Seasonal Aggression
Given the time of year, I thought it would be appropriate to do a writeup on seasonal aggression, sometimes referred to as Winter Wolf Syndrome. I don’t love either term as in my opinion neither truly captures the true symptoms of this behavioural shift. Yes, it is seasonal, but it certainly isn’t necessarily aggressive. As for “Winter Wolf Syndrome”, if it were called winter wolfDOG syndrome I could be a bit more on board. Ultimately, the concept I will talk about is the seasonal change in behaviour in wolfdogs (of all contents) that happens over the winter months. For the sake of convenience, I will be referring to this concept as seasonal ‘aggression’, even though it’s so much more (or less) than that.
What is Seasonal ‘Aggression’? Well as stated above, it is a seasonal change in behaviour that usually occurs during the colder winter months. It is caused by a shift in hormones which ultimately can alter the behaviours displayed in that animal. Think of rutting season for deer, elk, bison, etc. and how much more dangerous or aggressive they can be towards one another and humans during that time.
The easiest people for me to explain seasonal ‘aggression’ to is women. Ladies, you know what it’s like to live in a body that has major hormonal fluctuations. Think about how much your mood, patience and general tolerance for BS changes when it’s that time of the month. It is the exact same concept for seasonal ‘aggression’ in wolves and wolfdogs. Hormones can have a major impact on behaviour in both humans and animals.
Nova being submissive to his alpha female, Kuna.
In wolves it is essentially a hormonal shift that prepares them for mating season. For those of you perhaps not so well versed on wolves and their fertility cycles let me quickly fill you in. Unlike our domestic dogs, both male and female wolves are only fertile during a very specific time frame. From a survival standpoint wild wolves want their puppies born in the springtime. This gives them plenty of time to develop and learn the skills required to survive the harsh winters. As gestation is typically around 2 months, this means mating season falls in the winter time. Both male and female wolves are only fertile during a narrow window to allow for optimal breeding time. This is very different from our domestic dogs. Male dogs are fertile all year round, and female dogs typically come into heat twice per year, and any time of year, depending on when they were born. This is part of the reason why it is so rare for wolves to mate with dogs. There is such a small overlapping window of opportunity due to the differing fertility cycle of wolves that it really isn’t as common as people think!
When it comes to wolfdogs, not all wolfdogs go through this hormonal behavioural shift. Anecdotally, I see it far more often in males than females. Out of the 43 current wolfdogs that live here at the Sanctuary, all the wolfdogs that have a significantly noticeable change in behaviour in the winter months are all males. That doesn’t mean it cannot happen to females, but personally I have only ever experienced it in male wolfdogs. I have seen seasonal aggression in both intact and neutered males, so unfortunately, neutering does not automatically relieve you of experiencing this behavioural shift. What I’m getting at is that seasonal aggression affects wolfdogs of all content, both intact and altered. Since it is a behaviour based from sex hormones, typically this seasonal shift will kick in at sexual maturity (so for high contents when they are roughly 1.5 years old). I do want to make very clear that the intensity or severity of the symptoms dramatically increases with increasing wolf content. Typically, in low contents you may notice some more subtle changes, while the high contents have a higher likelihood to sway more to the extreme changes (see more info on this below).
As winter approaches, the wolfdogs’ behaviours can become much more intense.
One thing I sometimes see is people mistaking seasonal aggression with true aggression. This is why I do not like the term seasonal aggression. It should be called seasonal behavioural shift in my opinion! I do want to emphasize that if your wolfdog becomes moodier and crankier in the winter or does even show some degree of aggression, this is perfectly normal! You have not done something wrong as an owner, and your wolfdog certainly isn’t turning on you or becoming an aggressive animal (in the overall sense). It is a natural shift in behaviour in order for wild wolves to survive, and therefore we can see remnants of this in our companion wolfdogs. If your wolfdog does show a seasonal behavioural shift, this is something you will need to learn to live with and manage. It isn’t going away and when you decided to get a wolfdog as a pet, you made the decision to have to deal with it. Like all the other challenges, this is just a part of wolfdog ownership that you will have to learn to cope with. There is no fix for this, only management.
