Musher here, Hello All

[wolfdogg]

Hello, Im new to this forum. Is there any other mushers out there?

Just wanted to say hello!

I got my hands full with 7 adult wolfdogs and 2 5mos old pups that need homes. Its not easy to sell them to proper homes.

Love to train dogs, and run them.

Have fun all.

Wolf
__________________
http://www.wolfdogg.org (Wolfdogg.org)

This is my website, please take a visit. If anyone needs a dog website of their own, please feel free to contact.
Wolfdogg.org


HUK HUK HUK HUK, Lets Go, Lets Go, Lets Go, Lets Go,
argh, your going the wrong way!
(lines are tangled now)

[Kymcole25]

Welcome to GP!!!!

[Jenny]

Hi, I see that you are moving to Alaska. If you are not already aware, it is not legal to have wolf hybrids up here.

Is there much mushing in California?

[wolfdogg]

Thanks Kymcole.

Hello Jenny, yes moving there at end of year. Im not worried about the wolf hybrid laws much. For starters they look like mals, and it is the sled dog capital of the U.S. and sled dogs they are. Im sure they will fit right in. According to http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/wolfdo...ow_palmer.html this page, they are allowed in Bourough area and Wasilla area. I will be heading to teh Dog Sled State capital. They are less that 25% where Kobuk who is 50% at most will pass for a shepard. So I hope i will not have a problem. Thanks for the heads up. You tell me, take a look at my site and tell me what you think. I would appreciate your opinion.

Not a whole lot of mushing here, but easy to keep them in training using an atv and unlimited dirt roads. One good way is to find the fire roads in the winter, they make good mushing trails. There a known trail in Big Bear, forget the forest road name, but its an approx. 25 mile fire road. Cant wait to get to the mushing state.

[calgal]

Hi and welcome. I hope you keep posting with us when you move. I know I would love to see pictures of the races and know how you and your dogs are doing in the cold country.

[Jenny]

I think if you start saying they are malamute mix and not mention hybrid even on your website, then you should be fine... they don't really look like they have that much wolf in them. Are you sure they are hybrid? I only say that because alot of people think their husky type dogs have wolf in them.

There is a lady being sued by the state up here that had her shepherd mix puppies advertised as hybrids.

Good luck with your move, this is a great state!

[wolfdogg]

Calgal, i would love to keep posting when i move. Hope to do exactly that. Thanks.

Jenny, Yes, i was thinking exactly teh same thing. Its amazing the stomach turning i got when you mentioned that hybrids are illegal in Alaska. the thought of not having guardianship over my 7 children is utterly unthinkable.

I am almost postively sure. see, there is a difference i shoud point out here. aww, dang whats it called, cant think of the terminology. ITs a genetic term. Ok, ill think of it here in a min hopefully, strain. Ill try explaining this. A pup carries his mothers and fathers genes. When a pup carries wolf genes from the father, and the mother was not a wolf, then it will resemble its mother, not a wolf. When a pup carries wolf genes from teh mother, and not the father, it will usually take on more of a wolf look. If the mother was a full blood wolf or close to it, then the pup will look completely wolf in some cases. When the father is the wolf, but the mother was a white malamute, which is my case, then the pup will not look so much like a wolf usually. However, he is carrying the genes. Dang whats the phrase, i will have to look it up, AHAHHHHH, remembered it, mithochondrial genes, and chromosomal genes. A pup gets mitochondrial genes from its mother, because its sharing her body. those genes usually form the phenotype, which is the look. the pup is only carrying its fathers chromosomal genes which gives its traits, and yes looks too. Mitochondrial genes(the genes it gets from its mother) in hybrids usually depict how the pup will look. Its a percentage game. So, all the crazy wolf behaviour is still in some of them(no agression towards people whatsoever, it is PURELY non existent!). Shall i elaborate more? I like talking about this, but dont want to bore anybody. lol.

Anyway, I was thinking what you were thinking, I will pull all references to hybrid off my site, which will not go over easy with me, because I like to educate others that may want a hybrid. Actually its embedded into the domain(wolfdogg.org), ok maybe ill just pull their breed specs off the site and sprice up my web forum a bit. I hope they will pass to the keen eyes of teh game wardens in AK. Atleast they are low percentage.

