Dire Wolf Project Breeding Pets for Game of Thrones Fans

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Dire Wolf Project Breeding Pets for Game of Thrones Fans

Dire wolves may be extinct, but would-be Starks can own the next best thing for a mere $3,000.

Though dire wolves have been extinct for thousands of years in the real world, Game of Thrones fans know that they make great pets. Who wouldn't want a furry companion as loyal as Ghost or as protective as Grey Wind? You may not be able to go to a pet store and pick out a dire wolf of your own, but you can get the next best thing: an American Alsatian bred by The Dire Wolf Project [http://theamericanalsatian.tripod.com/direwolfproject/]. The long waiting list and $3,000 price tag might be off-putting, but who can put a price on having a pet that looks like it's straight out of an epic fantasy tale?

The Dire Wolf Project has been around since the late 1980s, and was started "to bring back the look of the large prehistoric dire wolf in a domesticated dog breed." The project has gotten more attention lately thanks to the popularity of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, as well as the HBO TV show adaptation Game of Thrones. The American Alsatians aren't actually descendants of dire wolves; there aren't any surviving samples of genetic material of the species. Instead, breed founder Lois Schwarz set out to make a pet that was wolf-like in appearance, but practical as a family pet. At around 130 pounds when fully grown, American Alsatians are bred to be intelligent, alert, and fond of human contact.

The Project's website states that its mission is not yet complete, with one eventual goal to achieve a lifespan of 15 to 20 years for the American Alsatians. If you happen to be in southern Oregon, you can "observe, photograph, and snuggle with these domesticated prehistoric Dire Wolf digs in the making" at the Project's headquarters. It all looks pretty nice, especially if you're in the market for a large pet and have a few thousand bucks to burn, but I'll be really impressed when someone starts selling pet dragons. Get on it, breeders!

Source: io9 [http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/03/dire-wolf-pet-dog/]

Image: The Dire Wolf Project [http://www.direwolfproject.com/home.html]

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[Akexi]

Would definitely prefer one of those to an English bulldog.

 

[rofltehcat]

As long as they are peaceful, great idea. $3000 might sound a bit steep at first but compared to other "pure" dog breeds, it's not that much more and I doubt they are getting rich breeding them. At their weight they surely eat a lot.

Their life expectancy goal of 15-20 years is interesting... most big dog breeds don't live that long.


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[DugMachine]

Very cool, would love me my own Ghost

 

[Padwolf]

I would love one of those. I really would. If only I had the money. Well, maybe one day! I can keep on dreaming! It's nice to know that this exists though. The lifespan is fantastic, 15 - 20 years is amazing for any dog.

 

[knight steel]

That,is,awesome-just be carefully that it doesn't go wild/kill any small children

 

[Albino Boo]

As long as they are peaceful, great idea. $3000 might sound a bit steep at first but compared to other "pure" dog breeds, it's not that much more and I doubt they are getting rich breeding them. At their weight they surely eat a lot.

Their life expectancy goal of 15-20 years is interesting... most big dog breeds don't live that long.


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I would love one of those. I really would. If only I had the money. Well, maybe one day! I can keep on dreaming! It's nice to know that this exists though. The lifespan is fantastic, 15 - 20 years is amazing for any dog.

Most pure dog breads have been bread for particular characteristics in manor that is not the best for there health and life expectancy. Many pure breads suffer from horrible genetic abnormalities which significantly impact their quality and length of life. http://idid.vet.cam.ac.uk/search.php


Now I have 40kg ish (~90lbs) welsh foxhound who is 16. Yes he is old and isn't as fast as he used to be but because he hasn't been bread to a standard he is still going strong. Monty is pretty much the same general purpose medieval hunting dog when they were first mentioned over 1000 years ago. So an age of 15-20 isn't that unreasonable.

So an age goal of 15-20 isn't that far out of range.

 

[Rednog]

I'd find this somewhat interesting/amusing if their little blurb on Game of Thrones wasn't so awfully bad.

Game of Thrones


In the new series from HBO, Game of Thrones, a tribe of ancient people find a Dire Wolf mother dead near her surviving cubs. Each boy in the tribe is given a Dire Wolf cub to raise and learn the most important elements of honor and sacrifice needed to claim the king's throne. It is based on a book series by the same name written by George R.R. Martin in 1997. The Dire Wolves in the HBO series are not played by American Alsatians, but Northern Inuits and Czechoslovakian wolfdogs.

The series is a bit misleading in its interpretation of the Dire Wolf. The wolves portrayed in the Game of Thrones series do not resemble Dire Wolves and should not be confused with Dire Wolf size and build. Some of the most obvious features lacking in the wolves deemed to be Dire Wolves are that they possess thin muzzles, legs, and bodies. While this is indicative of the more fleet of foot Gray Wolf, it does not reflect the size and mass of the Dire Wolf build. The Dire Wolf had shorter, thicker legs as well as a larger head and broader muzzle.

