• Table of Contents:
  
• Introduction
  
• The German Shepherd Dog? The Alsation Wolfdog?

• Early History and Development of The American Tundra Shepherd
  
• Part 1.The 50% Tundra/Shepherd
  
• Part 2. The beginning of a new breed of dog The American Tundra Shepherd

The American Tundra Shepherd was not originally intended or meant to become a breed. They can trace their origins back to a government experiment that began in the late 60's. Many people these days question why breed a wolf to a dog and what will you accomplish by doing this? I say look at the German Shepherd Dog. Look at what has been accomplished with that breed and the breed is less than 100 years old. The first registered German Shepherd was in 1899 and some of the early GSD lines were from wolfdog crosses. To answer these questions and more let's take a look at how the American Tundra Shepherd came into existence and how it has developed into one of the best Universal Working Dogs available these days.

The German Shepherd Dog? The Alsation Wolfdog?

Is the GSD the worlds first working class Wolfdog?

. Lets begin by taking a look at the German Shepherd Dog as that breed was a very instrumental part in the creation of the American Tundra Shepherd and its eventual development, For many years the true lineage of the German Shepherd Dog has been hidden from the general publics knowledge. The fact that wolves were used in the foundation of the German Shepherd Dog breed is proven in the first German Shepherd studbook, Zuchtbuch fur Deutfdhe Schaferhuride (SZ) within the two pages of entries from SZ#41 to SZ#76, there are 4 pure Wolves listed.
The first registered German Shepherd which was first registered in 1899 Hecktor Linksrhein which Max von Stephanitz later renamed Horand von Grafrath SZ-1 was bred to wolf/shepherd crossbred female by the name of Mores-Phieningen SZ-159 HGH- trained herding dog, which produced Hecktor v. Schwaben SZ-13 HGH who became the German Sieger for the years of 1900-1901.

The German Sieger for the years 1906 and 1907 Roland von Starkenburg SZ-1537 was a grandson on his fathers side to Hecktor v. Schwaben and a great-grandson on his dam's side. Roland v. Starkenburg can be found in virtually all modern GSD pedigrees.

There is a nice related article written by Kate McMahon entitledThe Mythand Controversy surrounding the Alsation Wolf Dog (German Shepherd)

Sections of this first chapter were taken directly out of newspaper articles in the middle 70's. This chapter deals mainly with the original 50% Tundra/Shepherd crosses and some of the experiences encountered while this program was in its beginning stages. I will add up to date material alongside anything that I feel is outdated

The wolf is, by definition, a "fierce, flesh-eating, wild animal of the dog family." Factually, he can be too lovable, too devoted, too timid, maybe even "chicken." He is the most intelligent of all canines, but he and his hybrid brother (half wolf and half German Shepherd) totally flunk all training efforts to be guard or sentry dogs. He has been immortalized by writers as a ferocious beast who will attack humans in the night; history credits snarling packs of wolves with devouring entire families, and yet there is no verifying study and no known incident in which the wolf has ever attacked man without provocation.

Let's begin in 1968. At this time, Frank Catania of Edwardsville, KS. Had just been discharged from the military service as an instructor and veterinary technician in training dogs. With 11 years of experience handling dogs for the military and private business, plus an almost lifelong interest in wolves, Catania felt he knew a lot about the animal and undertook a 5-year government program of producing wolf hybrids for Military use in Vietnam and elsewhere.The term hybrid is no longer valid as dogs are classified as a subspecies of the wolf (Canis Lupus Familiaris) and they also produce fertile offspring

(Half-wolf Ranger of Catania FMC-90) The government had already established that the pure wolf was unsuitable for the military. They had learned that wolves cannot be trained, and even if they could be, there weren't enough of them; it would have taken 10 years to produce the number the government needed.