Kobuk should be about 47.5 percent wolf. It was stated that his father was 95% wolf, and 5% shepard. thats an odd figure, so i know they got mixed up a bit. heres the figures moving upwards from 50% if bred each time back with a pure wolf, 50%, 75%, 87.5%, 93.75%, 96.875 and so forth. but anywhere in between you can breed back with one of the hybrids to make another percentage. Kobuks father i saw, and he was a long tall wolf, whose paws reached my shoulders and i am almost 6'2". The father was stated to be 95% Timber, and 5% shepard. Odin resembles this wolf very much, and Odin is kobuks son. So Kobuk is carrying the genes of that 95% wolf, and it is half of that, 47.5%. It was said that the other 5% was shepard, givng Kobuk 2.5% of that. That half is not in much question. Its the mother i have my wonders about. I think she may have had a bit of white shepard in her, but looked more like an Akita Malamute. You know how mals can look akita. Maybe she was just a fat malamute, cause she was a big lazy girl, and was pure white. I think she was really a mal as advertised, but you knwo when a mal is white, it throws you off because you dont have that mask or colorations to reference with. So, i think Kobuk is truly 47.5% Timber Wolf, and 50% Malamute, and 2.5% shepard.

That makes Odin, Nikita, Mini, Timbre, Wily, Chilly, and Daisy all 23.75% Timber Wolf.

Hey, thanks for that, that math was long overdue. now i can update my site, temporarily...

what about that lady being sued? was it assumed that they were not hybrids, or were?

[Thadaboykobe]

Welcome to GP! Yes, do keep in touch with us! Your move to Alaska from California will be a huge change.

[meganc]

welcome to gp

[wolfdogg]

p.s. calgal, I wont be running any races, but will get plenty of pics of the iditarod i hope. I want to become one of the Iditarod photographers. Maybe not an official, but my site will be full of images. You may have noticed i cover the Iditarod Sled Dog Race each year on my site, its www.wolfdogg.org/iditarod, so i want my own images. Cabelas Iditarod was kind enough to allow me to use John Littles images last year, but I need my own images.
About the dogs running, i use them for expeditioning, they arent fast enough to be racers. I will take them deep into wilderness areas on extended mini vacations. the reason its just a mini vacation is because its a whole lot of work, lol.

[Jenny]

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Here is an article on hybrids from alaska including the lady that was selling her "hybrid puppies"...

Alaska cracks down on wolf-dog hybrids

Thursday, November 21, 2002

By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer

PALMER, Alaska -- Werner Shuster's love affair with wolves began when he was a boy growing up in Yonkers, N.Y., and neighbors owned a timberwolf that became his best friend.

His passion has grown into Wolf Country USA, where the 72-year-old Alaskan keeps 52 wolf-dog hybrids on chains behind 8-foot stockade fencing at his 42-acre spread north of Anchorage.

But Shuster and thousands of other hybrid owners in Alaska are facing a new state regulation designed to phase out the hybrids in one generation.

Shuster vows to fight the new regulation tooth and nail, especially if law enforcement tries to take his animals.

"They are going to have to come in here and shoot all my animals and me," Shuster said. "They are our babies."

State wildlife officials say with the large number of sled dogs in Alaska there easily could be thousands of hybrids. However, no one knows for sure because owners have ignored a law banning the possession of wolf-dog hybrids.

Owners have had a good excuse to flout the law. It is nearly impossible to prosecute without a DNA test to distinguish a dog from a wolf.

The new regulation allows hybrid owners to keep their pets without fear of prosecution, as long as certain requirements were met by July 1. The animals had to be implanted with a microchip for identification, spayed or neutered, and licensed and vaccinated.

The regulation also does not allow hybrids to be transferred except within the owner's immediate family. And it prohibits anyone from advertising to sell wolf hybrids.

Those wolf hybrid owners who didn't meet the deadline still face the old law making it illegal to possess one of the animals.

Shuster said the new regulation makes no more sense than the old one still on the books. How, he asks, can the state regulate something it can't prove?

"With that new regulation, every dog in Alaska is illegal," he said. "There is no such thing as a pure wolf. A pure dog is nothing but an offspring of a wolf."

Alaska State Troopers and the Department of Fish and Game say Shuster has a point. Without a DNA test, the new regulation faces the same problems as the old regulation. But, unlike the old regulation, the new one -- by prohibiting the advertising of wolf hybrids for sale -- can be used to crack down on sales and take the profit motive out of owning the animals.

Troopers are testing the new regulation on JoGenia Sexton, a 47-year-old Anchorage woman cited in August for placing a newspaper ad offering "Alaska Puppies, for real Alaskans ... White Timberwolf ... Lupis hybrid." She was selling the puppies for $600 each. No court date has been set.

