Anglian Wolf Society Trip Report

Peyto and Kaya

Club Trip  

On Tuesday, Lesley and some of the gang from Barking Mad in Broom ventured into the depths of the Bedfordshire countryside to visit the Anglian Wolf Society.

The Sanctuary, which started in 1999 supports and raises funds for Wolf conservation and their primary aims are:

-educate and inform the public about wolves
-promote and support wolf conservation
-provide a place where people can study or work with wolves

Their guide for the day was Phil Watson, the society’s founder, who was obviously a wealth of information on all things wolf related and it was great to hear him talk about body language and also to have a real good chat about wolf hybrids as pets, but more on that later!

There are 4 wolves kept at the sanctuary, Chesa and his brother Peyto, and Chesa’s daughters Aiyana and Kaya.

Chesa inspects the guests

The group were met in the car park to be briefed about health and safety and then were walked in 2 groups down to the wolves. As you would expect the handlers were very respectful of their wolves and we were walking into ‘Alpha Male’ Chesa’s territory so they didn’t want to put undue stress on him, particularly if he was unhappy with any member of the group. All was well though, although he kept a very keen eye on Mike at all times, eyeballing him as he went to the toilet!

The wolves are kept in large cages of about 1/2 acre. Chesa lives in one cage with Aiyana and the other 2 live next door!

Peyto and Kaya posing for the cameras

The wolves were born in captivity, with Aiyana and Kaya being born at the sanctuary itself.  Wolves are born paranoidily scared of humans so the cubs are taken away from their parents at 10 days old to be hand reared and they see no other wolves or dogs till they are 3 weeks old so they are accepting of their human carers.  After their 3 weeks, they then get to meet other dogs and play like normal canine pups. When Chesa and Peta first came to the sanctuary themselves as pups they got all the normal imprinting and conditioning training that you’d hope a normal canine pup would get such as being taken to country shows and walks in the park!  Clicker training was also done with all the pups when they were younger. Phil described them as super intelligent and uber quick learners! The problem with wolves is that every February (breeding season), all learning is wiped clear. At 18 months, the territorial genes switch on with a wolf, which means increased territorial marking and aggression.

Aiyana

So, wolf hybrids……. Wolf hybrids have been becoming increasing popular due to movies such as the Twighlight Series, and the question is do they make good pets? Phil's response was a very categoric NO!  When you cross a wolf and a dog, they have hugely unacceptable levels of predatory and territorial instinct, which makes them a difficult and dangerous houseguest. There is also a shyness gene that in many wolf hybrids just will not go away. There are many example of this in the Czech Wolf Dog (approx. 22% wolf), with many cases being reported where the dogs are so debilitatingly shy that they are afraid to leave their homes.

If you get a wolf hybrid that is approx. 12% (F3) wolf, they can be kept as a ‘pet’ but they'd be extremely challenging and would need to be kennelled outside. 6% (F4) would still have all of the territorial and predatory instincts but could be lived with. The question for potential purchasers of these wolf hybrids is can you really guarantee what % of wolf you’re getting and there is no way of measuring it?

Helen with their pet hybrid - maybe 7-12% wolf

The visit should have finished at 12ish but Phil was so interesting to listen to and the wolves so beautiful to watch that the group didn’t want to leave! They stayed and watched the wolves being fed, tripe and chicken was the order of the day! 

Dinner time!

The group finally left at 2.30 and on departure were treated to a display of howling! Awesome is the only way to describe it. There is no doubt that they will be revisiting the Anglian Society again really soon!