is a german shepherd considered a wolf hybrid
One of the issues that many researchers and wolfdog communities are faced with is identifying wolfdogs from pure dogs and gray wolf subspecies. The most common method used by various wolfdog communities is phenotyping, a method that involves observing the animal's physical features. This method is often favoured for many in determining the degree of wolf and northern spitz-type dog that is in a wolfdog. However, a lot of criticisms have been made by opponents within some communities who tend to point out that phenotyping cannot always determine the wolf-contents accurately. Another challenge involves determining exactly the domestic breeds and wolf subspecies involved in the admixture due to the fact that dogs are known to come in various breeds while gray wolves in turn come in various subspecies with many different regional ecotypes hence have different physical features depending on the subspecies used in the breeding. Although wolves are often mixed with spitz types such as Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, and German Shepherds, admixture between wolves with non-Spitz type dogs such as Poodles, Pit bulls, and Great Pyrenees also exist, the latter wolfdogs often having less lupine features.
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