Training Your Wolf Hybrid Puppy

Now that you have decided to go with a wolf hybrid puppy, the next step is training.  I will give you some of my experiences and a few steps to follow.  If you are successful, you will have a loving new addition to your family. 

Let us look at what you will need for training supplies next. 

1.      Leash

2.      Collar

3.      Toys – Lots of chew toys because wolf hybrid puppies love to chew.

4.      Training reward treats

5.      A place to isolate the puppy – such as a crate, an unused bedroom, a basement, or six foot chain link fence.

Now we start the training process.  Remember you must be patient and that your wolf hybrid puppy will try your patience.

1.      The first step is to socialize your wolf hybrid puppy.  Hybrid wolf puppies need lots of contact with their family.   So start the socialization process with the family if there is a family.  This can be with other family pets and the human family members.  Next take the wolf hybrid puppy out in public to as many places as possible as soon as possible. Be sure to use the collar and the leash anytime you take your wolf hybrid into a public setting.  The collar and leash are for your protection as well as others.  Lawsuits are in abundance these days and you do not need one.  The more experiences the wolf hybrid puppy encounters the less likely they are to be overly aggressive or shy which wolves tend to be.  My wolf hybrid male is still very shy and timid in public because he did not receive enough public socialization early on. 

2.      Visit your veterinarian for shots, heart worm, and a general checkup.  This is a good way to get them around other animals and people if you have no other pets or family members.  This step is probably the most important step for your peace of mind to make sure your puppy is healthy and ready to be trained.

3.      If you have never owned a pet before, you are going to need help.  This can be thru online research or an animal trainer.   If you can afford obedience training and have a class in your area, enroll the two of you in obedience training.  This will help in the socializing of the animal and teach you how to become a better trainer yourself.  If you cannot afford obedience training, websites such as www.eHow.com or http://dogs.lovetoknow.com are great tools to learn how to train your hybrid wolf puppy.

4.      Daily interaction with your hybrid wolf puppy is very important from the first day you bring home your puppy.  Play games with them.   Teach them which toys are their toys.  Without these parameters on what they can and cannot play with, your home and property will be destroyed.  You may find clothes and shoes chewed.  Or, a couch that the puppy used for digging its’ den.  Wolves dig and chew as an instinct and this instinct has to be curtailed.  You should also exercise your hybrid wolf puppy daily.  A game of fetch is a great exercise for the puppy and you. Once you teach the puppy how to fetch properly, you do not have to do as much work.  Wolves are high strung and have lots of energy that needs to be expended and therefore so does your hybrid wolf puppy.  

5.      Your puppy should also be handled daily.  The puppy needs to get use to a humans touch.  So as the owner of a hybrid wolf puppy, start with petting of the body and ears.  Then start checking the puppies’ teeth, eyes, and tail.  Then check the puppies’ genitals.  These habits are important for the owner and the puppy both.   This allows the owner to check for health issues and makes their trips to a veterinarian a little easier too.  It also allows the owner to check for any flee or tick problems that need to be addressed.   

6.      Wolves have larger brains than dogs and are therefore more intelligent.  For you as the owner of a hybrid wolf puppy, this means you will need to stimulate the puppies’ brain daily.  Teach it new tricks and games.  Introduce new toys to the puppy.  Do not leave your puppy without brain stimulation for long because it will learn things on its own that you may not want it learning.   Talk with your puppy.  Yes I said talk with the puppy.  Wolves are very vocal animals and like to talk.  If trained properly, the puppy will carry on a conversation with you just like a human would.  I still do not know what my female hybrid mother wolf is saying to me but we talk two and three times per day.  I have learned thru the years to ask her certain questions to start our conversations.  As a puppy she had no example of how to howl from another animal, so I taught her by example with a Tarzan yell.  Now I can say “Do Tarzan” and she will howl.  She prefers to howl at night though just like a wolf in the wild would. 

7.      Wolves have a bone crushing bite.  Wolf hybrid puppies will want to bite and chew everything.  Find them things to chew on that have nothing to do with furniture or shoes or anything you want to keep.  My favorite chew toy to give my hybrid wolf pets is old milk jugs.  They love them and I still have all my shoes and most of my furniture.  I made the mistake of letting one puppy chew on a scrap piece of wood.  One day I came home to a couch leg that looked nothing like its’ original state.  Next, let us address the biting your puppy will want to do nonstop.  You must stop this habit when the puppy is very young which means from bite number one.  Different forms of discipline are available to you.  You can make crying sounds and tell them that they hurt you.  You can slap their nose and tell them that they hurt you and to not bite you.  It is important to talk with your wolf hybrid puppy when disciplining them.  They are very intelligent and learn very fast.  Do not let any bite go unpunished.

8.      We will now talk about housetraining or potty training your wolf hybrid puppy for those who will keep their puppy inside.  The easiest way to potty train any animal is by example.  What I mean by this is if you have another animal that is already potty trained, they will just go in and out with them and lead by example.  You of course have to go with them to ensure that they have done their business.  You will then praise them for what they have done.  After a few trips, you can gage if more training is needed.  If you have no other pets, the process is a little more labor intense and drawn out.  Do not put papers down for a wolf hybrid puppy to use.  This gets them in the habit of going inside which is the wrong behavior to teach.  You take them out at regular intervals to do their business and praise them when they have done so.  Be patient.  This takes time and accidents will happen.

9.      If your hybrid wolf puppy has demonstrated bad behavior and you want to punish them,   the best form of punishment for a social animal is isolation.  This can be done thru crate training.  One may opt to put the puppy in an unused bedroom.  Another option is put the puppy in a basement if you have it.  I happen to use the basement because I have it and they cannot tear up as much of my personal belongings in the basement.  Depending on your climate another option is a fenced in area outside.  This is a little like a child’s time out.  You put the hybrid wolf puppy in isolation and tell them why they are there.  As you bring them out, you remind them why they were there and not to do the bad behavior again.

10.  Reinforce good behavior with treats, hugs, petting, and words of praise.  You like to be recognized when you do a good job and so does your wolf hybrid puppy.  Use the same treat each time you are rewarding them for one particular lesson.  An example would be giving them a dog biscuit and only a dog biscuit after each successful potty training session.  Be consistent with your training and your verbiage.  If you want your puppy to learn what it means to  get in their bed, do not use “Go to your bed” one day and “Get on your pillow” another day.  You will only confuse your puppy. 

Good luck with your new hybrid wolf puppy.  I know it will bring lots of joy and love to your household as mine have to my household.  As always, if I can help or answer any questions feel free to post them.