$10,000 PUPPY!

When I plugged the tiny 256 GB Gigastone photo memory card into my computer, my fingers tapped furiously on the keyboard to open my photo program.

I was eager to download the 1,038 images I took of the puppies playing in the snow after yesterday’s beautiful sunny winter day.

I knew I had captured some AMAZING shots!

I couldn’t wait to analyze them and find out how they really turned out.

Shifting through those seemingly endless photos, I could tell that the lighting had been just right for the vibrant colors in the puppies’ fur to stand out against the blue shadows in the white snow.

It took my hours to enhance the best ones.

But by far, one of the puppies outshone the others with his natural rugged beauty.

Every single photo I took of him looked like a real coyote.

With those striking highly-slanted yellow eyes, tall erect ears, grizzled gray fur with brownish-yellow undertones, my heart just leapt at the beauty before me.

When this guy was just a baby of three weeks old, I knew there was something incredible about him.

I wanted so badly not to take a puppy from the Harvest litter, but THIS puppy had it all.

Despite my initial decision to skip keeping a puppy from this litter, after his second temperament test passed easily with 9’s and 10’s and his physical features being EXACTLY what the breed needed, I HAD to keep him in the breed.

At the time, last October, I assessed him as being worth $10,000 to the breed.

His combined temperament and wild outward appearance gave him the coveted BLACK COLLAR award!

Which I do not bestow on just any dog.

I reserve that collar only for the best all around puppies that surprise me with their intuitive capabilities as well as their superior wild canine looks.

But then, tragedy struck.

Embark DNA analysis recently added “copper toxicosis” to their list of inherited canine diseases.

And this puppy inherited TWO COPIES!

As we discussed in depth already, that does NOT mean he is sick, has a disease, or will get sick in the future.

He IS NOT and WILL NOT have any health issues as long as his family chooses a dog food with reasonable levels of copper.

(So, in other words, not the cheap crap.)

However, it does mean that he cannot contribute his genetics to the breed.

I had to make the hard (but morally correct) decision to choose a lessor puppy that is genetically clear.

At the time, I was devastated by the news.

He is literally the best puppy of the three litters for a lot of reasons.

And looking at yesterday’s pictures of him, my utter sadness for the breed at the loss of him wells up inside of me again.

I can’t believe this puppy is not sold yet!!

You guys must not know what I have here.

Maybe you think I’m just blowing smoke or something. I don’t know.

How do I get you to see what I see?

How do I get you do know what I know?

How do I get you to trust what I say?

What is it going to take to show you that there is something extraordinary about this puppy… and that $3500 is practically a STEAL for this guy!

It hurts my heart, you guys, to even see that price up there for this great dog.

Will his future family even appreciate the wonderful aspects he embodies?

After all, it’s an average puppy price for an exceptional puppy.

I hope his future family will not take him for granted.

So, if you want to see a 6-month old American Dirus puppy that looks just like a coyote, go check out PATCH from the Harvest Litter.

I recently updated the puppy pictures with some amazing captures.

Here’s the link to see the updated puppies-for-sale pics, including Patch:

https://direwolfdogs.com/dogs-for-sale/puppies/

Here’s the link to see the updated puppies we are keeping:

https://direwolfdogs.com/dogs/

Man, I think we’ve never had a more dire wolfish looking bunch of puppies in all my whole dog breeding career.

Everest is MASSIVE!

Talk about dire wolf-sized!

At six months old, Everest is as large as some of our full grown adult females.

And thicker in bone structure.

His ears may not yet be up, but there is something special about that puppy, just like Patch.

And Mustang… just as tall as Everest, but not as thick structured.

Equally as handsome in his wolfish features, though.

And don’t forget the graceful beauty that is Corvette.

She has a soft light silver look with a white mask. So subtle and majestic looking.

But then, there’s Lincoln!

He is Stanley’s clone.

Literally, he will look just like our handsome black stud, Stanley.

The future of the Dire Wolf Project is bright, folks!

Many great things coming our way this year.

Can you feel it, too?

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.