[Mirkawolf]

I had been this weekend at CW summer camp and i was again surprised, how many wolfdogs there were shy and problematic. I also noticed, that the most shy dogs were usually those of owners from other countries than Czech Republic (excepts dogs of Margo and Przemek).

What could possibly be the explanation of this? Are Czech people more aware of what they want out of their dog and what they get when they buy a wolfdog? A problem with these kind of breeds must be to avoid to let "wrong" people getting these dogs.

As Pavel said in his e-mail, here is also a lot of shy dogs. Well, he had seen more of wolfdogs here than i did. Most of those i see normally are commonly behaving normal dogs. I mean dogs which do not escape to hide when they see a stranger.

I agree that the breeders should take care, that their puppies go to the right hands. This is sometimes hard to consider, who is good and who is bad. But i think the breeder should keep in contact with the new owners and help them and advice them, and this way also control how their puppy is doing. Of course, this depends on the decision of the breeder, they can't be forced to do it. Though, there is such recomendation written by the CW Club here in CR.

What a luck, that i personally know the same number of wolfdogs, who are normal and not shy at all, and are trainable and well behaving.

Not shy at all? Referring to what is stated above, they are "more receptive to shyness and need special attention", and that must be an unavoidable and very sound heritage of the pure wolf.

Yes, those i know well - Apollo Schovanka, Dag z Brdskych hor, Asterix Eden Severu, Jerry Lee z Molu Es, Cherry od Uhoste, Brenna Sedy Chlup, Nancy Seda Eminence, Hoky z Molu Es, Bolton Eden Severu and others, which names i don't remember .. they all are fine, trainable and ok.

Of course this breed is more receptive to be shy (or suspicious, how Pavel calls it). For me, when dog escapes to hide under a cottage, when i go around, such dog is not suspicious but shy - or scared like hell. There is just few decades from the last cross with pure wolf, and this must be seen somewhere. The breed is very young, in comparison with for example Saint Bernard or let's say English bulldog. Btw. at the camp i saw one very shy Leonberger. The owner had also CW, and also very shy dog. I believe the problem can't be in the dogs, but in the owner.

I have been thinking about reasons for this, and still i am not sure. Maybe in other countries are different rules to treat the dog? I can't believe that the problem would be only in the dogs.


What about different habits and tradition for treating "macho" dogs? Here in Sweden lots of the GSD and Rotweiler people treat and train their dogs either not at all or quite dominantly, with very little knowledge of wolves or dogs in general and their needs and behavior.

I think that our CW are far from "macho dogs" and they can't be trained like that. Or explain me what is "macho dog".

More i believe, it's a problem of not enough socialisation in early age of the wolfdogs, and not enough of attention and training.


Very likely. The lack of competence in our dogowners is severe. But that would mean that Czech dogowners would be more aware of the importance of this, and I wonder what would be the explanation of that? What can we do to learn from the Czechs?

I think that every dog needs attention and training. The problem is that when golden retriever has lack of attention and training, it won't be probably that visible and it won't form that much his final character, like it would at CW. If the owners of CW here are more aware or not, this i can't say. But here we make a lot of meetings, events, the summer camp, we meet at different competitions and tests. At all these places the owners meet and they can discuss the problems. We also try to manage to keep somehow in contact with the owners of CW around us, to meet and train together etc.

For example, i live in Plzen, so i know almost all wolfdog owners in Plzen and around (some owners do not want to co-operate), and we all visit the same training place, or we meet at some occasions. With most of them we are good friends and we visit each other often. When there come a new puppy to the area, i am informed about it by Pavel or by the breeder and i contact them and offer help and advices of all of us, i offer the chance to meet and to visit the training place.

With our breed, the basics of it's character are made before two, maximally three months of it's age.

And that is a fact for any breed, I would say...that far from the wolf isn't any dog. We would have much less problemdogs altogether with more knowledge and interest of breeders and owners. People looking for a puppy should be more careful of choosing the right breeder than they usually are, probably due to lack of competence with the future dogowner. My oppinion is that the Kennel Clubs and/or authorities unfortunately aren't enough concerned with educating, controlling and following up the breeders nor enlighten dog owners, maybe because they themselves lack in competence?

I think that every future owner of any kind of dog, should inform himself first about all the pluses and minuses of the choosen breed, about it's needs, about how to train it, so that he can see if he's able to own such dog.

If i want to buy car, i must have driving licence first. If i want to have dog, i must know how to take care of it.

Lots of people buy CW because it looks like wolf, but they have absolutely no idea about what it needs and how to treat it. If they don't get help and advice, they most likely will rise shy and problematic dog, which will end in some rescue center, or at the best will return to it's breeder.


With education and training, you can continue to form the character of the dog up to one year of age, but after this .. no big changes.


My oppinion is that it is POSSIBLE to form a dog at any time of age - but it is certainly much easier at early ages, the same goes of course for any mammal, f e humans. I usually don't train dogs over two years of age, because the outcome is more indefinite.

This i can't agree at all. Maybe it can work with GSD, to start to train it in two years, but never with CW. The wolfdog is the most receptive to training up to his first year of age. So the socialisation and training (according to age of the puppy) must start immediately after getting the puppy. Maybe here is the problem? That some owners wait for the "good time to start" so long, that they miss the best period?

Mirka