Could you domesticate a tiger?

Deleted User wrote: »

^ Curious what you are basing the above on. Was it the photographs used on the cover of the book? If so then thats not the wolf in the book as far as I know - but stock photos the publisher used. There are some pictures from the author around the net but not many of them are so clear.

Not so much, it was photos like this. The dog in question stands very "square" wide shouldered and chested, wolves aren't like that, they're narrower, legs tend to be more together, narrow chested. He's much bulkier overall. For wolf think lankier german shepherd with a level back and stronger hips. His face mask is very defined, rare in wolves. His head itself is much bulkier than a wolf, his ears are wider apart and not as furred. I don't doubt he has some wolf in him as this shot shows. He has the straight tail at rest. Dogs nearly always have a curl in the tail. He looks like a mid content wolfdog cross, likely with a good chunk of malamute husky.

MagicMarker wrote: »

Well done on being full of shít.

Why? Because he doesn't want to fire up pics of hid dog? Seems fine to me, especially if it was a wolf with all the legalities that would entail. Regardless there's also privacy and he may simply want to keep his.

conorhal wrote: »

All extremely poor choices. As others have pointed out it is far easier to train and domesticate pack/pride animals because they are predisposed to defering to an alpha pack leader, and so long as they view you as the alpha (abiet a really strange looking alpha Lion or wolf) they will submit to you. All of the animals you describe are not pack animals and will only view another alpha as a threat.

I'd agree only the only issue is that the alpha leader thing has been largely discredited in wild canids. The "alphas" are basically the parents of the extended family/pack for the most part.

Deleted User wrote: »

It is a mixed breed between two types of wolf which has some effect I am sure.

Not by much. There are no "breeds" of wolves as such, only sub(sub) species. Crossing a Carpathian wolf with an Alaskan would give you a mix of the two alright, but they'd still be "wolfy" looking.

When I look through pictures on google for the two breeds in question I am not seeing much difference between him and them - in terms of the attributes you listed - though. It seems a lot for you to go on from one photo - though I am not vet (are you out of curiosity?).

Nope, but have an interest in wolves and some experience in being face to face with the "real deal". The attributes I mention stand out as "dog". Particularly the wide chest and heavy set body. Wolves are significantly less bulky than most huskies and certainly less so than Malumutes(which I'm sure the authors dog is mostly made up of). The face mask is near pure Mal. As are his feet. Huge feet I grant you, but rounded, not huge with the much longer toes of a wolf. I'd put money down that if you showed Mal owners that pic of the author with his "wolf" they'd say "Malumute". The main difference being his straight tail at rest. I'd believe he was a low content wolf cross alright, but I'd bet the famr he's nowhere near pure wolf. This pic from the flic Dances with wolves shows the diffs. Aside, one of the very few films that used the real deal. 90% use mals and others like Czech wolfdogs(recognised breed who have recent wolf admixture in them). Note his paws. Huge, but loooong. Note his head. Very wide tapering to a point(with little stop to the forehead) and much larger in comparison to his body. The heavily furred ears, the slant to the eyes etc. Look at how apparently slightly built he is(though much stronger than most dogs). His coat colour another giveaway. No very defined mask. He also has "wild" colouring. Dogs, even huskies, can be various shades of grey and brown like that, but wolf fur displays different colours along the hair shaft itself. This is rare enough in dogs. In the flesh walking down the street you'd be unlikely to mistake him for a husky.

Certainly despite a lot of experience with dogs in the past - including with the greyish black husky people know well in Ireland - he is like no dog I have ever been around or owned. Everything from behaviour - to eye color - to his very gait as he runs (there is a fascinating difference between how dogs and wolves run) is noticably different.

Eye colour. If he's got blue or light silver eyes he's not a wolf. Ditto for dark brown eyes. Gait as you say is different. Wolves run more level with head down, with little lift of the paws. More sneaky looking. One biggy is look at his prints in wet sand. Dog prints tend to be wide like two lines in the track, wolf is almost a single track(and longer toed). They never posses dewclaws. Behaviour again like you say is gonna be different. Housebreaking? Forget about it. Game over. Incredibly food aggressive. Don't like confinement in a house. Very destructive. Zero recall. Very prey focussed. Aggressive towards other dogs. Nervy as hell, so about as much use as a chocolate teapot as a watchdog. Dig holes like a miner. Training capability minimal, unless you have endless supplies of premium steak to hand. Never bark. Bit of a yap at best. As it matures could get very hard to handle. They mature later too. Now many of those traits are seen in the northern breeds like Mals and other Huskies and people not used to same can get a right shock, but imagine a northern breed after hoovering up 4 grams of cocaine. And dropping high powered blotter acid.

What I can tell you, and you called it yourself when you came up with one of the reasons I do not really want to be posting pictures on here, is that there is a legal % dog:wolf ratio for legally owning any kind of hybrid in this country and I believe we are on the wrong side of it.

IIRC legally here we're more the way the UK was back in the bad old days. I don't think there's any specific laws on that score as far as percentages. You could probably even get away with the real deal if you were quiet about it and had the right enclosures. Though that brings up another issue. Where do these "wolves" come from? They're not easy to come by even in the US where they run wild. So there are few, very few if any in the breeding stock out there. There's gonna be feck all in Ireland. Precious few Czech and Saarloos Wolfdogs and even fewer mid/high content crosses, though there are a couple of UK breeders farming them out. Daft in my humble, as you've no idea what you're likely to get. This lack of wolf blood in the overall mix makes it more likely you end up with inbreeding and/or breeding for the mix, rather than temperament. Daft again in my humble. You do have the more recent Tamaskan dogs, specifically bred to look like wolves, but it came out a while back that in many of the lines both Czech/Saarloos and the real deal may have been put in the mix.

TL;DR(understandable ) It's a minefield. The vast majority of "wolves" and "wolfdogs" are mal/husky/GSD mixes. These mixes can be hard going as they're working dogs, not "house dogs". The real deal full blood wolf would be near impossible to have in the home and could actually be lifethreatening and as rare as rocking horse shíte anyway.