(09-19-2022, 05:53 PM)Snarl Wrote:(09-19-2022, 05:44 PM)Ninurta Wrote: He was my male Timber-Wolf / German Shepherd hybrid.
You spoke of him past tense. Is he gone?
I heard those hybrid wolves can be unpredictable. Is that just BS?
He's probably gone by now. The ex kept him in the breakup. I dunno why - I suppose it was just to annoy me. She kept both of them, the male and female, and she never could do anything with them. She died right at 4 years ago, and I'd guess the dogs were gone sometime before that, because she couldn't do anything with them.
They can be unpredictable for folks that don't know their way about them. You can't get rid of one, neither sell it nor give it away, after it is about a year old. By then, it has bonded with you, and will never bond with anyone else afterwards. You have to impress on them that YOU are the Alpha when they are still young, and they will never depart from that, but other folks are all a potential threat to them afterwards. Once they have bonded with you, from then on you and your family are their "pack", and they will defend you even to the point of their own death. Everyone else becomes a potential threat to you in their eyes.
They are smart, and train well if you take the time to train them. I could sell a raw pup for about 500 bucks, but a police trained one went for about 2500. They do not respond well to "physical" training. My ex could do nothing with them because she used the threat of physical force too much. She would threaten the female in particular with a belt, to try to get here into her crate, and that never worked out for her. I, on the other hand, could just go over to the crate and tap the top of it's entryway with my hand, and she'd run right into it, with no trouble.
The dogs were smarter than the ex - I could train them to hand signals, but she couldn't be trained to use the hand signals.
They are only unpredictable to folks who do not take the time to understand how their minds work in the context of their instincts and the wolf part of their culture. They are not actually dogs, and dog type training does not always work with them. You have to account for the wolf part of their nature, and train accordingly. Not many people do that, and then they run into trouble with the "unpredictability" - they are trying to predict dog behavior, rather than wolf behaviors.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’