![]() He wanted to crossbreed the GSD with a wolf to bring back some of the working dog traits. It was his belief that the traditional German Shepherd had become too tamed. SaarloosWolfhond – The Creation of Leendert Saarloos by Ria Horter He succeeded, but the dogs were much too aggressive, even after several generations. He even tried to breed a jackal to a pinscher. Leendert Saarloosīorn in the city of Dordrecht in 1884, Leendert Saarloos was a dog aficionado who was consumed with crossbreeding dogs and other animals.Īll his life he was interested in -some say obsessed by – crossbreeding… for example a rabbit and a hare a ferret and a polecat. His name was Leendert Saarloos and he lived from 1884 until 1969. It was developed in 1935 by a Dutch dog breeder. The first registered German Shepherd Wolf Mix ever created was called the Saarloos Wolfdog. It did however set the stage for what would become the first ever documented wolf-dog. However, the breeding did not continue and didn’t resurface until years later. The outcome was successful and eight wolf-dog puppies were born. Niedener from the Netherlands bred a male German Shepherd with a female wolf. Attempts were made in countries like Finland and Sweden but without success. Dog enthusiasts in Europe at the time wanted to create a new wolf-dog breed. The very first attempts to breed a German Shepherd Wolf Mix actually go back to the late 1800’s. It is not a good mix for beginners and requires an experienced owner that knows how to handle this energetic hybrid. This mix combines the loyalty, obedience and intelligence of the German Shepherd with the captivating looks and wild instincts of a wolf. This means they have real wolf DNA in their blood unlike wolf-like dogs which don’t carry any. This intriguing breed is referred to as a wolf-dog hybrid. The German Shepherd Wolf Mix is the combination of the highly popular German Shepherd Dog with a wild wolf. Though all dogs are good boys, Sting, Lemmy and Elvis might be examples of these intrinsically better (wolf) boys.This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. But for this kind of selection to take place, there would need to be pre-existing variation in wolf populations that made some pups friendlier than others. Descendants of these super-friendly wolves eventually gained the traits we associate with pooches, like puppy-dog eyes and floppy ears. Most scientists support the theory of self-domestication, in which the friendliest members of a species gain an evolutionary advantage (such as greater access to food or protection). Other than being what I imagine was an incredibly cute situation, this research fills in an important gap in our knowledge about how wolves evolved into dogs. Previously, play between species based cues - like when a human throws a ball and says “Fetch!” - was thought to be unique to dogs.Photo by Tadeusz Lakota on Unsplash ![]() The other 10 wolf pups either played with the ball on their own or showed no interest in it. Over a course of three trials, Lemmy and Elvis responded to the assessor’s call and retrieved the ball twice, and Sting responded to the call and brought back the ball all three times. ![]() During one of the test situations, the assessor, whom the wolves had never met, threw a tennis ball across a room, called the name of the wolf pup and encouraged it to bring the ball back. In this study, researchers brought in a “puppy assessor” to measure 13 wolf pups against the metrics used to describe the behaviors of dog puppies. Over a course of three trials, Lemmy and Elvis responded to the assessor’s call and retrieved the ball twice, and Sting responded to the call and brought back the ball all three times. Previously, play between species that is based on social-communicative cues - like when a human throws a ball and says “Fetch!” - was thought to be unique to dogs, but the 8-week-old pups, named Sting, Lemmy and Elvis, showed otherwise. “Stop trying to make fetch happen” is probably what everyone said to researchers in Stockholm, who recently released a preprint describing a surprising feat: three wolf puppies spontaneously retrieving a thrown ball. ![]() This finding might provide clues into how dogs evolved into such good boys
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