It was believed that crossing a wolf with a German Shepherd As a purebreed the German Shepherd was only 70 years old in 1969 would produce a superior stock . . . a hybrid combining the strength, higher intelligence, greater stamina, better eyesight, hearing and nose of the wolf, with the pride, all-around temperament and ease of training of the Shepherd. (Through the Shepherd's pride come's his aggressiveness and ability to be trained to protect man.) It was beginning to be very difficult locating or finding really high quality American Bred GSD's the Government wanted a larger type animal without the hereditary problems that were resulting from the GSD just being bred for its phenotypical quality's "appearance" Yes, hybrids Wolfdogs seemed to be the answer, and this was Catania's 5-year project . . breeding and studying hybrids.

But the program failed, at least from the point of producing aggressive sentry dogs for the military. The hybrids 'Wolfdogs' are good for tracking with their keen sense of smell and greater endurance, , but he is not an animal motivated to attack a person or jump a fence. Catania says, "They have the motivation to be a dog like the Collie; an animal with no desire to be protective." The hybrid'Wolfdog' is only half wolf, but he takes his dominant characteristics from the wolf. And most of these characteristics are not reduced, but remain the same as in the wolf.

The hybrid 'Wolfdog' like the wolf, is a massive, powerful animal . . . alert, nervously pacing back and forth, edgy in his awareness of every sound and motion. He will swing his body 180 degrees to face the slightest sound . . . nothing escapes him. He is of regal bearing (there is no angulation to his body). His eyes are oblique rather than round as a dog's, and move with rapid attention to each movement within their periphery. His eyesight is 10 times better in movement than that of a man, 1 times better than other dogs. (Dogs and wolves are color-blind.) His coat is fuller; the outer coat can extend as much as two and a half to three inches.

His hearing is 20 times better than man's Catania says this is partly due to the wolf's larger earlobe, the soft, fleshy piece at the base of the ear. Though it may not seem to be very important, this serves as a dust cover-it is unusually hairy-and acts as an antenna. "It's what we call 'living radar' and is much better in the wolf than other canine breeds we have observed.

"Wolves and hybrids 'wolfdogs' have 1,000 pounds of bite pressure per square inch in the jaw." says Catania. "Dogs have only 400 to 500 pounds. Multiply that 1,000 pounds by the number of square inches in the wolf's mouth and you have bite pressure capable of breaking off an arm." 'actually this is outdated information I believe the figure is closer to 1500lbs per square inch and this will of course vary from dog to dog'

Stamina and endurance surpass that of domesticated caninesThis is what is refered to as your highly energetic animal. Hunting dogs, which have the best stamina of the breeds, can track up to eight hours. "Not at top speed, of course." says Catania. "And after that time he is pretty well spent. But a wolf can track for 18 hours. He is not as fast as other dogs--a top speed of 28 miles an hour for about 200 yards, compared to a dog's top speed of 30 to 35 miles an hour for 400 yards--but he more than makes up for speed with his increased tracking time. And to be able to track that long, he has a lot of power and a tremendous lung cavity."

Wolves and hybrids 'wolfdogs' have webbed feet. They can get up on snow easily and have better traction on slippery surfaces. "A regular wolf, can scale a 25-foot wall--straight up I believe this is in reference to a climbing action not a stand still jump. I have also seen them run along the side of a wall if they get up enough momentum . We had to have tops on all the cages for the wolves."

They have no bark, Catania believes the hybrids 'Wolfdogs' have vocal chords, but their wolf instinct is to strong. Wolves howl or yelp, which is their form of communication. barking in wolves is a juvenile behavior, puppy wolves bark at play. A wolf mature's past the point were dogs do

The North American Timber Wolf has the highest intelligence and is the largest of the 32 breeds of wolves in the world. He ranges from six to eight feet from nose to tip of tail, weighing about 150 pounds. This is not the norm, however some of the wolves in the program were on the large size He is a pure-origin member of the canine family

It was once believed that wolves were the original forebears of the German Shepherd. This is not true. The German Shepherd has no wolf blood; it is the result of many generations of interbreeding northern Germany sheep dogs.