Before we get into how we can manage this behaviour, let’s discuss how this behavioural change presents. Firstly, the signs and symptoms can present VERY differently in various wolfdogs depending on their wolf content but also their individuality. I can definitely say that the extremes of seasonal aggression, where we actually see true human directed aggression, I have personally only ever seen in high content wolfdogs. This doesn’t mean that it is guaranteed to happen in a high content wolfdog. I think as always, the more wolf content in the wolfdog the more likely you will see the extreme intensities in these behavioural changes. I will share some personal stories of different wolfdogs I have experienced seasonal aggression with just so you can get a sense of the sheer variability in behaviour based on wolf content but also differences based on an individual level as well. The second thing that’s worth noting is that seasonal ‘aggression’ does not happen overnight. If you are paying attention, you will notice subtle changes over a matter of weeks. It is not a light switch that all of a sudden gets turned on one day. It is usually a slow progression that peaks, and then slowly starts to dissipate in the spring.
Interactions between pack mates can become much more tense or extreme.
Some of the typical subtle signs you might see are the following:
becoming more independent and less desiring of human attention
less patience for their packmates
becoming more territorial towards other dogs or wolfdogs
increase in intensity of resource guarding
more sensitive of their space and boundaries being respected
picking on specific animals within the pack
Depending on the wolfdog, some of the extreme signs you might see are the following:
do not want to be touched whatsoever
become extremely possessive of their pack mates
do not want you in their space whatsoever
aggression towards specific or all human caregivers
aggression towards other canines
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully you get the idea. Based on the subtle and extreme symptoms listed here, a wolfdog can fall anywhere within that spectrum. It is up to you as an owner to become familiar with the subtle (or not so subtle) changes in behaviour and adjust yourself and your actions accordingly.
Pack hierarchy can become pretty tense during the winter months, but Nova does an excellent job showing Zeus just how submissive he is!
Now we know what it can look like, but how do we manage this seasonal behavioural shift? The specific answer to this ultimately varies based on the types of symptoms your wolfdog presents. Overall, like I have said about so many other challenging behaviours, you have to learn to understand it and you must respect it. Start to really pay attention and notice the subtle differences in their likes and dislikes come fall and winter. Get to know their new boundaries and arm yourself with as much information about their new limitations as you can. Because ultimately to manage this behaviour, you will be the one that changes your behaviour to suit theirs, not the other way around!
Next, I will outline some of the experiences I have been through with Winter Wolf Syndrome. I will start with some of the more subtle wolfdogs and work my way up to the more extreme wolfdogs!
Loki, a low content wolfdog living at Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary
Loki is a neutered low content wolfdog living at the Sanctuary. If you have ever been to visit the Sanctuary, you are probably familiar with him as he tends to be quite the fan favourite. Loki as a whole is a pretty social guy. He likes to be pet, especially around his neck and often asks for belly rubs. He is one of those wolfdogs that is pretty comfortable around strangers and can tolerate quite a lot. Every winter, without fail, we notice subtle changes in Loki’s affinity and tolerance for people. The biggest one being his tolerance for affection. He goes from really enjoying to be pet in the summers where he literally flops over for belly rubs, to having much less desire or tolerance for pets in the winters. He might ask for pets from specific people he really likes, but only for a very specific duration, and once he is done with getting pet and you are still petting him, he will let you know! It’s usually a quick growl, air snap or he just jumps up and leaves. Essentially, he has much less patience and will change his mind about what he likes at the drop of a hat. This is pretty common in low content wolfdogs.
Nova in his element amongst all the beautiful snow.