This series has spurred an interest in the Dire Wolf and in turn the American Alsatian. We applaud viewers who have taken the time to research the Dire Wolf instead of assuming the wolves on the film resemble the Gray Wolf's extinct prehistoric cousin. It is a fictitious story after all as there is no evidence that prehistoric man lived in tribes that resembled European medieval culture.

It is understandable that the producers of the Game of Thrones series have used dog breeds that more resemble the Gray Wolf, but viewers should understand that the wolf coat type shown in these dogs may really be the only resemblance to the largest canid to walk the Earth, if indeed the DIre Wolf had a Gray Wolf coat.

The Dire Wolf Project
June 25, 2011

Seriously with so much interest spurred from the show you'd think someone would at least sit down for 5 minutes and read the wiki for the book/show.
And if I wanted to actually own a dog that looked like the dogs in the show...I'd you know, go out and buy the same breed of dog that they use in the show and not some gimmick breed which threw on the "dire wolf" name.

 

[Velociferocks]

Their life expectancy goal of 15-20 years is interesting... most big dog breeds don't live that long.

I had a German Shepherd that grew to 16, it's probably a bit optimistic to think that they could live to 20 tough, but not impossible.

 

[Ukomba]

I have a hard time seeing that life span ever happening since the larger the dog is, the lower it's life span tends to be. It's like trying to breed hairless Greyhounds to cold resistance. The longer the life of a breed the longer it takes to breed them.

 

[gigastar]

And if I wanted to actually own a dog that looked like the dogs in the show...I'd you know, go out and buy the same breed of dog that they use in the show and not some gimmick breed which threw on the "dire wolf" name.

I thought the wolves were CGI?

 

[Rednog]

And if I wanted to actually own a dog that looked like the dogs in the show...I'd you know, go out and buy the same breed of dog that they use in the show and not some gimmick breed which threw on the "dire wolf" name.

I thought the wolves were CGI?

The "adult" version of the dire wolf characters might be pure CGI or CGI enhanced, but the "young" versions of the dire wolf characters are indeed played by real dogs.

 

[kajinking]

Watch as people get these animals and then get rid of them after a couple of years due to their associated costs.

Same shit happened with owls back when Harry Potter first came out. ;/

Wait...Owls were a thing? I never really heard about this when Potter was really huge.

 

[Raggedstar]

I'm suspicious.

First of all, "Alsatians" are German Shepherds. The name comes from the time when Germany wasn't playing nicely with the world, so people in places like the UK called them Alsatians. Sorry, it's a nitpick. A lot of people try to make regular or off-standard German Shepherds special and fancy by giving them a name like Alsatian (old fashioned, Alsatian wolfdog, Panda Shepherds which is basically a piebald GSD, etc) and then charge a huge price tag. The term coined is "designer dogs", which includes "purebred" Labradoodles among other named mixes. I've seen people spend thousands on some backyard bred mix that they could've got for significantly less at a shelter.

Second, perhaps it's the nerdy wolf lover in me, but those do NOT look like wolves. To the layman maybe (though then again people have spent thousands on scraggly huskies because people told them they were wolves or wolfdogs), but there are much more wolf-like mixes out there. To start with, wolves have smooth, quiet colour gradients without distinct markings (as in no mask, saddle, etc). They also tend to have small, densely furred ears. Also I'll also say that most wolves are well under even 100 pounds. It's also a bit of a danger making wolf-like dogs because hysteria has shown that people are so stupid that they would report a 100% dog as wolf (whether the owner calls the dog a wolf or not) and eventually lead the death of the animal from poisoning, shooting, or confiscation.

Thirdly, these dogs look like Shiloh Shepherds, which started out as GSD mixes. Some people are also selling similar appearance "Old Style German Shepherds" that are basically huge, longhaired 120 pound GSDs (which is a misnomer since the original GSDs were small and snipey like a Malinois)

Spoiler: Shiloh Shepherd and old fashioned/large GSD

To toss them out there, here are some other programs breeding wolf-like dog mixes (or mixes with wolves far removed from their breeding).

Spoiler: Czech Wolfdog, Saarloos Wolfdog, Lupo Italiano, American Tundra Shepherd, Tamaskan, Utonagan in order

Though perhaps I'm fussing over nothing.

Getting a 15-20 year lifespan out of a dog is great in any case, but I don't know if they'll get it. Large breeds have so many problems. The average GSD won't make it to even 15. They have to worry about cardiomyopathy and hip/elbow dysplasia among the other millions of health problems GSDs have. And ya, I would rather people buy a dog like this than to go out and get real wolves as pets.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"The Dire Wolf Project has been around since the late 1980's"

and I am only hearing of this NOW?!

Yes. Yes please. Do want.

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

This is horrendous. Lots of people who don't know the first thing about what they actually act like will buy one just as a piece of merchandise, find out that they don't actually enjoy taking care of one, and neglect it or throw it out.