Half dog, half wolf

Question
Hello, Ms Crierie.

A common thing in fiction is to have anti-social but wildlife-loving characters have a dog that is half-dog, half-wolf. I understand (correctly or not) that breeding dogs with wolves was a common thing with Indians in the Northern parts of North America, although I guess this would be for getting hardy (perhaps also aggressive?) work dogs not a pet or even a work-companion.

Are my (although vague) ideas very off the truth? Are dogs still bred with wolf-blood? Can you help me find anything on the topic for further reading and study?

Thank you for all your help,
Sara

Answer
Hi Sara

There are some excellent books on the subject and the "trainability" of wolves and wolf hybrids.  Although I love the Disney version but in the real world wolves are not an I animal I would consider as (very) tameable or (very) trainable. *Keep in mind as with anything in life, this is a generalization and not always the rule.

There are a number of wolf biologist including expert Erik Zimen who is located in Germany.

Erich Klinghammer is the director of Wolf Park one of the world's experts in training wolves.  Patricia Goodmann and her staff "socialize" pups and are very informative.

Lois and Herb Crisler spend 2 summers in Alaska in the 50's raising and capturing wolf pups and wrote a book entitled Arctic Wild.

Raymond and Lorna Coppinger wrote a book simply entitled "Dogs" has a section on the study.

Good luck and good reading.

Joyce