Nova is a high content I have owned for over 9 years now. He is one of those wolfdogs that even as a puppy had a lot of really intense hardwired behaviours. The first time I noticed his seasonal behavioural shift as a young adult, I was not surprised one bit. Interestingly, it seems like some years his behaviours are more intense than others, but I know there are a few things I can always count on to happen. Firstly, he gets incredibly territorial. Living at a Sanctuary with other packs of wolfdogs living in his vicinity can become a bit of a challenge for him in the winters. There is one specific wolfdog that happens to be his neighbour that Nova absolutely loathes in the winters. Coincidentally, it happens to be Loki! In the summers, Nova doesn’t pay too much attention to Loki’s daily musings. In the wintertime, if Loki even comes within sight of his pack, Nova will be storming towards the adjacent fence line, and run that fence up and down, making it very clear to Loki how much Nova detests his very existence. It became so bad at one point that we put up boards so that Nova wouldn’t be able to see Loki. Unfortunately, that didn’t really work because Nova could still smell Loki and knew he was there. He would just jump along the fence line and get peaks of Loki on every hop. It is something we must live with and manage every winter. The other major change in Nova is that he does not want to be touched. In the summers, Nova is the sweetest and gentlest teddy bear with the people he really knows and trusts. He will whimper and whine when he wants attention, and if you don’t give it, he will even paw at you. As winter approaches, Nova starts to detach himself from his people. He will no longer come up and ask for pets, and he becomes quite standoff-ish. In the peak of his behavioural shift, if I even look at Nova and give him direct attention, he will growl at me. It’s a clear warning I respect. There have been some miscommunications in the past, and he has charged at me before and meant serious business. It is not a situation I would ever want to put myself into intentionally and I have learnt valuable lessons over the years! Essentially all winter long, I have to do my best to ignore my sweet Nova and that seems to be tolerable for him. I am allowed to be in his outer bubble and around his packmates, as long as I don’t touch him or walk directly towards him. I end up counting down the days until spring that I get my sweet, wonderful Nova back.
TK, one of our most temperamental and challenging wolfdogs.
Last but not least is TK. His behavioural shift may have been the absolute most extreme I have ever seen. TK is a neutered high content wolfdog that was surrendered to the Sanctuary when he was 6 months old. From the age we got him to the winter he turned 1.5 years old, TK was the most loving, snuggly, boisterous high content wolfdog I have ever experience. He literally would lay in everyone’s lap just begging for love and affection. He would want nothing more than to lick our faces and plop over for belly rubs. He was truly one of the most extroverted and loving wolfdogs I have ever seen. Little did we know, all of that would change. First, we started noticing he would act a bit strange with certain people. Not show any signs of aggression or anything like that, but just wouldn’t be very accepting of some people. The people he tolerated became smaller and smaller and today, there is only ONE person that TK allows in his space. Essentially, over time his lack of tolerance progressed into full blown human aggression. We have to be extremely careful around TK and use a very hands off approach with his care. The interesting, but sad thing about TK’s behavioural shift is that he never went back to being loving or tolerant of us caregivers. To this day he has an intense dislike for pretty much all of us caregivers with the exception of only one person; his person. In the summers, his dislike for us is there and he makes it known. But in the winters, his tolerance for humans is non-existent and he makes it very clear by charging at the fence lines at us, pacing, growling, etc. He is the only wolfdog living at the Sanctuary that I truly believe has the intent and desire to kill a human being in the wintertime. He is kept in a special enclosure away from the public with a special lock on his gate so there is no chance that someone who shouldn’t have access to him is able to enter his enclosure. Luckily, he enjoys his spacious enclosure away from people with his packmate, Kaida, and gets daily visits from ‘his’ person who he loves dearly in the summer, and tolerates in the winter.
This just goes to show the dramatic variation in behavioural shifts from animal to animal. Every wolfdog is unique and has their own response to a change in hormones. With many of our wolfdogs at the Sanctuary we don’t even notice a difference. But with the ones we do, we pay special mind and adjust our own actions and behaviours to suit theirs. Keep in mind that their behaviours may change season to season and year to year. It is one the thing many things that makes wolfdog ownership so much different than regular domestic dog ownership! To be successful you must educate yourself on your own wolfdog’s mannerisms and do what you need to do to accommodate their special needs!
Summary:
Seasonal ‘aggression’ is a seasonal change in behaviour occurring in the winter time, caused by a shift in sex hormones.
Not all wolfdogs go through this hormonal behavioural shift, however, the higher wolf content the wolfdog, the more likely and more extreme you will see this behavioural change.
Seasonal behavioural change is normal! Your wolfdog is not turning on you and you did nothing wrong. This is a natural occurrence in many wolfdogs.
The signs and symptoms can present VERY differently in various wolfdogs depending on their wolf content but also their individuality.
Seasonal ‘aggression’ does not happen overnight; you will notice subtle changes over a matter of weeks.
To manage this behaviour, get to know your wolfdog’s new boundaries and limitations. Adjust your actions and behaviours accordingly.
Ultimately, to manage this behaviour, you will be the one that changes your behaviour to suit theirs, not the other way around!
