Maybe I'm crazy...

Actually, I have no doubt at all that I'm crazy and I don't mind if people think that about me. It's probably one of the reasons why I've wanted a Czechoslovakian wolfdog since I saw him for the first time in 2008 on the Muránska plain.

I needed a wild partner by my side who wouldn't get lost in the forest with me. If I could, I would take a wolf, but in Slovakia the wolf is protected and its breeding is against the law, so I was "satisfied" with at least a certain percentage of wolf blood. If it were that easy, I'd probably already live somewhere in Alaska on a wolf reserve.

The Czechoslovakian wolfdog immediately charmed me. There are many dreams that will never come true because one perceives them as too bold, but I have drawn my reality in my mind so much that as soon as the first opportunity to get a dog came, the puppy was our number one choice.

During the six years I dreamed about him, everyone discouraged me. Now I am not an exception when someone asks me about the breed, because I recommend everyone to learn as much as possible about the breed, get to know the people who have the breed, meet them, get to know the dogs of this breed, and it takes a lot of patience and time to raise it well. Living with a more demanding breed becomes a lifestyle you don't adapt to, but choose. Not everyone understands this before getting this breed and not everyone pays enough attention to it. There are many people who perceive it as a "fashionable" accessory more than as a full-fledged member of the family. And many do not want to tolerate his wolfish behavior and try to break it, while this breed can be perfectly worked with if you try to really know and understand it.

How are the wolfdogs different?

Every single animal, cat or dog, guinea pig or bunny, has its own specific personality and character. This means that it is not possible to generalize animal behavior according to race and breed to 100%. Even if you read anything about Czechoslovakian wolfdogs in manuals, the most important thing will be how you yourself will perceive his behavior, changes, what works for him, what doesn't work and try to catch the bigger "mistakes" as soon as possible.

In 2014, I blogged about the upbringing of this breed and advice for newcomers who would like to get one, because we ourselves lacked such information. Being in constant contact with breeders helped us the most, and for the first two years we went to regular training with an excellent trainer. Our dog didn't learn there, but we learned how to communicate with him and what to notice.
Because the Czechoslovakian wolfdog is a cross between the Carpathian wolf and the German shepherd, the breed still has a certain percentage of wolf blood, and thus the behavior and upbringing are somewhat more specific. The biggest scares are:

• Running: some dogs manage to climb over a two-meter fence without problems, dig under or simply bite it with their teeth like wire nippers.

• Chasing wild animals: in most cases, the individual does not know how to pull down wild animals, but it is important to work on recalling the dog in time and to keep it under control in the wild.

• Separation anxiety and destruction: the dog is a pack dog and hates separation and solitude. That's why he tends to howl, sometimes even bleat, make noise or "out of boredom" destroy everything that comes his way. He bites his kennel, destroys the boards in the floor, in the apartment he can easily disassemble the couch into a small one pieces, the legs from the table, but it depends on his nature and on you, how you can work with the puppy so that it doesn't take your every departure as a tragedy.

• Shyness: it does not have to be manifested in every dog to the same extent, for example, my dog was very contactable for the first two years, then he started to be scared of nuns, community service, tall men in loose coats, people carrying skis, boxes, children or umbrella... So it's a very specific matter and it's important to just pay attention to your dog and always evaluate in advance who can come into contact with him. We have proven that people who show no fear of him will accept them immediately and with joy.

• Temperament and dominance: the pack hierarchy is reflected in the upbringing of this breed until now. It is a dog that needs a balanced and sufficiently dominant owner. The dog is fixated on its owner and its pack, and it is very difficult to tolerate a change in this hierarchy. We had strong separation anxiety even when we left him for a few hours at the place and with people he knew. Only by repetition did he gradually get used to the two "guarding" positions at an older age.

In any case, I will gradually publish older posts as well as new knowledge that we have acquired over the years with our Wolf on our blog. Nowadays, you can access information a little easier than we did ten years ago.

What does my dog mean to me?

Sometimes I come across the opinion that we have our animals instead of children. But we do not perceive them as children. They are part of our little family, but they represent other places that our children would represent. I like the idea that we have them "so that one more heart beats at home". It's alive here, even if a person is home alone and sometimes we don't know about them all day, because they are lazing in a warm place.

But when we brought Wolf home and I fulfilled one of my biggest dreams, I can't even describe the happiness. Some friends told me that I tied a lead ball around my leg and they wouldn't limit themselves because of the dog. For me, not going to the cinema was no restriction. I simply took the dog and went to the hill to see the sunset, tossing wooden stick with him, we went swimming in the lake and I could name countless activities. That's why I say it's about the kind of life you want to lead, that's the lifestyle.

As soon as we started getting to know Wolf better, there were several poetic moments, as if invisible threads from my heart began to intertwine with his threads. I felt incomplete without him. He became my animal demon, like from the stories of Philip Pullman. Every time he flies wildly through a meadow or a forest, I want to go wild and run with him.