Tassle you are clearly demonstrating that you know nothing about wolf crosses. I do, as you well know. It would be very foolish to sell someone a wolf cross without them knowing what they had. You of all people should know this from Zeff.

Sorry, I missed your first paragraph, no not at all. You cannot say, because you weren't there!! It was very clear that this bloke knew exactly what Hal was. He questioned us in an aggressive way "where did you get him from?" And looked intently at us, he was very hostile even, until it was clear that OH, being a zoologist, knew what he was talking about, and they started to get on like a house on fire and he gradually thawed. Please don't tell me what this man said, or didn't say, you were not there.

Here is another photo of Ben and Tai. This is the only other one that I have here at work, although I will scour my computer, unless my boss comes back, in which case I will have to get on with my tape!!

Tai is on the left, Ben on the right. Note the height of the tail carriage from Tai!!

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...5_edited-1.jpg

I would say the same about several dogs I've met given their body language - I knew straight away that the dog I fostered over Christmas may have issues around livestock and sure enough when she came here it was obvious she was not going to be safe off-lead, not as she was. Lots of people say it about Huskies, Mals, etc. too. If nothing was said then you don't know that he knew, you're just assuming, maybe because you wanted to believe someone official agreed.

How do you know Eddy didn't lie to them too and that no one actually knew? Pedigrees are just a piece of paper and don't prove anything. If Eddy is the kind of person to exagerate things then maybe pedigrees were exagerated or bent from the truth too. I heard recently about KC breeders registering pups to different parents if the true parents were mixed breeds (but pups looked pure) or not KC reg'ed so how do you really know the dog's ancestry is true?
I believe you shape a dog by how you treat it. Treat an older dog as a fragile OAP, cut down walks, baby it, etc. and physically it will become weaker, mentally more reliant, etc. Treat it like an older dog but continue with regular exercise, just with perhaps a little more caution, and chances are it won't slow down half as fast.
Treat a "naughty" dog as an insolent dog misbehaving for the sake of it and you'll probably encourage its misbehaviour. Treat it like a dog that needs direction and extra training and the "naughtiness" will probably soon disappear.
Treat your dog like it's a wolf that cannot possibly be trained like a dog and you will end up with a dog that isn't trained like a dog, and thus doesn't behave itself as it doesn't know how it's meant to act. Treat Ben like a dog and train him like a dog and I bet half your problems would soon be gone.

Your little birdie was wrong.

I do live in the west country though.

Where are you coming to and when? It might be that we could do the e collar thing with you rather than AP? Maybe your OH would wear it to be filmed when we meet up----after all it doesn't hurt.

Several people wanted to come down and watch and I am sure we could arrange something----I have press contacts as well and it would be interesting for them.

Great idea!

Agreed Krlyr, I agree with everything you say.

Which is why we did not treat Hal as a wolf cross, but as a normal dog, even though he wasn't.

And which is why we treat Ben as a normal dog too, and train him and expect him to behave according to our rules. The fact we have chosen to use an e collar is nothing to do with whether he is a dog, a wolf, a cat or a zebra! I would never have used an e collar on Hal, not because he was a higher % wolf cross, but simply because it would not have worked. He was so aloof, so determined to follow his own path, and so completely impervious to physical discomfort, that you would have had to zap him on the continuous highest setting and he still would not have responded. Boss come back in

When did you stop needing a wild animal licence for wolf crosses?

Actually, your dogs past and present are stunning, but they are and were dogs. The more hooked up you get on the wolf thing and the more you wish Ben were Hal, the more you will struggle.

I seem to read more about how much wolf is in your dog and how similar and dissimilar to Hal he is that I really do think you need to shift your emphasis to what is actually important for Ben.

You have told and been told lie after lie.

You read into situations what you wish to see and I believe you have been told what you want to hear.

You believe only what you want to hear as you have clearly demonstrated not only in the so called pedigree of your dog and the training methods you have inflicted on him.

You will not listen to people who have had more experience - believing your dog to be different and 'special' in the fact he does not respond to positive training.

As to Zeff.....I had 3 emails back and forth with his breeder (about a different dog) met her on Monday and she sold him to me 2 hours later.

There is a great FB group called Stop Wolfdog misrepresentation - Showing the damage that people like yourself do to dogs by trying to present them as something they are not. I would suggest you have a look - and maybe post some pictures of your boy on there so the experts can break down for you exactly what you can see from his make up.....mind you - would you believe them, as they will probably not tell you what you want to hear.......

And yet again with the story change. Maybe you need a notepad of all your posts so you can run through what you're supposed to be saying. You've just said how foolish it would be to sell someone a wolf cross without telling them - why would it matter if you agree that it makes no difference?
You keep telling people how they have no experience of wolf crosses. Why does it matter if they're no different? You've just said it to Tassle, you've said it to rune in the context of them being more difficult to train, you keep dropping in mentions of your wolf cross so obviously you do feel he is different to a normal dog because you keep emphasising it.

Gnasher you need to get your head back from fantasyland and into the real world, and train Ben as a normal dog, which he is. Maybe if you read some info on how to train a DOG, there would be no need for the e-collar on poor Ben.