Animals in general and socialised wolves in particular, and people.

Over the years of being around animals I have come to recognise certain things about the way they view humans. Once, many years ago we had a mongrel called Tia. She was beautiful, having whippet and smooth coated terrier in her. We had her before we had any children and she grew up with them as they came along. She was with us for 17 years before we had to have her put to sleep. During all that time I only ever knew her lose it with one person, a man who came into the local pub. As soon as he walked in she had her hackles up and was growling at him. The landlord was a dog person and was so shocked at Tia's reaction that he would only serve the man one drink, then asked him to move on. In his view Tia could see something that we could not and on this basis he would rather not have the man around. I have seen this reaction in animals many times since, both with my own and with others.

Some humans seem to have an empathy with animals and others do not, it is not something that can be learned. It does not matter what these unfortunates do to try to win animals round, once they have decided that a given person is not to be liked or trusted that is it. Do they see something that other humans miss? Wolves are included in this, maybe being even more perceptive than most animals due to their wild nature and to the persecution they have experienced at the hands of man. I have seen people spend hours with wolves, trying to get them to like them, and all they have succeeded in doing was to make the wolves nervous and mistrustful around them.

After being made to leave the UK Wolf Conservation Trust I went to Paradise Wildlife Park as a volunteer. They have two socialised wolves and I had the great privilege of being allowed into their enclosure with them under strict supervision. They are not wolves that I had had anything to do with prior to this, though I did ensure that I had wolf-smelling trousers on! They were fine with me, with even the more nervous of the two coming for a fuss. I think I must have learned much from the wolves at the Trust about how to approach wolves and to present myself to them.

I long held the view that it was the way the wolves viewed the person making the introduction to them that formed their first opinion of the person being introduced. If they had respect for the person making the introduction then they would, in most cases put up with the person being introduced. This might only be for one visit, with them showing disapproval on the next visit. I felt that the first visit enabled the wolves to form their own impression of the person and if this was negative then they would show it on a subsequent visit.

I noted many times that the way to lose the respect of the wolves was to forget that they are wolves and to start treating them like big dogs. Terms like wolfies, fluffies and cute pet names show a lack respect when you consider the nature of these animals. I think you have to be strong around wolves. When you start treating them in a soft manner they will take advantage of what they see as a weakness and stop looking to their human pack members for reassurance. Every new experience will become stressful for them, and the more the humans fuss and fret, the more will the wolves panic. I am not advocating brutality, far from it, but it is no good being soft with them if you want them to be properly socialised as they will become unworkable as ambassador wolves.

As an example of this I have seen people for whom the wolves have little respect trying to get them into, or out of a situation. The handler is obviously not happy and the wolf is detecting this and will not cooperate. The right person comes along, takes the lead and the wolf trots happily along because it has complete faith in the handler, a handler who has always shown strong leadership.