'Actually according to many of the books that were available at this time and to this day. The true history of the German Shepherd Dog was not available to the general public, the German Shepherd dog is the result of wolf/dog crosses with the local German Sheepdogs in the late 1800's and early 1900's this is proven in the original S'V. studbook and in early translations in 1923 of Max von Stephanitz book The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture' .

A dog's nose is 40 times better than man's, and the black Labrador Retriever, contrary to popular believe, has been proven to be much better than the bloodhound. Catania says, "The wolf has an even better nose than the dog. A dog can detect an intruder--and were speaking of a security dog--up to 200 yards. A wolf can detect one up to 600 yards. Through our findings here at Midwest Security K-9 Center and the military, we believe that the wolf's wild instincts help him to develop his keen sense of smell."

You'd think with all these near super-dog qualities going for him, the wolf and hybrid 'wolfdog' would make incredible guard dog's, but it's these same wild instincts that cause him to have no motivation to be protective. In examining the logical and ordered wild nature of the wolf, we must consider four basic and instinctive traits. . . fear,"pecking order,"boundaries, and maturity.

First fear. "To understand the wolf's fear, you have to go way back in history to the time wolves had no fear of man," explains Catania. "When the people of America were originally crossing the land, they were killing a lot of buffalo. The wolves would come right up and eat on the carcass, unafraid of man--until he started shooting them." The wolves soon associated noise with gunpowder and then with pain or death

. They would run. "When this animal had young, they would observe from the mother and father the nervous pacing back and forth, and they would pick up the fear Imprinting is crucial to a well-behaved social animal between the ages of six to sixteen weeks it is very important to expose the puppy to many different circumstances, noises, people, other dogs etc.. This fear of gunpowder, though not originally inherent in the wolf, has gone back so far--scores of years in history--that it has became a trait of all wolves today." Seems similar to man's fear of wolves, man fears what he does not know or fails to understand thus the indiscriminate killing of wolves throughout history.

Second is their "pecking order." This is the wolf's life order, a decreasing scale in which the more aggressive dominate each of the lower on the scale. In the wild, wolves live in packs, which are 1-family units, father, mother, offspring. "Pecking order" begins with the father, the dominant male. This "pecking order" prevails throughout their lives and colors everything they do.

In captivity, the wolf also establishes a pecking order. If he lives with a human family, he includes all male members and is in constant mental and physical competition with them for superiority. Through proper training and imprinting at a young age you can influence this behavior. As in any k-9 an untrained unsocialized dog can be a problem dog. Women and children are a different matter. Being more intelligent than all canines, the wolf has a high degree of understanding and does not consider a child or woman any threat to his masculinity. That is why you hear stories of wolves raising human children, and why they will play or show patience toward them. Wolves have even been known to mentally accept the woman of the family as a "mate,"
adopting the same protective instincts toward her as in the wild.

Third, their boundaries. In the wild, a wolf's boundaries are his hunting grounds, his means of survival. He marks these boundaries, sometimes as much as 100 miles, with deep scratches in the earth showing his strength -- the deeper, the stronger. Anything out of his boundaries he either fears or hates.

In captivity, a wolf also establishes his boundaries. These may not go beyond his kennel, but they are firmly established and his life is regulated by them. Even if a wolf could be trained as a sentry dog, a law enforcement animal, a drug animal, he could never use his training because he would have to be taken from his boundaries to do his job and he will have nothing to do with anything outside this boundary. All control that was originally developed in the animal through repetitive training is automatically lost. In fact, so inherent is his existence within boundaries, any progress made in domesticating the wolf is lost and must be begun again if these boundaries are changed.,Maturity is the fourth factor, and one that has direct bearing on all other factors. Unlike other canines, which reach maturity at eight to 10 months, wolves do not reach maturity until they are 3 years old. They are playful pets and do not breed until they are 3. "Since this information was not known at the time the wolves were brought to us for the hybrid program," says Catania, "our wolves were between a year and two years. We naturally assumed that they were mature. We spent a year trying to get animals to breed. We tried everything from hormones to injections and were beginning to believe that the animals were not going to breed or were incapable of doing so. Also when coming of age, the wolves became very dangerous. At that point they began developing their own 'pecking order' and tried to make us part of that order. Everybody was in a rank...general, colonel, major and on down the line.

