanninadina]

@Morian, what do you suggest are russian wolfdogs? Mixes?

@Nebulosa, it seems to me that you do not know that in nature are not to count hybrids - hybrids of plants in first row and f course hybrids of animals!

It is one opinion if Kay says that because there are not enough wild wolves, single of them interbreed with dogs. That happened in germany too in 2003. It happened in italy and of course in all other countries. But there are not so many wolf hybrids as people could belive. But there are some. So I wanted to tell you, even in nature "new breeds" are coming - and going. I do not see the reason why people should not be allowed to breed new breeds? And of course not if these are natural dogs close to the father of all dogs, the wolf. I can not understand why especially people here in this forum are so narrow minded! Sometimes I think, you people are afraid that you will not find new good owners for your dogs because potential interesting people have a bigger choice in wolfdogs and decid to take not a csw. If you really are convinced of your dog breed so why are you afraid not to convince people to get a csw?

It would be better if some people would not breed so many dogs and not every heat cycle of the female.

It seems to me that some of you are blind how life works. As I already wrote in every second someone is inventing a new car, clothes, drinks, meals, houses etc pp. Without these people we would not have internet, which starts 20 years ago! So why stop in inventing new dog breeds? If everybody would think like you, we wouldn´t have any dog breed and of course not the csw - but only tame wolves! If Karel Hartl would think like you, we would not have any csw.

Christian

[Jennin Lauma]

I agree with Christian on this subject. I have been arguing about this same issue many times in differect occations.
Who is to say that the dog breeds we have today have the right to be here (and the creators of those breeds had the right to create them), but no new ones will ever have the same right again? And why some people think like that?!
-Because there are allready too much terrible breeds that suffer from horrible illnesses and/or too narrow gene pool etc?
Well, I do not think that is a valid argument. I would rather see a hundred new, HEALTHY build and stable minded (suitable for the purpose they were created) breeds instead of some of these older ones that exist today and can barely breeth or move, not to mention breed normally.

What I think is terrible is that there are breeders who produce puppies like factories, and sell them to anyone who are willing to pay the price. And breeders who do not care for selective breeding for health and temperament, but instead they breed just about anything that sells. -Usually it is something that looks beautiful or cute or funny..
And the poor animals suffer.

In my opinion the biggest problem in dog breeding is that it has started to resemble racism.
We should go back to the old times when we had different types of dogs for different purposes instead of closed breed populations. Or atleast we should start once again to put more value on the purpose of every breed, and breed more for function instead of only beauty.

[Jennin Lauma]

But while I do not understand the negative attitude towards developing new dog breeds, I have to note, that as it comes to wolfdogs as working dogs, my opinion still stands as I have wrote it here before in another topic:

When creating a new working breed, I do not think that it's necessary or wise to add fresh wolf blood. I think that there is a big enough population of dogs with different characteristics to make a suitable mix for different working purposes. The wolf has many unsuitable characteristics that makes it a poor working companion for any human purposes compared to an average dog. -Shyness is one of the biggest issues, but there are many more.
The dogs we have today were selectively bred and domesticated a long time ago. Why to start over?

Of course wolfdogs have their own place under the sun, and of course they should also always be bred selectively! -But for what purpose they should be bred, and more importantly, for what purpose it is reasonable to try selectively breed wolfdogs these days?

There is enough work in trying to selectively breed wolfdogs that can successfully live a quality "pet life" in human society.
In my opinion, with the large variety of different dogs in the world with all their different features, it is a waste of time and recourses to try breeding hard core working canines out of wolfdogs.
-It would be much more effective, and alot faster project with fewer unsuitable individuals as side products, to mix dogs with suitable traits to create working dogs.
Why waste decades to produce a homogeneous stock of suitable wolfdogs for some military/police work, when we allready have superior dogs for the job?
The authorities will most likely continue using the type of dogs they have allready found to be perfect for the jobs, and the people who compete in different dog sports will most likely continue buying dogs that excell in those sports.

Most wolfdogs end up as pets (though a little more high maintenace than average dogs) for active people who love outdoor living and who are fascinated by the wolfiness in their dogs. -The "wild" and natural looks, the intependent character and the intense body language, to mention a few features often heard listed as reasons for owning a wolfdog.
The most important thing for the majority of wolfdog owners is that the animal is capable of living a healthy, stress free life with people. And I would say that it is allready a big enough challenge for all wolfdog breeding to be able to respond to those criteria.
To try to jump into the boots of an average German Shepherd, Border Collie or Labrador, would be such a challenge that I really can't see the point at the moment. -Maybe then if we would find ourselves in a situation where we have completely (genetically) ruined/destroyed all dogs in the world. Then we might need to take that step back for getting strong genes from wild populations. But concidering the extinction rates of most large carnivores, I'm pretty sure that if we'll find ourselves in the situation mentioned above, there will no longer be wild wolf populations to thrive the fresh genes from...

[Jennin Lauma]

Morian:
Do you know what is the situation with this program now?
I visited their website and it says (in Russian) that the program is over.
What happened to the wolfdogs, and does they still have some of them in service?

[Morian]

as i understood from other forums, everything is ok (with the project and wolfdogs), it is just their personal showdown, some people don't want to keep this site up-to-date anymore etc.