There is one line that I know of that is close to being accepted as a breed, that being the NADA dog (which stands for Native Amerindian Dog Assoc.). It is a verifiable animal traced back to the Gordon Smith/Gabe Davidson lines and kept within these lines, i.e.: cross breeding.

When you are crossing an Eastern Timber to a Malamute, you get a 50% Eastern Timber/Mal. X. When you breed that 50%'er back to an Alaskan Tundra, you get a 75% Alaskan Tundra/Eastern Timber/Mal X. You breed that 75%'er back to a Siberian Husky, you get a 37.5% Alaskan Tundra/eastern timber/Mal/Siberian Husky mix. Breed the 37.5 conglomeration you have now back to an Arctic and you have 68.75% mess of a lot of things.

This is why it has been hard to get the wolfdog accepted as a breed. There are too many variables.

There are a couple of accepted breeds in Europe, one being the Saarloos Wolfhond. However the only one in the US at this time that even comes close is the NADA dog.

If you are interested in developing a "Breed", you need to study up on genetics and make a committment to making sure you know where every animal in your line came from, *exactly* what their %'s were (are), what the different "dog" breeds were that produced your breeding pair, if they had any genetic deformities, what their personality traits are (were), what the color differentions were (are) and on and on.

These are some of the things that go to make up a "breed". A "breed" must be uniform. You must be able within certain parimeters, to be able to predict what the offspring with be like.

Currently, it would be very difficult with most of the wolfdogs out there.

Christine

You have completely forgotten about the American Tundra Shepherd, which has been already recognized by some of the Rare Breed dog clubs and is eligible to show in conformation at some of them.

This line was developed for obedience and protection sports and is somewhat similar to the Saarloos wolfhund in that wolf and German Shepherd were used for the foundation lines.

Noreen

Wolfdogs in and of themselves are not a breed of dog. They are crosses, to a variety of dogs, some Northern breeds, Siberian Huskies, Malamutes, German Shepherds, some times others, but these are the most common.

Wolfdogs come in a wide variety of percentage of wolf inheritance which causes a huge mix of emotions through out the wolfdog community because we each have preferences. Some like Shepherd crosses, while others like Mal crosses, some like lower contents, while others like higher content animals. The one thing we all have in common is that we advocate responsible ownership of canines!

Wolfie

Wolfdogs are not on the overall a true breed. What most of us have are simply just wolfy-mutts, some combination of wolf subspecie(s) and dog breed(s). Bred to no particular established standard other than the expectations of good heath, stable temperament, and within the desired content range.

Those differing content range groupings (low, lowermid, midrange, uppermid, high) is what we use to describe the varying degrees of recent wolf inheritance. Looks is not the only way in which wolf inheritance is shown. Overall, the higher the content range, the more *intensive* the potentials of behavioral responses.

However, there are certain lineages which have been selectively bred for multiple generations for the purpose of creating stable new breeds which have some recent wolf inheritance. There are others which incorporate non-recent wolf inheritance to improve existing recognized dog breeds, and still more developing wolf-like dog breeds.

You can discover more about the recognized wolfdog breeds (Saarloos Wolfhond, Czechoslovakian Wolfdog), as well as an un-recognized wolfdog breed (American Tundra Shepherd), plus learn more about those "wolfy-looking" dog breeds which may or may not have some recent wolf inheritance, online at the:

Gudrun