#yourdogisnotawolf

[correctanimal]

Back when I worked at a humane society as an adoption coordinator, I took advantage of a slow day to look through the shelter archives.

I was curious to find out if my Florida-based shelter had ever taken in a real wolf hybrid. There were likely a few that were surrendered husky mixes mis-labelled by the previous owner, but I did find ONE that actually looked like it could be a low-content wolfdog.

This animal still had a LOT of dog in him and could have been a very wolfy-looking german shepherd mix. There's no way to say for sure without a dna test. But this was still an interesting find!

[orcinus-ocean]

Oh FFS...

@nothatisnotawolfdog

@yourdogisnotawolf

[wolfeyspups-blog]

Okay, more Heeler group rants. The ACD shown is the owner claims was "half coyote" and I see absolutely NO coyote aspects to it, it literally just looks like a chocolate ACD. There is a crazy amount of people on this group that claim their heeler is "half coyote" when they are obviously just a normal ACD :/ this sort of misrepresentation sucks. This is the only photo as the dog has since died @yourdogisnotawolf Im tagging you in this as I think you know more about coyodogs and could maybe confirm my suspicions

[sabertoothcattery]

"Oh, you have a wolf pelt? Well I had a real wolf!! Okay, he only half wolf but still!! His mom was a malamute and his father was [local urban legend]!!! He howled and protected us!! Here's a photo of him!!!"

(It's just a fat mal with big old GSD ears and saddle mark)

(There have been no wolves in this state since 2002 minus one 6 hrs from here that was hit by a car crossing the border)

(Please save me)

[wolven-fang]

So I really wanna make one of those blogs that talks about wolfdog misrepresentation and education and stuff like that but I feel like there's already so many great ones that there's no point in me making one because the others are already doing that job better. But idk.

[there-is-no-totodile]

@yourdogisnotawolf im having a hard time believing that this is an actual wolfdog. Im having trouble pointing out any wolf traits. Your opinion?

[correctanimal]

Understandably, some folks might be quite upset if you try to tell them their super special definitely-part-wolf pet dog actually.... isn't. Sometimes it means they made a false assumption, believed a lie, or misunderstood their dog's paperwork. Sometimes it means they spent too much money on what's essentially a mutt. People don't like to feel like they were made to look like a fool. I've met two people who claimed their dog is part wolf. One was a white-freckled blue-eyed husky I met in my neighborhood. The dog's breeder told my neighbor he was part wolf, and I didn't think they would believe me if I told them he definitely wasn't.

The other was a young man at a farmer's market, proudly walking around with a dog that I immediately pegged as a husky/lab mix, that looked something like this:

When I stopped to compliment her and give her pets, I asked 'do you know what she's a mix of?' You can imagine my surprise when he answered with a proud, 'yeah! she's an alaskan wolfdog' and shared that she was training to become his ESA or possibly a service dog.

I paused. I asked where he got her from, and he said from a Florida animal shelter. Pairing this with the odd phrasing of 'Alaskan', I connected the dots and can only assume that the shelter listed her in their database as an Alaskan Husky, and that some assumptions had been made, or someone made an offhand comment about her 'wolfy' features. But instead of calling him a liar or making him feel foolish, I said "Oh, you might want to be careful about who you tell that to."

He was confused and intrigued, and asked me why. Conspiratorially, I continued, "Yeah, especially if she's going to be a service dog. Wolfdogs can't be legally recognized as being vaccinated for rabies, even when they physically receive the shots, so if anything ever happened or if she got out, she'd have to be euthanized instead of returned to you. It's not legal in Florida to own a wolfdog without a wildlife license. I'm only telling you this because I don't want her to be taken away from you!"

Frightened, he asked what he should tell people instead. "You might want to look back at the shelter paperwork and see what they used. I'll bet anything they said she was an Alaskan Husky, so you might want to start calling her that instead, just to be safe."

He thanked me and agreed, deciding then and there to call her an Alaskan Husky and not to mention the wolfdog thing anymore. He may still believe a little bit that she has some wolf in her, but at least he won't advertise that to other people if he's worried about his dog being taken away.

And none of what I said was untrue. The blog yourdogisnotawolf is now gone, but it used to have all kinds of horror stories about dogs being shot because a hunter mistook them for wolves, adoptable dogs in shelters being euthanized because they were improperly labeled as wolfdogs, and real wolfdogs suffering or being placed into wildlife facilities because the people who owned them had no idea what they were getting into due to the misrepresentation of domestic dogs as wolf hybrids.

[nothatisnotawolfdog]

I just got my decal that yourdogisnotawolf has been selling. In case anyone was wondering, these look amazing in person and are good quality decals. I fully intend to put this on my car and feel like it should be okay (we'll see). Wanted to share in case anyone was wondering about the quality. Also, it was packaged very well so it would not be bent. In the meantime, here's where you can buy your own: http://wolfdogeducation.com/post/139947057318/im-sure-youve-all-been-introduced-to-a-pretty

[okamisolus]

@naturepunk @yourdogisnotawolf Could you phenotype the animal in this? http://imgur.com/gallery/1QHMm5Z

[acidpanter]

@yourdogisnotawolf , @naturepunk This is a picture of my old dog, Tonka. He died several years ago but he grew up with me and meant the world to me. He was a pure bred American Akita but was mistaken for a wolf on many different occasions and was even shot by a careless hunter. He thankfully survived and got to live out the rest of his years. I just wanted to show you this and let you know that I appreciate what you do in wolfdog interpretation and how important I think it is. I now do what I can to let my friends know of the importance of knowing your dogs breed and to be able to recognize when someone is clearly misinformed. I even find that misinterpreting a dogs breed (without any wolf content) can be dangerous because each breed comes with its own types of health problems. It's good to know what to look out for, right? That is, if you really do care about your pet.

[twoterriblekids]

@yourdogisnotawolf @nothatisnotawolfdog

@thatwolfdoggirl

This is an acquaintance’s dog… They were told it was a wolf/husky hybrid (content not specified). And I don’t see it? These were the best photos I could find of him although maybe I could dig up more.

I’ve met this dog before but he recently passed away which made me think of him again and wonder if there was any truth to the claim.

Anyone have a clue? He just looks shepherd-like to me.

[wildlife-conservationist]

Looking for more blogs to follow for carnivore content…but all these blogs mis-tag their domestic dogs as full content wolves. 😖

[freckledoe]

Hi there yourdogisnotawolf! Thought I'd share a wolfy-looking dog! This is a Northern Inuit puppy! While no wolf at all, he sure is handsome! His breeder/trainer lives nearby who moved here from Britain with her band of handsome dogs. Also learned that his grandfather and an aunt are on Game of Thrones!