Wolves, by nature, ARE very different from dogs. I have always loved dogs, but wolves are just different. In my personal blog (http://www.wildtribalmama.com/), I wrote about the similarities between women and wolves: their family-orientedness, their keen intuition, their deep-seeded wisdom, and so much more. The more time I spend mothering my wolfdog pups, the more I am noticing how all the literature about parenting my children totally applies to these pups. It's like a ping-pong machine, and the pings are everywhere! Helping them learn to use the backyard as a potty is like elimination communication, and being aware of them and what they are doing and being a part of it is connection parenting, and cuddling them when they sleep and responsiveness on demand to their needs is attachment parenting, and trusting their learning and development is unschooling, and interacting with them respectfully and following their lead is consensual living.
I have read some literature on raising wolfdog pups, from "experts" (indeed, they ARE experts -- experts of their own experiences with wolfdogs), and it seems like what is missing is the essence of these gentle parenting philosophies -- the connection, the affection, the attachment. I believe all living creatures benefit from these styles of interactions, and wolves are this way by nature. The problems people have with wolfdogs stem from NOT raising them in this fashion. Wolves are much more attuned to the wildness of life, and so they need the kind of interactions they would have had in the wild. Training and discipline focused interactions are not what the wild is like -- that's humans trying to control the wild. If we embraced it and let it flavor our whole life together, we would all flourish from it.
Funny, it took some wolfdog pups to see this even clearer for my own development and my furless children's.
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