Is That A Wolf?!

One of the first things that draws your eyes to a Siberian husky is the wolf-like appearance. The same is true of malamutes and a few other wolfy looking breeds. I regularly have people ask me if Denali and Kaytu are wolves or wolfdogs (or incorrectly, "wolf hybrids"). I grin and politely inform them that no, they are huskies.

So what are the physical differences? How can you tell just by looking at one?

Here is Denali, a Siberian husky.

These are grey wolves.

There is no mistaking a wolf.

Wolves have a longer muzzle with less of a stop (angle between muzzle and forehead). Wolves have larger heads and teeth compared to body size. Their eyes are almost always yellow, but may be amber or brown. They also have round and very fuzzy ears, enormous feet, a narrower chest, and a tail that never curls among other other differences.

Also, wolves are huge! This is a wolfdog, about 98% wolf.

Cindy's Wolf Dogs

Here is an excellent example of feet. Both these are wolfdogs. The female on the left has dainty dog-like feet. The male on the right has huge feet that are much more wolf-like.

www.hoofandhowl.com/dogs.html

Wolves also have something different about their fur. This is a lowcontent wolfdog but exhibits this wolf trait well. They grow a ton of it in the winter:

and then lose it all in the summer! Anyone with a double coated breed knows how different their dog can look in short summer coat or fluffy thick winter coat but rarely can it compare to the change that happens in wolves.

Wolves also walk in a nearly straight line. This is a mid-content wolfdog that has a wolf-like walk. Dogs do not walk like this.

See the differences? Dogs are not wolves. They are closely related and share a common ancestor but they are not the same.


Wolfdogs can look very wolfy or hardly like a wolf at all depending on how much wolf content there is.You never know which wolf traits or dog traits may be inherited. Physical appearances are just the tip of the iceberg.

Wolf behavior is very, very different than dog behavior. There are too many differences to list in a short blog post and I wanted to focus on the physical differences. But I will mention one of the aspects I find most fascinating, and that is how dogs and wolves respond to people. Dogs seem to read our faces, whereas wolves don't. Using technology to track eye movements it was discovered that dogs examine our faces in a way that is similar to (though not as elaborate as) how people examine each others' faces. As explained on Dogs Decoded, when humans looks at pictures of the faces of other humans we look at the left side of their face first. When dogs look at pictures of objects or other dogs' faces they randomly look left or right, however when shown a picture of a human face they look left first. Could it be they are reading our emotions?

Dogs also interpret our gestures. The narrator of Dogs Decoded explains. "Cognitive psychologist Juliane Kaminski compares chimps with dogs, in a series of revealing experiments. At Leipzig Zoo, Kaminski is testing chimps to see if they can understand human gestures, like pointing, to find a hidden treat. As simple as it seems to us, even our nearest primate relatives fail the task miserably." For example, there may be two bowls a few feet apart. A treat is placed under one, and that bowl is pointed to. In this way it can be observed if the animal understands the association between following the gesture and the treat. The primates seem to make a choice before the gesture is even given. Dogs on the other hand quickly learn to follow where you are pointing. Dogs are so tuned into us that they will even follow our gaze. And wolves? "Unlike dogs, the wolf cubs do not respond to pointing. In fact, they hardly make eye contact with humans at all."