Lakotah Sioux

sex: female
born: November 1993
birth place: Colorado

 

 

Lakotah Sioux's Story

Although we do not consider Lakotah a rescued animal, it is another good example of goofy people with good intentions doing goofy things. In this case, however, the goofy people happen to be Frank and Pat Wendland. Lakotah came into their lives when they lived in town. They had a neighbor, Don, who was going through a tough divorce. He recently had to sell his beautiful home in the mountains and move into a duplex. In the process of the move, his dog escaped, and was never seen again. The Wendlands would have him over to dinner almost every night, as he was one of those men that never learned to cook. At this same time, Frank and Pat had Frank's daughter's dog, Ginger, living with them. She is a Australian Shepherd-Heeler mix, an extremely loving and fun animal. Don adored her and continually questioned the Wendlands about her, suggesting that she would be perfect for him.

The Wendlands decided to get Don a dog for Christmas. In fact, an Australian Shepherd-Heeler mix. They watched the papers and, just before Christmas, there it was - the exact combination they were looking for. They went to see the puppies and were kind of surprised by what they saw. Although the little bundles of fluff where hard to determine the mix of, here was mom, who appeared to have something other than the reported breeds in her makeup. In fact, even though the Wendlands were no experts, she appeared to have German Shepherd and wolf characteristics. Before they knew it, Lakotah had chosen them and there was no leaving without her. As they questioned the owner about the lineage, she confessed that, indeed, mom was 50% German Shepherd and 50% wolf, and that dad had been the interloper with 50% Australian Shepherd and 50% Heeler.

The Wendlands figured that the small amount of wolf would not present a problem and, for all aspects of her personality, it really hasn't. She would have made a wonderful pet for a single pet household. The real surprise occurred when they gave this irresistible fluff-ball to Don. His level of surprise and expressions were a little confusing, but he graciously accepted.

The next morning sitting down to coffee was a totally different story. Don came over and explained that he had not slept a wink all night. He was so stressed by the responsibility of a puppy to take care of that he was having anxiety attacks. It appears that he had never raised his own dogs before, it was either his mother or his wife who had performed all of the tasks associated with the raising of a puppy. Although a little stunned by what they heard, the Wendlands apologized profusely and took Lakotah into their home.

She has been a wonderful animal and adores Frank, following him wherever he goes. She has even become the alpha female of the house pack, and keeps a tight rein on everyone else. In fact, at times, a little too tight. It appears to the Wendlands that she probably starts more conflict than she prevents. This aspect of her personality is another area of controversy within the wolf-dog community.

When statistics are kept on injuries or deaths caused by canines, all of the statistics are categorized by the pure blood lines of the animal. When it comes to wolf-dogs, it suddenly changes, and it is the wolf part that gets emphasized. Who is to say that it wasn't the German Shepherd side of the wolf/German Shepherd mix that caused the incident, not the wolf side? Statistics bear out that there has never been a confirmed incident of a healthy pure wolf ever attacking anyone in North America. Why then, suddenly, when it is mixed with a domestic dog, should the wolf genetics get blamed for the situation? Although these questions come down to the perspective of the human analyzing the situation, Wolf believes that the main reasons wolf-dogs should not be bred as pets should be focused on the perspective of the animal.

As most domestic breeds have been derived by humans from wolves over thousands of years through a rather ugly process of selective breeding, why start over again from scratch? There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of wolfy-looking domestic dogs that are much more conducive to captivity than a wolf. It is unfair to the animal to limit its instinctual behaviors so we can feel better about ourselves or learn something new about ourselves that we did not know. The appreciation for wolves in the wild is a glorious and wondrous thing, but loses some of its pureness and sparkle when animals are forced into a captive environment.

Become A Member of Wolf