Is that a REAL LIFE DIRE WOLF?!

Is that a REAL LIFE DIRE WOLF?!

Apparently, the new trend in wolf dog circles is to label any extra large to giant-sized wolf dog as a dire wolf.

One prominent YouTube channel (endorsed by Nat Geo) with over a million subscribers entitled their latest video…

“REAL LIFE DIREWOLF? / MEET THE NORTHAID WOLF DOG”  
*NorthAID is short for “North American Indian Dog”

Two months ago, this same channel did a short video with a large, fluffy blue wolf dog entitled, “HUGE DIREWOLF - GAME OF THRONES”

Similarly, the Nat Geo sponsored channel portrayed the Northern Inuit Dog as the “Game of Thrones Direwolf”.

(I get the reason for this last one, since a few Northern Inuit dogs were used as young direwolves in the HBO series Game of Thrones, but labeling the entire breed as dire wolves adds to the public’s confusion.)

If having a popular YouTube channel promoting the notion that extra large wolf dogs can be called dire wolves wasn’t enough, there is a Czechoslovakian Vlcak breeder claiming to be the “DireWolf Pack” with the url: dire-wolves.com

Seems everyone wants to share in the

Dire Wolf Project’s renown.

But, despite the hype in the wolf dog community to market their wolf dogs as dire wolves, the true extinct, prehistoric dire wolf was likely not a “wolf” at all.

Some scientists now feel the dire wolf was a separate species of canid, as different as a leopard and a cheetah are from one another.

And to be sure, the dire wolf’s morphology shows:

1. 129% stronger bite force
2. Larger canine teeth
3. Thicker bone structure
4. Longer tail
5. Broader, more massive skull with smaller brain capacity and comparatively shorter muzzle
6. 132 to 150 lbs., with some estimates as high as 175 lbs.
7. 31 to 33 inches tall at the shoulders, on average

The thin-boned, skinny-chested, fleet-of-foot gray wolves we see today do not come close to the dire wolf’s sheer prominence and overall stocky build.

And…

Breeding over-sized, long-haired wolf dogs is not going to mimic the thick bone structure and massive head shape of the fierce dire wolf.

Not to mention the huge, glaring lack of ethics it takes to breed wolf dogs in the first place, especially while claiming them to be family companion dogs.

Despite the wolf dog community’s confusing rhetoric, the Dire Wolf Project will remain quietly working to bring about a real representation of the extinct, prehistoric dire wolf - without using any wolf content.

And you are privileged enough to have found us!

Learn more about what the dire wolf looked like here:

https://direwolfproject.com/dire-wolf/dire-wolf-appearance/

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.