16. The Care and Feeding of the Youth and Adult
Mate-pair them at an early age. Wolves or high percentage hybrids do
not readjust to new mates well after 6 to 12 months of age. Do not
attempt to run them as more than pairs. One can do this in a non-
breeding environment, but never in close confinement where the
submissive cannot escape from the dominant and feeding correctly is
impossible where more than two are confined together.
[Ed.: This is not entirely true, but it is EXCELLENT advice.]
Self feed your dry food so that if one of the pair is less dominant than
the other, it can eat when its turn comes. Feed your canned (or
otherwise) meat from a garden trowel, cut off squarely at the end. This
allows one to get the last bit of meat from a can, and it is large
enough that one’s fingers do not inadvertently get mistaken for meat.
When a wolf or high percentage hybrid bites meat, one surely doesn’t
want a finger in there as it is snatch and grab and get it quick before
the other guy does.
They quickly learn to stand and wait at their appointed meat hole in the
mesh fence for their turn at a spoonful. If one tries to take its bite
then grab the other guy’s, a quick slap of the flat side of the ladle,
across the tender snout, soon discourages the robbing instinct.
Now the Wolf, and in all cases I refer to my high percentage hybrid
also, is not just for everyone, but to the sensitive, emotionally
controlled, firm, loving people, it surely isn’t a tough assignment. My
hybrid is nothing in God’s Green Earth except a wolf that has been
mellowed a bit, and with less fear status, thus more stable and
predictable. If you want less, I suggest you shop around and settle for
less. If one wants an animal that truly represents the ancestral tree,
I’ve got it and it doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it either.
BUT, get it into your head and get it in there good, this creature
CANNOT RUN FREE. If you have any ideas of ANYTHING less than a big,
maximum security pen, with adequate primary housing, forget it; I won’t
sell to you. Sure, one can take them out on leash and lead them, or be
led around, but after 9 or 10 months, just make damned sure that you
have a good heavy choke chain on it with a non-bitable leash looped
around your wrist and are in full control at all times.
[Ed.: READ THIS, LEARN IT, LIVE IT!]
Not that it is so dangerous, but because it might see, meet and love
1,000 animals, 1,000 people and then that ONE, either human or animal
that for some deep seated instinctive reaction, IT DOES NOT LIKE, and
you’ve got a lawsuit on your hands. Nor should they be raised in the
house. After sexual maturity, that house is theirs, and if that person
comes in that they instinctively DON’T LIKE, again the aforementioned
net results. Besides, they are destructive and must be chewing on
something when relaxing and don’t ordinarily housebreak worth a damn.
Hey now, I’m writing about not only my stock but also about the
thousands of my genetics out over the USA, where the genetics have been
held reasonably close to my percentage. Also, of the pure bred Wolf.
I, though not deploring, am a bit discouraged by those who purchase my
genetics and then breed down to dog. It seems that we lose so much of
what I have worked so hard for, in so doing. Not that the results need
be defective. Bred to the right dog, our genetics hold to what I have
bred for, but one loses so much in conformation and in genuine Wolf
behavioral traits. However, they do make a very mellow and sometimes
superior family animal.
One should also avoid breeding to a wild or intractable animal, either
Wolf or hybrid. Do you know that a bad fright or traumatic experience
for a mother wolf or hybrid after 1/2 way through gestation can cause
the cubs to be born wild and be very difficult to socialize? Better
believe it. My research has proven this beyond doubt. Selectivity,
selectivity, then more SELECTIVITY. It’s the only way.