page_title: Wolfdog
section_title: Documented breeding
hierarchical_section_title: Wolfdog / Documented breeding
caption_attribution_description: English: A pair of British wolfdogs.
context_page_description: A wolfdog is a canine produced by the mating of a domestic dog with a gray wolf, eastern wolf, red wolf, or Ethiopian wolf to produce a hybrid.
context_section_description: The first record of wolfdog breeding in Great Britain comes from the year 1766 when what is thought was a male wolf mated with a dog identified in the language of the day as a "Pomeranian", although it may have differed from the modern Pomeranian breed.  The union resulted in a litter of nine pups. Wolfdogs were occasionally purchased by English noblemen, who viewed them as a scientific curiosity. Wolfdogs were popular exhibits in British menageries and zoos.
  Six breeds of dog exist that acknowledge a significant amount of recent wolf-dog admixture in their creation. One breed is the "wolamute", a.k.a. "malawolf", a cross between an Alaskan Malamute and a timber wolf. Four breeds were the result of intentional crosses with German Shepherd Dogs (one of the original intentionally bred wolf-dog crossbreeds), and have distinguishing characteristics of appearance that may reflect the varying subspecies of wolf that contributed to their foundation stock. Other, more unusual crosses have occurred; recent experiments in Germany were conducted in the crossing of wolves and Poodles.  The intent behind creating the breeds has ranged widely from simply the desire for a recognizable companion high-content wolfdog to professional military working dogs.
caption: British wolfdogs, as illustrated in The Menageries: Quadrupeds Described and Drawn from Living Subjects by William Ogilby, 1829
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