Of course, they all wanted to be generals! We had one very large wolf in the program--Shanty--who had been purchased from a retired Kansas City police major, Shanty was more or less domesticated, having been in captivity since a pup. However, as he approached maturity, he began to form his personal pecking order and the major could no longer handle him. So we brought him. He was one of the largest wolves ever to be in captivity, weighing a full 150 pounds and measuring seven feet. He would play ball with us, but he always wanted to win. If we tried to be the winner, he'd get mad. He'd let us know that his assumed general status had been infringed upon!

"When we began breeding the wolves for the hybrid program."Catania continues, "we used the male wolf and the female Shepherd. If the female wolf were used, we would have gotten the same fear characteristics in the pups that you will find in the wild, since she is the first thing they react to and receive confidence and comfort from. A mother wolf would be pacing and the puppies would all follow this fear example. The female wolf is to unstable. She lacks pride and self confidence. Though she matures at 2. A year before the male, she is shy, unpredictable, and very nervous and cranky in breeding.

"By using the Shepherd female, we have a mother who is very docile and protective, and the puppies have a better chance of being the same. Sometimes the hereditary traits of fear and pacing carry over even with the Shepherd mother, these puppies are washed out of the program."

In breeding his hybrids, Catania looks for a Shepherd female who is proud or even aggressive. She must be a noble animal with a lot of dignity. If she is shy, the wolf will kill her because he realizes that she is an inferior animal. If she has pride, he will accept her and take her for his mate. Once he does this--although you can get around both animals--
you must be careful not to cross between the wolf and the female at any time.

"To check and develop aggressiveness," explains Catania, "we started letting the puppies chew on rags and other pieces of clothing, playing 'tug-a-war' with them. This began at 12 weeks and continued up to two years. The pup began to taste clothing, get the feel of his own jaw pressure, and develop that jaw pressure . When they were a little older, we used another form. We placed the males between the guard dogs, who had already been trained, and someone wearing our padded equipment. This person made aggressive gestures, yelled, waved his arms, and generally got everyone riled up--the same idea as a football rally. The guard dogs charged and tried to get the person. The trainee psychologically should have gained confidence and been motivated to do the same thing."

But, with the hybrids 'wolfdogs', it never worked. The most they ever did was raise their lips and growl; they never advanced. In order to be trained, an animal must be submissive. The wolf will not submit. Neither will the hybrid. He combats man instead of linking with him. He will ferociously defend himself, but he will not challenge on command in the protection of man. You can domesticate him or make friends with him to the point that he has total confidence in you and no fear, but you will not change his aversion to trained motivation toward aggressiveness. He wants to be considered man's equal, or even better than man.

And when face-to-face with a wolf, who would challenge his liberated consideration?

So ends the first chapter in the history of the American Tundra Shepherd, I believe that given more time and a better knowledge of wolves in general they could have greatly improved upon this program. As you will see in the next chapter that in further breedings of 50% to 50% and the eventual breedings of the first quarterwolves overall temperament and trainability were improved!

Part 2. The beginning of a New breed of dog The American Tundra Shepherd

Deke DeCoucy of Catania a second generation half wolf sired by ranger

In further development some of the 50% wolfdogs were bred to 50% wolfdogs producing second generation wolfdogs of reasonably stable temperaments this process was to continue until the early 80's in some cases . At this time 50% Tundra/Shepherds or half-wolves such as Ranger, Mama Wolf, Dinosaur, Deke, Zeus, Mingo, and Flash were born these 50% can be accredited as the foundation stock of the modern day ATS.

