Mud on their paws. Fire in their souls.
By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, July 23, 2025
There are moments in life when you see something so natural…
So wild…
So real…
That it shocks the domesticated world.
And in that moment, they have two choices:
- Stand in awe.
- Or try to burn it down.
This week, someone chose fire.
A person who was once welcomed into our pack…
Who looked into the eyes of one of our calmest, most noble American Dirus™ puppies and called him “amazing”…
And has since turned on us with venom and fury.
(Do you remember that Reddit thread from last week that we all thought was over?)
Well, it’s not.
They’re all still talking about us over there a week later!
And this current American Dirus™ dog owner has taken the time to comment, claws out, declaring our dogs are fearful, skittish, and aggressive.
(Despite her own American Dirus™ dog not being any of those things.)
And worst of all?
That they’re dirty!
She posted a photo she took when she came out to visit us in 2022 of Tudor, one of our stunning adult males.
His great big ol’ paws were caked in mud.
Mud on his feet.
And mud in his den.
Apparently, she saw this as proof that we raise our dogs in squalor.
But what she missed…
What she couldn't see…
Was the truth beneath the muck:
That mud wasn’t neglect.
It was joy!
Let me take you back to 2022 when she came to visit us…
It was August.
The air was hot, dry, and thick.
As we did each summer, we hauled giant troughs into each dog pen.
Cool oases for our dogs to stretch out, splash, and roll in.
The water shimmered like sunlight on a glacial lake.
The dogs leapt all around inside those troughs.
They dunked their snouts, tossed water droplets into the sky, and thundered across the earth in full, glorious pursuit of play.
Our kennels are not some concrete, white-washed, fluorescent-lit enclosure where dogs are warehoused in sterility.
This is wilderness reborn!
We live in nature.
And so do our dogs.
We train in the wind.
We breed under starlight.
We whelp through snowstorms and heatwaves.
We’ve fought parvo, patching up the weak at great expense and letting the strong rise.
We’ve pulled ticks, treated worms, and hauled water through wildfire smoke.
Why?
Because that’s how the strong are made.
Not behind glass.
Not under LED lights.
Not in a plastic-wrapped box with lavender-scented wipes.
The dogs we raise are not fragile.
They are forged.
You want the truth?
Tudor, mud and all, was one of the most stunning creatures I’ve ever had the privilege to love.
Calm. Courageous. And grounded like a glacial boulder.
And yes, during the hot summer, he got muddy.
Because in his world,
that’s what freedom smells like.
But that doesn’t fit the picture this person wants to paint.
No, she needs a villain.
And when you live in the raw and raise your dogs wild and wise, the world doesn’t always understand.
Perhaps she came searching for fantasy, but instead, found nature and couldn’t handle it.
So now, she’s crafting a Dropbox.
A museum of mud.
A digital gallery of misunderstood moments and out-of-context snapshots.
Let her.
Because while she collects photos, we’re collecting something else entirely:
Legacy.
Legacy in the soft paw pads of pups who learn to walk in the dust of real earth.
Legacy in the calm eyes of dogs who’ve faced the elements and thrived.
Legacy in the pack that stands together when others try to tear us down.
Because this isn’t just a breed.
It’s a movement.
Let them mock the mud.
Let them sniffle behind their sterile walls and see dirt as disaster.
But we know the truth, don’t we?
Mud is what happens when life touches earth.
It’s what happens when a dire wolf laughs.
It’s what happens when you raise something real.
And if that makes us different?
So be it.
We were never meant to fit into their world anyway.
Strongbred™. Not sterilized.
If you don’t mind getting your noggin’ a little muddy, then head on over to Reddit, where the truth is banned, and enjoy the show.
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P.S. If you’ve ever watched a dog roll in mud and come out happier, you already understand what that woman never will. You’re one of us. And this is our howl.
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P.P.S. If she really does finish that Dropbox… someone should probably tell her that real dogs get muddy. We just don’t see that as a problem.
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.