I have questions about your questions.
By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, June 4, 2026
Today’s “Ask the Alpha” somehow manages to travel from veterinary diagnostics all the way back to the Ice Age.
Which, now that I think about it, is probably the most Dire Wolf Project™ sentence I have written all week.
Draw closer, because the fire is burning brightly inside the den today, and the pack has once again been sending fascinating questions our way.
One sends me down a research rabbit hole so deep that I emerged three hours later surrounded by scientific papers, fossil diagrams, and at least six browser tabs whose purpose I no longer remember.
And one starts with what appears to be a simple question, but I could write an entire book on the subject.
Lucky for you, I restrained myself.
Curious— do you do any health testing beyond embark? Like OFA?
—Helth Tess
I smiled knowingly when I read this one.
Because dog breeders have been arguing about health testing for approximately seventeen thousand years.
Or at least it feels that way. HA!
Here’s my answer.
Yes. Embark DNA testing is only one tool within our broader health program.
We also utilize additional diagnostic evaluation when warranted within the population, including orthopedic assessment philosophies such as OFA and/or PennHIP, thyroid testing, veterinary diagnostics, pedigree analysis, longitudinal health tracking, inherited temperament evaluation, and owner-reported lifetime outcome monitoring.
Where our philosophy differs somewhat from the standard modern purebred framework is that we do not believe ethical breeding is achieved simply by mechanically completing the same socially expected checklist across every dog regardless of the actual inherited issues emerging within the population itself.
Instead, we support what we call a disease elimination model.
That means we focus intensely on identifying the real inherited weaknesses appearing within the breed population over generations and strategically directing our attention there through population management, targeted breeding decisions, and long-term tracking rather than treating certifications alone as the ultimate measure of health.
For example, hypothyroidism has historically represented a much more significant inherited concern within our breed than hip dysplasia, so much of our long-term focus has been directed there.
In other words, our goal is not merely to produce dogs that successfully pass tests at one moment in time. Our goal is to move the overall population itself toward greater long-term biological stability across generations.
Now, if the first question led us through the labyrinth of veterinary diagnostics, breeding philosophy, and population management...
The second one kicked open a prehistoric door, tossed us through it, and sent us tumbling headfirst into the Late Pleistocene.
Do we have an idea of what the dire wolf looked like because to me this does not look like a wolf.
To me it looks kinda like a mix of Great Pyrenees.
Yes I know dogs and wolfs come from the canidae family, but do we have an idea what they’re actually supposed to look like.
his is not suppose to be agate comment just want more information about it
—Nadia Wolffe
I absolutely love this question.
Partly because it is thoughtful, but also because it is so stinkin’ respectful.
And it also accidentally exposes one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding dire wolves.
Most people think they already know what a dire wolf looked like.
Close your eyes for a moment.
Seriously.
Picture a dire wolf.
There is a very good chance your brain just produced an enormous gray wolf standing on a snowy cliff somewhere while dramatic music swells in the background.
The problem is that no prehistoric wildlife photographer ever hid behind a giant sequoia taking glamour shots of dire wolves meandering by for National Geographic.
Instead, we are working solely from fossils, skeletal reconstructions, comparative anatomy, and scientific detective work.
Which, in my opinion, makes the real story far more interesting than the Hollywood version anyway.
Here is my answer:
A lot of the confusion comes from the fact that most people picture dire wolves as giant modern gray wolves because of movies, fantasy art, and pop culture.
In reality, we only know the extinct dire wolf through fossils, skeletal reconstructions, and scientific comparisons to modern canids. We do not have living dire wolves to photograph or directly observe. Nor do we have preserved dire wolves found intact and encased ice.
What scientists do generally agree on is that dire wolves appear to have been heavier boned, broader skulled, denser in body, and more robust overall than modern gray wolves. They were built more like a powerful Ice Age megafaunal predator than the leaner northern gray wolves most people are familiar with today.
And interestingly, many modern “wolf-look” dogs actually pursue exaggerated gray wolf traits instead, such as narrow frames, legginess, and sharp facial features.
Our project intentionally moved toward a heavier and more robust structural direction inspired by dire wolf fossil reconstructions rather than modern wolf imagery.
You are also absolutely correct that some of the dogs can visually remind people of breeds like Great Pyrenees, Malamutes, Shepherds, or other domestic breeds at times. That’s because these are still domesticated dogs developed through selective breeding programs, not literal recreated extinct animals. And we have yet to reach our ultimate goal, although we've come quite a long way already.
So the project is really less about “making a wolf” and more about preserving certain ancient canid structural traits and healthier wild-type functionality within a calm companion dog.
Today, we managed to cover health testing, extinct predators, evolutionary history, fossil interpretation, companion dog breeding, and prehistoric canids.
PHEW!
That’s quite the accomplished list within only two questions.
Which means we have successfully completed another perfectly normal Thursday around the Dire Wolf Project™ campfire.
At this point, I am fairly certain there has to be easier hobbies out there.
But they probably are not nearly as much fun.
And speaking of fun...
We currently have several adult American Dirus™ dogs looking for their next adventure.
https://direwolfdogs.com/dogs-for-sale/adults/
Until next Thursday, when the fire inside the den glows once more and the Inner Circle gathers again beneath the whispering pines for another session of “Ask the Alpha.”
Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.