In 1979 Earl Newland (One of the Original ATS breeders)came onto the seen. His influence on what was to become the American Tundra Shepherd can be seen in many of the present day ATS's.
Newland aquired his half-wolf Tundra/Shepherd from Mr. Catania in these early "still experimental days", his half-wolf was named Deke DeCoucy of Catania FMC-109, Deke was a second generation half-wolf Tundra/Shepherd who was sired by Ranger of Catania FMC-90. Deke was born January 30, 1979. Deke was a rarity as far as half-wolves go as he was one of the only half-wolfs to have been obedienced trained at that time. Deke is accredited for many of the black & tan varietys of modern day ATS's he was also the grandsire of the first American Tundra Shepherd to be used as a search & rescue/ cadaver dog DeCoucy's Ouiconda ATS-162 , as well as the beginning of Earl Newlands DeCoucy bloodline.

Beginning in 1976 after the five year Government program was over, some of the 50% Tundra/Shepherds were experimentally cross bred back to the very best German Shepherd Dogs that could be found. The purpose was to further improve on overall reliability and trainability these resulting progeny were originally known as the first early quarterwolf. Some of these early American Tundra Shepherd's such as Diablo, Guardian,Sir Zeus, and DeCoucy's Chief, end up living until the ripe old age of 13 - 17 years of age, this is a small example of what is proving to be a very long lived breed.
These quarterwolf's also inherited many of their dominant characteristics of the pure wolf via their half-wolf parent. The maturing process remained about the same with males not reaching maturity until three years of age and females reaching sexual maturity at around two.{Characteristics they seem to still share with the pure wolf} The estrous cycles of the female quarterwolf ranged from ten months to twelve months apart and they could give birth at any time of the year, and as mentioned earlier their life expectancy is rather impressive

The quaterwolf's worth was soon very apparent they possessed a greater level of trainability or should I say a higher level of willingness to be trained than did the 50% wolfdog. The high tendency for flight {an act or instance of running away} was greatly reduced although not entirely eliminated,{ There are factors which can influence this behavioral trait the most important is the socialization and imprinting as a puppy.} These early quarterwolfs were more tractable {easily led, taught, or controlled} than were their predecessors, thus they were more willing to please their human counterparts, this also resulted in a animal with a greater level of reliability on the training field. They also demonstrated more of a propensity to bark which was lacking in the pure and half-wolf as barking is a juvenile wolf trait that the wolf grows out of as he mature's.

Realizing the potential that these early quarterwolf's had subsequent generations of these 25%' quarterwolfs were bred to 25% 'quarterwolfs'. This becoming a process of purebreeding after a few generations of these animals breeding true to type. They were eventually named the American Tundra Shepherd.
The American Tundra Shepherd Dog possessed the genetic makeup and retained the trainability and all around physical and mental capabilities needed for a stable working dog {More like what the Government originally wanted in their program}. In essence what we had was a temperamentally and genetically sound animal before the influence of enviromental and training factors which are other contributing factors in the development of a good ATS {It should be taken into consideration that a good prospective puppy can be ruined in its developmental stages if it has not been properly socialized, or from lack of experience in a trainer.}

To continue to produce high quality ATS's and strive to further enhance and improve on the qualities that made the American Tundra Shepherd what it has become today a very strict and highly selective breeding program is adhered to. This breeding program has been used since the

Modern day ATS "SAVAGE"

beginning of the developmental process. This breeding program serves as a means to select only the very best examples and specimens of the breed to be deemed eligible for breeding. At six weeks of age all ATS puppies are required to be examined by a certified breed warden. They are thoroughly evaluated from head to toe, measurements are taken and compared to results from others over the past thirty years. Temperaments are also evaluated and assesed this gives us a psychological profile of the puppy These evaluations can help predict what work related fields the particular pup might be suitable forThese evaluations will be discussed in further detail in another section at a later date.
TO BE CONTINUED

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