Saturday, December 23, 2006

Working Wolf Dogs

It is the common wisdom that wolf- dog hybrids are spooky creatures, alternately shy and aggressive, that do not make good working dogs. So it is with fascination that I bring you this report from a friend, cynologist Vladimir Beregovoy, about a correspondent of his in Russia.

"I wanted to share with you a few pictures which I just received from my Internet friend Mikhail Ovcharenko. He lives near Ulyanowsk, on the Volga River. He was involved in a wolf control job and became fascinated with this animal. Now, his obsession is keeping wolves and West Siberian Laikas, interbreeding them and hunting with Wolf/Laika mixes. He does not keep them locked up for life, but really hunts them like he would hunt dogs, and he is very happy with his results.... Here are some pics of his mixes of the second through third generations. They really hunt well, like good dogs. They retrieve ducks from water and track and bay wild boar for him."


3 comments:

Chas S. Clifton said...

I wonder if his dogs would be any better at sitting quietly in a duck blind than my antsy Chespeake Bay retriever is!

Retrieverman said...

I don't believe almost everything that North American "wolf experts" tell me about wolf hybrids.

I've decided that most of it is hype and politically correct nonsense.

Here are some posts I've done on wolves and wolf hybrids that were used as hunting dogs (including a pure wolf that retrieved waterfowl and grouse):

1. http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/hunts-with-retrieving-wolf/
2. http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/the-wolf-that-was-part-of-a-french-hound-pack/
3. http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/the-deer-hunters-wolf/
4. http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/hunting-wolves-with-wolf-hybrid-hounds-in-brittany/

There are still wolves today that when tamed are no more dangerous than a large dog. There are also nervous and reactive domestic dogs and not all of these animals look like wolves or are closely related to them either.

Several Scandinavian hunting and herding spitzes were also found to have wolf mtDNA, including Norwegian elkhounds, which are used in much the same was as West Siberian laikas.


Pirie said...

I support what Retrieverman wrote, because there just are enuf of evidence to proove that the wolf as a species is very versatile, tho' humans have done incredibly harm to it during the last hundreds of years.

I also want to present a resent study (link below my text) to show that even grasshoppers are born with a personality - a temperament.
The study I here refer showed two distinctive temperament types occured in a totally new enviromment: one was curious and brave to learn it - and the other was aggressive.

Well, how this should fit with mammals? They are more complex about genetics and their managing systems of course, but how about to assume that the finding could be the base for a temperament for any animal - also such as dogs (Canis lupus) ?

(Sorry the link is in Finnish
http://www.uef.fi/uef/vaitostiedotteet1?p_p_id=101_INSTANCE_iQ9J&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_pos=2&p_p_col_count=14&_101_INSTANCE_iQ9J_struts_action=%2Fasset_publisher%2Fview_content&_101_INSTANCE_iQ9J_urlTitle=20121123-kenttasirkoillakin-on-havaittavissa-persoonallisuuspiirteita&_101_INSTANCE_iQ9J_type=content&redirect=%2Fuef%2Fvaitostiedotearkisto-2012)