Sexton could have faced a maximum penalty of $5,000 and a year in jail. But Assistant Attorney General Jack Schmidt, a special prosecutor for wildlife cases, said Sexton -- who says she was unaware of the new regulation -- was cited with a noncriminal violation that carries a $300 fine.

The maximum penalty is more appropriate in larger operations, such as Shuster's, he said.

Sexton said the puppies actually are part German shepherd, malamute and Siberian husky. A friend told her those breeds were part wolf so she played up the wolf angle to lure buyers.

She said when her family moved from Brigham City, Utah, to Palmer in 1968 they had two Siberian huskies that bred with wild wolves.

"What is the big deal?" she said. "We didn't think anything of it then. People all over Alaska have wolf-dogs."

Trooper Doug Massie said if Sexton can be successfully prosecuted they will be taking a look at Wolf Country USA.

Shuster got his first hybrid his first week in Alaska in 1958. He bought a puppy for $5, selecting one from a cardboard box placed on an Anchorage street. He said he did nothing to comply with the new regulation because he can't afford it. Any money generated from his gift shop and wolf tours goes to feeding and caring for the animals, he said.

He advertises wolf cubs for sale on his Web site, and said he has enough deposits to keep him busy for the next five years. But the regulation is making buyers wary.

Shuster said it's his right to advertise his puppies and call them whatever he wants.

"There's still the First Amendment and the Constitution you have to go by," he said, as he strolled through the compound, throwing out dog bones and calling each one by name. "Diablo!" "Ninja!" "Sir Lancelot!" "Pee Wee!" "Little Lady!"

Shuster said he used to sell between 25 and 35 wolf cubs a year in Alaska, but the in-state business has dried up because of the regulation. His out-of-state customers have included people in the Lower 48 and Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Peru, Canada, Japan and Mexico.

Wolf-dog hybrids pose an additional problem in Alaska because of its healthy population of between 7,000 and 10,000 wild wolves, wildlife experts say. While possession of a wild animal or the hybrid of a wild animal has been illegal in Alaska for years, the Board of Game outlawed wolf-dog hybrids specifically in 1999 after determining they posed a genetic threat to wild wolves. However, the DNA problem kept the regulation from being enforced.

The concern is that wild wolves will lose their natural fear of humans if they become interbred with hybrids and become potentially more dangerous to humans.

Wolves also can get every disease that domestic dogs do, including rabies, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott.

"There are all kinds of problems with interbreeding," he said.

Several large groups, including the Humane Society of the United States and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, oppose keeping and breeding hybrids.

"We don't think they are suitable pets," said Stephanie Shain, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States. "It is unfair to expect the wildness to come out of an animal and expect them to function like a pet."

Wildlife advocate Karen Deatherage, who helped write the new regulation, said hybrids are nearly impossible to train, hard to contain and unpredictable when reaching sexual maturity.

"When you breed a dog with a wolf you have essentially bred the fear out of the wolf," Deatherage said. "Wild wolves have a healthy ... fear of humans."

Shuster said hybrids are misunderstood. Given the right owner, he said, they make wonderful pets and are more intelligent than the average dog.

"Sabrina, the ballerina, give a dance," Shuster said as one of his hybrids prances on her hind legs, excited to see him. "Like any dog, they need tender loving care. If you had a couple of kids would you desert them 'cause people don't like them?"

There have been instances in which hybrids were threatening. In 1995, two wolves attacked a dog in Anchorage and nearly killed it. In 1998, police shot a hybrid that had been terrorizing a neighborhood north of Anchorage for five days, killing dogs and chasing a child. Last year, a Fairbanks girl was bitten by the family dog, a husky-wolf hybrid.

Earlier this year, however, a Rottweiler-wolf hybrid was credited with saving a family when fire broke out in their Fairbanks home.

Massie said it appears hybrid owners are treating the new regulation much like the old one.

"I don't think there is much compliance out there yet," he said.

[wolfdogg]

Interesting, thanks for that

[Cassiepeia]

Welcome to Global Paw!

Cass.

[Samoyed]

Wolf,

you'll be fine with your wolf-dogs, No offense to wardens but they are dumb, besides every Snow breed has Some Wolf traits in them, no matter how 'pure breed' one is, its in their heritage.

your Hybrids Will look like Alaskan Malamutes or Huskies to the wardens and so long as you keep quiet about the Hybrid part you will be just fine.

from
Buffy
aka
Samoyed

P.s I Mush Samoyeds or to give it its original Term Samoyedes

[linnie]

welcome and good luck with your move