Nicole Wilde is a professional dog trainer, who has worked in wolfdog rescue, training and education. Her interest lies in educating the potential and current owners about what to expect from their wolfdogs how to deal with their common behaviors. She is the author of Wolf Hybrid Awareness Through Education (WHATE), an informational packet made available to prospective and new wolfdog owners through the internet. A copy of
WHATE can be viewed here.
About the Book
Publisher: Phantom Publishing
Year: 2000
ISBN: 0-9667726-1-X
Description: Soft cover, 255 pages with black and white photographs of a variety of wolfdogs.
"Wolfdogs A-Z" is primarily about behavior and training of wolfdogs, although some other topics are covered briefly. It is set out in a sort of reference format, with each chapter focussing on a particular topic, arranged alphabetically (thus the "A-Z" part of the title). This allows the reader to zero in on a particular behavior or aspect of training as needed. Someone starting out with a pup should read the whole book - along with the basic obedience training a puppy needs, the reader can learn how to use training to help prevent problems down the road.
Review
A wide range of topics are covered in "Wolfdogs A-Z". Training and behavior issues (e.g. clicker training, principles of positive training, socialization and canine body language) are found alongside specific training topics (e.g. sit, stay, down, coming when called, loose leash walking and housetraining). Topics of interest to owners of more challenging wolfdogs include dealing with dominance challenges, jumping and digging, fear issues, and "winter wolf syndrome" (behavior changes associated with breeding season, more often seen in high percentage wolfdogs). Examples of other topics are as diverse as boredom prevention tools, issues around feeding of raw bones, basic veterinary care (vaccinations, first aid, parasites, etc), and myths. Many more specific behavior, training and management issues are covered within general topic chapters, and a chapter of other resources (print, online, and more) is also included.
As with Nicole's book "Living with Wolfdogs," this book is well written and easy to read (and quite humorous in places), and packed with useful information. Nicole has an easy flowing and entertaining style of writing. The training and behavior information is punctuated with real life examples of behavior from Nicole's dogs as well as other people's first person accounts. In my opinion, Nicole's real strength lies in making training principles and procedures readily understandable. She has a knack for using real life examples (some of the best involve human behavior rather than canine behavior) that explain the principles of positive training with wonderful clarity. Nicole's obvious enthusiasm for training and living with the quirks of wolfdogs is contagious and confidence building.
Summary
With a few exceptions, most of the principles and content of this book are applicable to all canines, not just wolfdogs. However, Nicole does a good job of applying traits that are fairly common to wolfdogs to the topics discussed in the book so that the book gives a good foundation to any wolfdog owner. The book is an excellent choice for any wolfdog owner, as both a guide to the initial training and ongoing behavior management of a wolfdog, and as a specific reference for dealing with problems that might crop up along the way.
