Natural History

Posted in wolves, working dogs | Tagged Jämthund, Swedish elkhound | 17 Comments

17 Responses

1. on October 18, 2013 at 9:36 pm ndndog

   This is happening to hounds and other dogs in this country…pretty soon the animal rights activists won’t have to work at banning dog hunting because we will have finally gotten too heartsick over this crap and just quit.
   I’m not anti-wolf but they need to be present in reasonable levels (current populations in some areas and proposed populations in others are above historic levels).
   So far we don’t have any in my area, my tribe did not like them anyway, I can’t imagine how I would ever deal with this happening to my dogs.

   
   
   • on October 18, 2013 at 10:18 pm Dave

     Most of the breeds involved in these wolf-attacks are dogs which roam far from their owners for hours on ends: rabbit-dogs, hounds and moose-dogs specifically.

     Dogs which are tied up outside are at risk as well.

     Haven’t heard much stories about dogs which range close– as in keeping contact with owner every 5-15 minutes.

     
     
   • on October 19, 2013 at 9:42 am Orge Magi

     What is your tribe

     
     
2. on October 18, 2013 at 9:58 pm dobermann

   This kind of thing makes me think the interbreeding between dogs and wolves was a rather rare thing, perhaps limited to the occasional young lone male wolf coming across a female dog in heat.

   Do we know whether this Jämthund was male or female?

   
   
   • on October 18, 2013 at 10:04 pm retrieverman

     Jamthund actually have wolf in them, as do Norwegian grays.

     
     
   • on October 18, 2013 at 10:13 pm Dave

     Many dog-breeds will do the same thing to a strange dog if they are formed in a pack.

     When I was in Finland, one of the hunters admitted sometimes when dogs are ran together in a pack for hunting boars, bears et cetera, they will attack a lone dog they met in the forest.

     I don’t think it’s a wolf-only characteristic, but a pack-orientated characteristic.

     
     
     • on October 19, 2013 at 12:30 am Suhail

       Feral dogs of India and Pakistan running in packs usually gang up on lone stray males. Females get lucky though.

       
       
     • on October 19, 2013 at 11:22 am kittenz

       Agreed. I have seen dogs do this to other dogs. Especially if the strange, lone dog is different from the pack, or crippled.

       
       
     • on October 20, 2013 at 6:10 am chervilmeadow

       you speak correctly on that Dave

       
       
     • on October 22, 2013 at 10:05 am bearcoatpei

       People tend to forget that one dog is a dog and two or more are a pack that will sometines do things that a single dog wouldn’t dream of. Even “cute” little ones that are not that far, if at all, removed from their vermin killing past.

       
       
   • on October 20, 2013 at 10:46 am dobermann

     It still ads up to a rare thing for dogs and wolves to interbreed under natural conditions. Think about how new wolf packs are formed. It usually starts off with an individual pair and their young. Association with humans has in effect created an artificial ecological barrier between dogs and wolves. No doubt a pack of wolves would also tear a lone wolf to pieces if it wandered into their territory.

     The history of the dog is much older than the wolf eradication campaigns that extirpated wolves from much of their range in the last few centuries. What kept dogs from being continually swamped by wolf genes over the millennia?

     And don’t be fooled by the wolf-like looking dogs of circumpolar regions. They are still dogs. They may have more wild type genes in them than your poodle but they are dogs in wolf’s clothing. It stands to reason that a northern wolf’s coat is optimal for it’s environment. That type of coat would also be optimal for a dog that had to survive in that same environment.

     
     
3. on October 19, 2013 at 12:24 am casdog1

   Hunting dogs in wolf country need to stay close. Far ranging dogs are bound to get in trouble with any resident packs. We don’t have wolves in my area but even in “just coyote” country my dogs are expected to hike close & stay within visual range at all times. And my dogs are built to battle wolves, they’re LGDs.

   
   
4. on October 19, 2013 at 12:32 am Suhail

   A rancher friend in northern Wyoming keeps in touch with his flock and LGDs on 24×7 basis when grazing season is on. In order to economize, he has hired Nepali men, as do many other ranchers there. I am not sure what visa type allows that to happen.

   
   
   • on October 22, 2013 at 9:48 am bearcoatpei

     What do the Nepali men do, stay out with the flock and LGDs like the nomad men in that general part of the world do? How is it an econmical endeavour compared to what his alternatives in Wyoming are? It’s just piqued my curiosity as I’m always interested in anything to do with LGDs and how they are used.

     
     
5. on October 19, 2013 at 9:44 am Orge Magi

   If have seen other pics like this,when wolves eat a dog why don’t they eat the head too? It is not as if there is no meat on it (or in it)

   
   
   • on October 19, 2013 at 11:24 am kittenz

     They just eat whatever they can eat, or tear off and carry away, most quickly. Smaller dogs are often entirely consumed.

     
     
6. on October 21, 2013 at 9:32 pm DVMKurmes

   I found a coyote that looked a bit like that a year and a half ago. There were some elk bones (just the long bones from the legs) nearby, and it looked like the coyote tried to scavenge a Puma kill, and got eaten as well. This happened in northern Arizona where Puma are quite common.

   
   

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